Directed by:
Mervyn LeRoyCinematography:
Barney McGillCast:
James Cagney, Mary Brian, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly, Claire Dodd, Douglass Dumbrille, Sterling Holloway, Gavin Gordon, Stanley Smith, Bess Flowers (more)Plots(1)
California promoter Myron C. "Lefty" Merrill is left holding the bag when his partner leaves town with the prize money for a marathon dance contest. Lefty is in love with the contest winner, Ruth Waters, but her widowed mother, Lil Waters, intends for her daughter to marry a rich man, not someone like Lefty. Determined to pay Ruth her share of the prize money, Lefty promotes a phony treasure hunt on the pier. He escapes with the entrance money just before a desperate mob destroys the pier looking for the promised prize, but learns that the Waters have left California for New York after illegally selling the furniture in their furnished apartment. Lefty follows the Waters east, where he discovers Ruth working as a model and dating wealthy fashion photographer John Hayden. After he watches Ruth struggle to rub in some sticky face cream, he imagines that all her efforts are burning calories and decides to promote it as a reducing cream. He solicits endorsements from society women and his campaign is extremely successful. Lil now considers Lefty to be a good match, but Ruth refuses to marry him until she knows how success will affect him. Lefty takes a job promoting a backwater college, and his success earns him an honorary degree and the attentions of student Marlene Reeves. Marlene's father, Charles, hires Lefty to promote Grapefruit Acres, a development in Florida. Lefty asks Ruth to accompany him and marry him there, but she refuses, saying that they will be married when he returns to New York. Later she and Lil decide to surprise Lefty in Florida, but they are surprised instead when they discover him having breakfast in Marlene's hotel room. After Lefty is arrested for false advertising because no one actually wants to buy grapefruit, he begins a campaign extolling the eighteen-day grapefruit diet, and soon the charges are dropped. Then when Lil tells him that Ruth is marry to Hayden, Lefty tricks her into admitting that she really loves him. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
James Cagney
USA
Best movies:
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
One, Two, Three (1961)
White Heat (1949)
Mary Brian
USA
Allen Jenkins
USA
Best movies:
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
The Front Page (1974)
Ball of Fire (1941)
Ruth Donnelly
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
Claire Dodd
USA
Best movies:
The Black Cat (1941)
Roberta (1935)
Footlight Parade (1933)
Douglass Dumbrille
Canada
Best movies:
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Sterling Holloway
USA
Best movies:
Bambi (1942)
Dumbo (1941)
The Jungle Book (1967)
Gavin Gordon
USA
Best movies:
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Notorious (1946)
Stanley Smith
USA
Best movies:
King of Jazz (1930)
Dive Bomber (1941)
Hot Saturday (1932)
Bess Flowers
USA
Best movies:
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Rear Window (1954)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Mary Doran
USA
Best movies:
Movie Crazy (1932)
The Miracle Woman (1931)
Three on a Match (1932)
Don Brodie
USA
Best movies:
The Great Dictator (1940)
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Little Big Man (1970)
Charles Sullivan
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Fury (1936)
Emma Dunn
UK
Best movies:
The Great Dictator (1940)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
The Talk of the Town (1942)
Lester Dorr
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Charles C. Wilson
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Harry Strang
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
North by Northwest (1959)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Sherwood Bailey
USA
Best movies:
Shall We Dance? (1937)
The Plainsman (1936)
Quality Street (1937)
Harry Holman
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
It Happened One Night (1934)
When Tomorrow Comes (1939)
Berton Churchill
Canada
Best movies:
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Stagecoach (1939)
The Cowboy and the Lady (1938)