High Tide (1947) on Netflix

Plot summary

Hugh Fresney is the managing editor of the Los Angeles Currier, and his columns have been directed against the gangster Nick Dyke. When Fresney's boss, Clint Vaughn, is found killed, apparently by gangsters in Dyke's pay, Fresney calls on Tim Slade, a former newspaperman who now works as a private investigator; Fresney had taken Slade on to avenge him should Dyke's gang strike at him in retaliation. Slade was once the sweetheart of Vaughn's wife, Julie, and he believed she still loved him, though he has fallen for Vaughn's secretary, Dana Jones. Inspector O'Haffey investigates Vaughn's death and turns up several suspects, among them Slade, Julie, Dyke and Dana. Driving from Malibu to Los Angeles, the two men miss a sharp turn, and the car overturns and pins them, injured, while the tide comes in.