Stephanie Dale, a young girl who is excessively concerned with social status and dreams of a rich lifestyle, lives with her mother in modest surroundings and resents her mother’s working class sensibilities. When told that her parents were never married, and that her father was a pretentious character who has been dead for many years, Stephanie concludes that if he were still alive she would be a debutante. Determined to better her life, Stephanie pursues a modelling job at Rapello’s Gowns, which she gets when she catches the eye of an executive, David Meyer. After Stephanie returns home one day and discovers that her mother has died, she moves out and finds a place of her own where she can finally be the socially discriminating, high-strung woman she has always wanted to be. Stephanie and David quickly develop a special friendship, and though David shares her interest in books and luxury, Stephanie is unsure whether or not she likes him because he wears diamonds and makes noises while he eats. However, when Stephanie compares David to Nick Amory, her friend who works at a publishing house, David’s companionship appears all the more desireable. One evening, while waiting in Stephanie’s living room before going to the opera, David notices a picture of her mother and is transfixed by it. When David asks Stephanie about her father, she tells him that he was a prominent officer in the Indian army, and that he knew Rudyard Kipling intimately. Through her friendship with David, Stephanie meets the kind of people with whom she has always wanted to associate, and at a glamorous party attended by fashionable people, Stephanie meets Charles Carter. Stephanie and Charles immediately fall in love and Stephanie becomes upset that David continues to visit her. To ward David off, Stephanie tells him that she plans to marry Charles. Stephanie soon forsakes her old friends, and when Nick Amory, celebrating his new raise, asks Stephanie to marry him, she refuses. Meanwhile, Charles learns that Stephanie is an illegitmate child and calls off their wedding. Realizing her folly in falling for such a snob, Stephanie returns Charles’ ring and resumes her association with “real people.” One day, when Stephanie receives a book from David, she goes to apologize for her behavior toward him. At David’s, she browses through his first edition library and, to her surprise, finds Nick there, waiting for her. After the two reconcile, Stephanie examines David’s library more closely, notices the collection of Kipling books, and deduces that David is her father. David, overjoyed by Nick and Stephanie’s reunion, makes arrangements for their marriage. More on Wikipedia
Watch Bought ! (1931)
