Geraldine “Jerry” Darlington, a mischievous adolescent, laments the change in her family’s life that occurred after her father, J. C. Darlington, formerly an oil rigger in Waterbank, struck it rich. The family now lives in Miami Beach, where Jerry’s pretty older sister Virginia is pursued by fortune hunters, her Uncle Ed Mulligan wastes his days loafing, eating and riding a motor scooter in circles, her social-climbing mother unsuccessfully attempts to become friendly with her neighbors, and her father, who loves to work, is prevented from doing so by the social-conscious family. When Pete Graham, a timid clerk from Darlington’s New York office, arrives with a merger contract for Darlington to sign by noon the next day, Jerry connives for him to secretly stand-in for her father on the family’s planned boating expedition. Pete, Jerry schemes, could pilot the ship unseen by the family, while Darlington, who has fallen asleep after drinking too much, could have time away from his family to study the contract. During the trip, a radio bulletin reports that Darlington has been found unconscious in his underwear, supposedly the victim of a “slugger.” The family accuses Pete, who unintentionally destroys the boat on an island reef. Seeing this as an opportunity for her family to experience the good benefits of work, Jerry refuses to corroborate Pete’s protestations of innocence. After they find a house belonging to a millionaire chickle king, the castaways meet a group of smugglers. They hear a radio report state that the Darlington family has been abducted, and the smugglers decide to kill Pete, whom they think is the kidnapper, and collect the ransom themselves. Jerry, however, convinces the brains of the gang, Donald Gower, that if Pete writes the ransom note, he will be blamed if they are caught. She then takes the distributor head from their boat so that they can’t leave. While Mrs. Darlington enjoys preparing dinner with Ed, Pete convinces Virginia of his innocence. When a search plane circles, Jerry shoots flaming arrows to attract attention, but the gang stops her. She next, with Ed’s help, “broadcasts” a phony announcement that seems to be coming from the radio, which leads the smugglers to believe that Darlington’s fortune has been wiped out. Jerry then gives the gang the distributor head, and after a fight in which Mrs. Darlington hits the crooks with a frying pan and Jerry pokes them with a fireplace stoker, the crooks try to escape, but still cannot start their boat. Meanwhile, with Virginia’s encouragement, Pete proposes. Just then a coast guard plane lands with Mr. Darlington aboard. The previous aviator, having seen Jerry’s arrows, had radioed federal agents. When the crooks are arrested, Jerry reveals that she took their spark plugs. After Jerry confesses that the “radio announcement” about the loss of her father’s fortune was a ruse, Virginia, thinking that Pete had been in on it, accuses him of being a fortune hunter, but he chases her and calls her a spoiled brat. They kiss, after which Pete spanks Jerry, who winks at Virginia. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch Always in Trouble (1938)
