Singer and stockbroker Billy Crockett wishes “bon voyage” to singer Reno Sweeney and the Widows, her back-up group, as they are about to sail on the London-bound S.S. Americana . When Billy sees Hope Harcourt, a blonde who he believes has been kidnapped, board the ship, however, he decides to stay on board. Reno, who thought Billy loved her, is angry when she realizes he stayed on board because of the mysterious blonde. Also on board is “Moonface Martin,” public enemy number thirteen, who is traveling as “Reverend Dr. Moon,” and Bonnie Le Tour, wife of E. J. Hill, alias “Snake Eyes Johnson,” public enemy number one, who missed the boat. After Billy inadvertently hides Moonface from the police, he offers Billy Hills’s passport, to which they affix Billy’s photo. Meanwhile, Billy hides from the ship’s purser while trying to make love to Hope. She is from an important British family, and when she fell in love with a crook and ran away from home, family friend Sir Evelyn Oakleigh hired detectives to kidnap her and bring her back to England. Although Hope assures Billy she is safe, he vows to protect her. When the Department of Justice wires the ship’s captain to arrest Hill, Moonface warns Billy. Moonface, believing Hope and Oakleigh are engaged, instructs Reno to flirt with him to make Hope jealous. Oakleigh and Reno fall for each other, however, and he explains he is Hope’s guardian. Billy continually serenades Hope and eventually wins a kiss from her, but needs a suit to meet her in public. After Moonface, Reno and Bonnie procure him a suit and a fake beard made out of dog hair, he impersonates a Romanian and joins Hope and Oakleigh for dinner. When a dog pulls off his beard, however, the purser arrests him as Hill. Although Reno swears he is Billy Crockett, his boss, furious that he is not back in New York working, refuses to identify him. Hope, believing he is Hill, rejects him, planning to marry British Captain McPhail upon arrival in England. Billy, Bonnie and Moonface are arrested before the ship lands in Southampton. On the docks, Billy and Moonface escape by posing as members of Reno’s Chinese stage show and singing to Oakleigh and Hope. They then board the Paramount News Truck in the rain. Bonnie finally joins them and announces that the real Snake Eyes was arrested. Moonface is demoted to the rank of public enemy number 1313–not dangerous and not wanted. Oakleigh and Reno, united, run behind the truck, while Billy and Hope kiss. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch Anything Goes (1936)
