Writing
Luke Beamish is the engineer of the Isobel, an old iron steed, and Cannonball Casey handles the throttle of the Mogul, a modern locomotive. Cannonball falls in love with Doris, Luke's daughter, who is greatly admired by Jack Sweeney, the railroad president's son. Doris rejects Casey's affections, considering him a bully, and consequently Casey challenges Jack to a wrestling match at the picnic.
Dozens of star and character-actor cameos and a message about the Variety Club (a show-business charity) are woven into a framework about two hopeful young ladies who come to Hollywood, exchange identities, and cause comic confusion (with slapstick interludes) throughout the Paramount studio.
Johnny, a racetrack tout in Tijuana, is unsuccessful in his gambling but leads his New England family to believe he is engaged in a legitimate business. He finally wins on a long shot and intends to return home, though he dislikes leaving his sweetheart, Norah Ryan.
Aspiring newsreel camera girl Pat Clancy, is hired by her father, a publisher, to work on The Sun and causes Scoop Morgan, the paper's best cameraman, to quit in protest of the hiring of a woman. The Mercury hires Scoop, and there begins a heated rivalry between him and Pat. Pat gets a few lucky breaks and manages to get a beat on Scoop during her brief career. After she exposes the theft of a jewel from the turban of a visiting maharajah, she and Scoop are kidnapped by Clayton, the thief, and taken aboard his yacht. Rescued, she and Scoop find love and happiness.
In this musical showcase, two aspiring stars attempt to wow a pair of talent scouts with their stellar abilities. Songs include "My Heart Isn't in It" (Jack Lawrence), "It's Love, Love, Love" (Mack David, Joan Whitney, Alex Kramer), "When They Ask about You" (Sammy Stept), "Jumpin' at the Jubilee" (Ben Carter, Mayes Marshall), "Taking Care of You" (Lou Brown, Harry Akst), "Where Am I Without You?" (Don Raye, Gene De Paul), "Two Hearts in the Dark" (Dave Franklin), "Somewhere This Side of Heaven," "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel."
Karanina "Nina" Novak, is befriended by Nifty, the leader of a four-piece orchestra, and in return, secures an engagement for them at the Little Aregal Cafe, with herself as the vocalist, by pretending she once knew the King or Aregal back in the old country. Steve shows up pretending to be the King of Aregal, and complicates the growing romance between Nina and Nifty. When Steve runs off with Opa, the real King of Aregal (also Steve) appears and complicates things again.
A bizarre comedy short in which knockabout comics Charles O'Donnell and Jack Blair show up to repair a woman's house, but spend more time wrecking things and doing pratfalls. There's even a pantomime horse that causes trouble!
Dorothy Gerard, visiting a Washington D.C. suburb, receives a letter from her father announcing his return from California. He also mentions a series of robberies that have been plaguing Washington.
Two firemen must put up with a variety of travails in their job, especially their chief's spoiled and bratty daughter, who keeps turning in false alarms whenever she needs some heavy lifting done so that she can get the responding firemen to do it.
At a Florida hotel, absconding miscreant J. Effingham Bellweather goes slapstick golfing with the house detective's flirtatious wife and an incompetent caddy.
Take a Chance was based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name, though only one of the original songs, Eadie Was a Lady, has been retained. The thinnish plot involves the misadventures of a pair of pickpockets, played on Broadway by Jack Haley and Sid Silvers and on film by James Dunn and Cliff “Ukelele Ike” Edwards.
A loose remake of the 1935 comedy of the same name. Thanks to the efforts of his social-climbing wife Jessie, furniture store employee Wilbur Todd is tossed headfirst into the world of small-town politics. Sized up as a patsy by crooked politician Kirkwood, poor Wilbur is plied with champagne as part of Kirkwood's scheme to land a sweetheart playground-equipment contract.
A poor but honest sheet-music salesman is parted from his wealthy fiancée when she mistakenly comes to believe he’s nothing but a gold digger. But circumstance places him on the board of an exclusive girls’ school, where he can prove his integrity as well as his love. This film is believed lost.
Wally and Ray are cousins intent upon getting the fortune of their Scots grandad, an aviation nut. They become mixed-up with the U. S. flying corps and are wafted over the enemy lines in a runaway balloon. Through misunderstanding they are honored as heroes of the enemy forces, and sent back to the U.S. lines to spy. Here they are captured and almost shot, but everything ends happily. Only 20 minutes of this 6 reel comedy are extant.
Musical short.
John Smith tells how Pocahontas fell for him and aroused the jealousy of Chief Hole-in-the-Sock, his bitter rival. After a long chase, the Chief had caught the captain when the latter's escape up a cliff was cut off by a wild bear. Pocahontas had put her broad metal anklet about her lover's neck to deflect the headman's tomahawk, but it was detected and removed by the jealous rival. Just as her lover was about to be decapitated, Pocahontas flung herself across her lover's body and pleaded for his life, explaining to her father that Captain Smith and his brother made such good cough drops.
Shy sailor Casey Kirby suddenly becomes known as a sea wolf when his picture is taken with a famous actress. Things get complicated when bets are placed on his prowess with the ladies.
Judy McCoy, a fortune teller with a circus, learns she has inherited some property and heads west to collect. When she arrives in the desert ghost town, she learns that a stipulation in the will is that she has to return the property to the rightful owners, an Indian tribe, before she gets the remaining inheritance
A Broadway producer is in a quandary when he discovers that the opening of his newest big production coincides with that of a major charity event. He despairs that the show will close after opening night until an ingenious writer suggests that he simply give the production snob-appeal by making the tickets nearly impossible to get by fabricating a story that they were all purchased by a flamboyant Texas oil baron who is totally besotted by the show's star.
This short, introduced and closed by Louis Sobol, features Richard Gordon as ‘Sherlock Holmes of the air.’ Not long after one broadcast explaining in a story how a murder was committed an actual murder is committed using the same technique. The police then call Gordon in to help solve the crime. The rest of this short with an ‘all-star cast’ (as the title card announces) includes Jack Fulton, Alice Joy and Peggy Healy. The latter 3 singers, however, do not participate in the plot of the 21 minute short, but provide musical interludes to it.
