The 1949 film "Alias Nick Beal" is about an honest politican who becomes entangled with the mysterious Nick Beal, later revealed to be the Devil. At one point Nick Beal hires a young woman to seduce the politican. Nick moves her into a fancy apartment and gives a delivery man a coin as a tip. He then takes out a silver dollar sized coin and examines it.

Joseph Foster, a prosecuting attorney, has for years been trying to put a crime syndicate chief in prison. Foster is contacted by the mysterious Nick Beal who offers to give him the syndicate chief's account books, which were supposedly burned. Beal asks Foster to meet him at the "China Coast Cafe", a waterfront bar.

He is frequently in the fog.

Beal enters the bar and takes a seat to wait for Foster. Beal orders a "Barbados Rum", the bartender claims he doesn't carry it but then finds a bottle. Foster arrives and Beal gives him the account books. Beal then approaches Donna Allen, a young woman who hangs out at the bar. He takes her to a fancy apartment and tells her it is hers.

Beal then has some boxes of gifts delivered for her.

Nick holds another silver dollar sized coin.

Nick acts strange and Donna asks what he wants from her.

Nick holds the coin in the light.

The coin is a silver dollar sized coin but whether it is a silver dollar, a foreign coin, or a prop coin is hard to determine.

Nick spends a little time handling the coin which does not appear again in the film.

Nick tells Donna that she is going to go into "social work".

Meanwhile, Foster secures the conviction of the syndicate chief and gets a lot of publicity. A committee of political men ask Foster to run for governor of the state. Nick Beal talks to Foster and asks for some money for the account books he gave to him. Foster's wife Martha meets Nick and immediately doesn't trust him. Nick Beal seems to appear and disappear at times and seems to know things that he shouldn't. Reverend Thomas Garfield is a friend of Foster and while he and Beal are at a meeting of a boy's club Garfield reads a passage from the Bible which upsets Beal who slowly leaves the room.
The Reverend begins to suspect who Beal really is and takes his suspicions to Foster. Foster replies: "We're in the 20th century" and the reverend replies "Maybe the devil knows it's the 20th century too."

Miss Donna Allen is introduced to Mr. Foster.

The party chiefs nominate Foster for the upcoming election. Nick tells Donna that Foster is going to visit her and what he wants her to do. Foster has been taking Donna to lunch and one night he visits her at her apartment.

She doesn't go along with Beal's plan and tells him to leave.

The syndicate chief's accountant is found dead with some evidence pointing to Foster.

Beal offers to clear Foster if Foster will sign a strange contract.

The contract specifies that when Foster becomes governor he will appoint Beal to the post of "Keeper of the State Seal" and if he doesn't then he will accompany Beal to the "Island of Almas Perdidas" or "Island of Lost Souls". Foster becomes worried and when he is inaugurated as governor he resigns.

He gives a speech claiming that he has become dishonest and that he isn't worthy of being governor. Nick contacts him and tells him that because Nick didn't get his appointment he wants Foster to accompany him to the "Island" that night. Nick, posing as a taxi cab driver, drives Foster to the China Coast Cafe where they are to meet the boat. The Reverend and Mrs. Foster manage to follow Foster to the bar.

Reverend Garfield asks to see the contract and Nick hands it to him. Garfield drops the contract and drops a Bible on top of it.

The reverend then picks up both items and hands them to Beal who refuses to touch them (because of the Bible). Beal then disappears into the fog.

Mrs. Foster asks "He's gone. But where?"
The reverend replies: "I wouldn't ask."

Ray Milland as Nick Beal
Thomas Mitchell as Joseph Foster
Geraldine Wall as Martha Foster
Audrey Totter as Donna Allen
George Macready as Reverend Thomas Garfield
Fred Clark as Frankie Faulkner
Henry O'Neill as Judge Ben Hobbs
Director: John Farrow
Writers: Jonathan Latimer, Mindret Lord