Jed Prouty

In New York City, Max Thursday (Zachary Scott) , an alcoholic and down-and-out former police officer, works as a house detective in the run-down residence hotel of Smitty (Mary Boland). One day, Georgia Thursday (Faye Emerson), Max's ex-wife, arrives at the hotel and tells him that their son Jeff has been kidnapped. She also tells him that Jeff was last seen with her brother, Fred Mace (Dennis Patrick), who has also disappeared. When Max asks her why she has not yet notified the police, she tells him that she has been threatened with harm by Dr. Elder (Jed Prouty), her brother's disreputable associate, if she reports the crime. Max quickly sobers up and pays a visit to Elder, who greets him at gunpoint. After drugging Max, Elder knocks him unconscious and throws him into the street. Max regains consciousness in a jail cell, where he learns that Elder has been murdered and that he is being held as a suspect in the crime. Captain Tonetti (Sam Levene), head of the homicide bureau and an old friend of Max's, releases Max when Georgia provides an alibi for her ex-husband. Max's investigation into Elder soon reveals that the doctor was involved in a diamond smuggling operation headed by Otto Varkas (J. Edward Bromberg). Max finds Varkas at his warehouse and threatens to tell the police that Elder was one of Varkas' men unless Varkas tells him where he can find Fred. Varkas refuses to help Max, but on his way out, Max meets Angel (Kay Medford), a Varkas moll, who inadvertently reveals that Fred is being held captive by Varkas' men. Angel also tells Max that Elder was the pick-up man for a mysterious figure named St. Paul. While on his way to Varkas' hiding place, Max is shot in the arm - he sustaining a flesh wound - by two of Varkas' men. Despite his crippling injury which Georgia mends, Max manages to return to Varkas' warehouse, where he finds Varkas dead. A pack of cigarettes belonging to one of Varkas' men provides the clue that leads Max back to Smitty's hotel, where he discovers that St. Paul is none other than Smitty, who used the kidnapping of Jeff to force Fred to give her the jewels he got from Varkas. Smitty tells Max where to find Fred, who quietly tells Max what's going on including where to find a safe Jeff. Smitty tries to involve Max in her scheme after Max shoots her thug Stitch Olivera (Elliott Sullivan) dead, but realizes this is the end of the road for her in that he has gone straight. As an epilogue, Max, Georgia, and Jeff are seen reunited as a happy family.

Jimmy goes to work with his uncle, the owner of a food factory. Before he gets there, he befriends an Irish family who happens to be his uncle's worst enemy because of their love for music and in-house band who constantly practices. Jimmy Haskell (James Stewart) closes his struggling music store and goes into business with his wealthy uncle, C.J. (Charles Winninger), who owns a health food business. C.J. hates music and has constant disputes with the McCorkle family, who run a boarding house across the alley from C.J.'s factory and play in Horace Heidt's (himself) band, which currently lives in the boarding house. When Jimmy unintentionally throws a tomato at C.J. during a dispute, it impresses the McCorkles and the band, who don't know that Jimmy is related to C.J. Molly McCorkle (Paulette Goddard) quickly falls for Jimmy. When Jimmy must substitute for C.J. on his radio program, he is confronted by Horace and Molly's brother, Willie (Dick Hogan). Jimmy admits to his identity but works with Horace and Willie to trick C.J. into taking an extended vacation by making C.J. think only he can hear music being played by the band from a hidden location. Jimmy uses the opportunity to have the band play on the radio program to great success, but Molly learns Jimmy's identity and angrily states on air that the radio show will give away $1,000 every week. To protect Molly, Jimmy claims the idea is his, but must now find a legal way to fulfill the promise and prevent C.J. from stopping them. —Patrick Depew Jimmy, the owner of a failed music shop, goes to work with his uncle, the owner of a food factory. Before he gets there, he befriends an Irish family who happens to be his uncle's worst enemy because of their love for music and in-house band who constantly practices. Soon, Jimmy finds himself trying to help the band by getting them gigs and trying to reconcile the family with his uncle, an avid music hater, all while winning the heart of the beautiful Molly. —Nathan Will Sheets

Pappy, the manager of the Farmdale orphanage, appropriates five thousand dollars of the taxpayers' money to enroll his charges in a 4-H project that could make the orphanage self-sufficient. This infuriates Hiram Crabtree and Sam Spitz, who profit from selling supplies to the orphanage and therefore have no desire to see it become self-sufficient. Consequently, Crabtree and Spitz charge Pappy with misappropriation of funds and demand that he repay the money immediately. Just when things look bad for Pappy, he learns that he has inherited a nightclub and goes to the city to investigate. There he finds that the club is insolvent and that the performers are demanding their salaries. Pappy suggests that they come to Farmdale to work for their wages, and when the performers learn of the plight of the orphanage, they offer to stage a show to recoup the shortage in funds. Crabtree and Spitz, still trying to retain control of the orphanage, invoke a fire ordinance to prevent the show from being staged in a barn. To invalidate the ordinance, the orphans set fire to a haystack, and as the fire engines speed toward the fire, the youngsters chop down the bridge, stranding the trucks at the barn. The presence of the fire trucks offsets the fire hazard, and the show goes on. After Mrs. Uppington, a local dowager, exposes the motives of Spitz and Crabtree, the orphans continue to work on their 4-H project with the promise that they will be self-sufficient by the fall.