Just after Carlos has presented an engagement ring with a miniscule stone to his fiancée Carmen, he receives a phone call from his boss, Sr. Gilstrom, informing him that he must devote his time to Sr. Pedroza, a visiting client from Chicago who expects to be “entertained.” Gilstrom gives Carlos the phone numbers of two young “ladies,” one for Pedroza, the other for Carlos. However, when Carmen becomes suspicious, Carlos has to explain everything to her and she decides to accompany him. They go by taxi to a hotel where one of the ladies, Juanita, resides. Carlos has been instructed to simply whistle at the hotel’s entrance and Juanita will come down. However, when he does this, he is greeted by a cascade of room keys. When Juanita does appear, Carmen is not impressed by her coarse behavior. After they pick up Sr. Pedroza at his hotel, the foursome adjourns to a nightclub, where Pedroza quickly loses interest in Juanita when she reveals that he is wearing a wig. Unaware that Carmen is not a professional escort girl, Pedroza then proposes to Carlos that they change partners, but Carlos resists. When one of the club’s floorshow acts is announced as being unable to appear due to the illness of a dancing partner, Pedroza volunteers Carlos so that he can proposition Carmen in his absence. When Carlos returns from performing as a tango dancer, he finds himself being romanced by Juanita, while across the table, Carmen retaliates by flirting with Pedroza, who ridicules the size of the stone in her engagement ring and presents her with a ring with an enormous diamond. Later, as both couples dance, Pedroza sneaks off to an adjacent, curtained booth with Carmen, but they have to leave when the original occupants return. However, Carlos, thinking that Pedroza and Carmen are still there, eavesdrops and hears a seduction taking place. Carlos then inadvertently causes a large number of balloons to explode, making the customers think that a police raid is taking place. They jettison their illegal bottles of liquor, head for the exit and cause much chaos as they attempt to leave the parking lot. Carlos attacks the man in the booth from behind with a vase, but when he sees Pedroza at another table, realizes that he has hit the wrong man. The young lady with the stunned man accuses Pedroza of the deed, while Carlos and Carmen make a fast escape. Carmen Granada’s and Alfonso Pedroza’s names are misspelled in the onscreen credits.
Una cana al aire was an expanded version of the two-reel Hal Roach comedy, Looser Than Loose, directed by James W. Horne and starring Charley Chase and Thelma Todd. Although a French-language version was also made, entitled Gare la bombe!, starring Chase, Pauline Garon, André Cheron, Georgette Rhodes and Dorothy Granger, its exhibition in the U.S. has not been confirmed.
Watch Una cana al aire (1930) Spanish film
No English subtitle
