Acting
Jane Ray, a very clever reporter of crimes of passion, or "sob sister," for a New York tabloid, begins to feel depressed by the sordidness of her latest assignment, the investigation of a young woman's murder by her husband. Despite her growing distaste for her profession, Jane gets her story and, with typical ingenuity, frustrates her competitors' attempts to follow her lead.
Donald Hardwick (Dick Powell) is a stuffed-shirt, classical music professor. His family and small-town music college that he works are of equal mindset. When Don visits his black-sheep aunt in New York in order to find a buyer for his Rhapsody he is exposed to her shocking swing music crowd. His life begins to make dramatic changes after drinking a "lemonade" that turns out to be a Hurricane.
Charles Cook, a husband with a multi-year itch, decides he will go out and whoop it up with the boys, but tells his wife it is a business meeting. His helpful friend Jack Scott introduces him to a very pretty--and shapely--Miss Scott, whose stock-in-trade is understanding misunderstood husbands, and she is very good at it. Charles enjoys being one of the boys and schedules more business meetings. Meanwhile, his wife Alice is at home wishing her husband didn't have to go to so many business meetings.
When reporter Dan Miller is once again late to meet his girl friend, Helen Murdock, because he is working on a story, Helen breaks up with him. Later, in an effort to reconcile with her, Dan misses an appointment with the district attorney, and is fired when his editor learns that the district attorney was murdered in Dan's absence. The man suspected of the crime, Mitts Coster, is rumored to be traveling to Europe aboard an ocean liner. While Dan's friend, photographer Snapper McGillicuddy, fetches Helen to the boat, under the pretense that Dan is leaving town to forget her, Dan searches the ship for Mitts, whom he does not recognize. When Helen arrives, Dan feigns illness, and she admits her love for him. When Helen learns of Dan's ruse, however, she angrily hits him with a package that a passenger gave her when she boarded the ship. The package contains a passport for Dorothy Madden, who greatly resembles Helen, and $2,000 dollars.
Theater manager James Guthrie's (Melvyn Douglas) career depends on famed soprano Elsa Terry (Grace Moore) singing in his Buenos Aires opera house, however, Elsa breaks the contract in favor of a more lucrative deal in Paris. Desperate, James begins showering her with flowers and candy in an attempt to woo her to the Argentinian opera house. When Elsa overhears James confess to his friend Pancho that he'd be willing to resort to kidnapping to get Elsa to Argentina, she mistakenly believes his motives to be solely romantic.
A girl who's just lost her job meets a drunk millionaire on a bridge who's just lost his money. They go back to his house, and eventually come up with a plan to benefit them both: he'll scrounge enough money together to teach her how to be a lady, and then introduce her to his rich friends so she can snag a husband, after which she'll pay him a finder's fee. Complications ensue.
A Monty Banks comedy that includes the 'Undressing in the Upper Berth' routine
An American ambassador arrives in a small country that is being convulsed by political intrigue and civil unrest. He befriends the young boy who is to be the country's king, to ensure that the boy is prepared to take on the role and also to see that he lives long enough to assume the crown.
A taxi driver travels to Venice and poses as a gondolier to land a radio singing job.
A London taxicab driver cashes in on a big sweepstakes ticket and becomes the prey of a confidence-gang that sells him a nag of a cavalry horse on the claim that it is a brother to a current Derby winner.
A fortune teller informs a hopeless romantic that she'll be meeting a mysterious, tall, dark stranger. Initially skeptical, the young lady latterly concedes when the soothsayer's premonitions begin to ring true.
Brawling cable layer Steve Reardon doesn't want to marry girlfriend Edith but he also doesn't want her to date other men.
Jim Sherwood , toughest logging boss in the timber country, takes on his toughest assignment when he agrees to cut an enormous volume of timber for Andrew MacKinley, who has to deliver the timber within sixty days.
Button Gwinett Brown is a freshman congressman on a mission to rid Washington of corruption. He quickly runs afoul of the powerful Senator Norton...
Helene is forced into marrying blackmailer Vaughan Neil, who holds incriminating evidence of a scandal involving her father.
“Handy girl” at a local bakery Molly is sent to deliver a cake to a wealthy customer's home. Upon arriving, Molly learns that the household is hosting a party but has exactly thirteen guests—an unlucky number. To break the bad luck, Jack, the son of the house insists that his mother invite Molly to join the party as the fourteenth guest. This arrangement sparks jealousy in Flora, a wealthy girl who is in love with Jack. To sabotage her, the jealous rival takes Molly and dresses her in a ridiculous, unflattering outfit to embarrass her in front of the high-society crowd. Molly keeps her head and comes out a winner.
Helen and Nita work in a department store to make ends meet while they search for millionaire husbands. They meet Bill and Hank, who make them reconsider whether they really need millionaires to be happy.
Parisian playboy plays father to an abandoned baby who interferes with his womanising.
Chorus girl Peggy Lane, finds a small part in a new show for David North, a stages-truck country boy. At rehearsal, David meets Delerys Devore, the show's star, and she quickly offers him a larger part in her act. Quite taken with David, Delerys invites him to her home on the pretext that Peggy will be there; when Peggy does not show up, David leaves, infuriating his hostess. Derelys has Peggy fired the next day, and in reprisal Peggy goads her into a Carmenesque fight backstage just before the show. Derelys is unable to go on stage, and Peggy takes her place, becoming the hit of the show. Peggy and David are later married and give up show business, finding contentment living on a farm.
Beverley Carpenter's (Robert Frazer) life takes a dramatic turn when he is accused of a crime he did not commit. Stripped of his reputation, he navigates a journey to clear his name, encountering danger, romance, and deception along the way. To escape the shadow of his former life, he adopts a new identity, eventually finding himself entangled in a web of shifting loyalties and secrets that threaten to upend the peaceful future he is trying to build.