Dick Wallace, son of a wealthy capitalist, returns home drunk after 3 a.m. with his friend Van and Van’s sister Polly, who has designs on his fortune. Dick’s father, who believes that his son’s infatuation with Polly is just another episode of his recklessly putting girls ahead of his career, gives him one last chance to make good in his business and offers him the position of collection manager. Dick’s first assignment is to collect on past due notes from a reverend, Dr. Hall, in Somerville, about fifty miles from the city. At a filling station, Dick hears an attractive blonde mention that she is waiting for the Somerville bus. After he tells her that he saw the bus broken down on the road, the woman, Marion Boyd, accepts his offer of a ride, but when they arrive in Somerville and she sees the bus pass, Marion angrily rebukes Dick’s advances and slams her door on him. Upon learning that Dr. Hall is Marion’s grandfather, Dick calls his father and tells him that he met a wonderful girl and that he is giving the reverend an extension. Wallace angrily fires Dick, but Dick is not bothered, now that Marion is grateful and apologetic for the extension. However, when he suggests dinner and a ride and kisses her, she slaps him. Smitten, Dick trades his convertible for the small town’s only filling station, but Marion ignores him and buys gas in another town. Dick next pays Joe, a boy he has befriended, to spread tacks on the road near Marion’s car. The plan succeeds in getting her to the station, and a friendship begins to develop until she sees Joe with the box of tacks and speeds off. At church, Dick leaves a note in the collection box asking Marion to see him after the service. Reverend Hall, thinking that the note was sent to him, invites Dick to the house, and just before he arrives, Marion learns through a conversation with Dick’s father, who has called to track Dick down, that Dick was fired for helping them. Her apology leads both of them to confess that they each are smitten with the other, and they soon marry and return to the city. When Dick tells his father about the marriage, the elder Wallace is convinced that Marion is a gold digger, and he orders Dick to get rid of her or he will never get his money. Marion goes to talk to Dick’s father, but she is mistaken for an applicant for a vacant secretarial position and is hired because of her initiative in getting past Wallace’s office manager. Marion plans to keep the job until she is sure that Dick’s father likes her and leaves Dick disgruntled as the situation disrupts their honeymoon plans. The plan works as Wallace soon appreciates Marion’s concern for him. One night she offers to work late at his home and sees in Dick’s room a picture of Polly, whom she earlier met at a party. Seemingly unconcerned, she asks Dick’s father to give him a chance to succeed on his own, and Wallace says he will set Dick up in business up to a million dollars if she agrees to go into business with Dick. Dick, at a drunken party with Van and Polly, celebrates when Marion calls with the good news, but when she finds him hung over and Polly in a state of undress, Marion, thinking the worst, leaves him. Dick confides in his father, who admits that Marion is the only woman for whom he ever cared except for Dick’s deceased mother. After Dick learns that Marion returned to Somerville, but then left town with her grandfather, he settles down to work and makes good. When Marion and the reverend return, she calls Wallace’s office and learns that Dick has changed. She goes to Wallace’s home, where at night she sees Dick and Polly return. When Dick refuses Polly’s advances, Marion and Dick reconcile, as Dick’s father happily observes. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch His Private Secretary (1933)
