Wealthy John Blair and his wife are going to the train station to meet Richard Williams, an old family friend, when a traffic jam causes them to be late. The snarl of cars is caused by Amos and Andy, two black men from Harlem who run the Freshair Taxicab Co., whose one vehicle, an old clunker without a top, refuses to start. A policeman helps the baffled Amos and Andy on their way, but the Blairs are too late to meet Richard’s train. Richard takes a cab to the Blairs’s country home, and on the way he meets their daughter Jean, who was his childhood sweetheart. Richard, whose family moved to the South and fell on hard times after his father’s death, is instantly attracted to Jean. She reciprocates his feelings, much to the annoyance of her would-be suitor, Ralph Crawford. Meanwhile, Amos and Andy have returned to their garage office in Harlem, where they receive a phone call from their lady friends, Madame Queen and Ruby Taylor, who want them to go to a dance that evening. Amos and Andy happily agree, although they must wait to join the girls until after their meeting at their lodge, the Mystic Knights of the Sea. Kingfish, who is one of their lodge brothers, arrives and informs them that he has arranged for them to transport Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra to the Blairs’s home for Jean’s birthday party. That night, Amos and Andy then drive the band to the country estate, where Ralph is becoming increasingly jealous of Richard, who has rapidly gained the approval of Mr. and Mrs. Blair. Ralph eavesdrops as Richard confides in Blair that he hopes to find the deed to a large house in Harlem, which was owned by his grandfather. Richard believes that the deed is hidden somewhere on the property and that if he can find it, he can sell the house for a large enough profit to set himself up in business and marry Jean. After his discussion with Blair, Richard runs into Amos and Andy, who used to work for his father in Georgia. Amos and Andy are thrilled to see Richard, and after they reminisce with him, they return to town and attend their lodge meeting. To honor the lodge’s founder, who was lost at sea on the same day years previously, two members must go to the old Williams house, which is reputed to be haunted and find a paper marked “Check and Double Check.” They then must hide a similarly marked paper to be found the following year and return the note they found to the lodge to prove their completion of the task. Andy draws the unlucky number and chooses Amos to accompany him, after which they are taken to the house and locked in. Ralph and his henchman are already at the house searching for the deed, which is instead found by Amos and Andy. When Ralph discovers Amos and Andy there, he and his henchman terrorize the pair into handing over the paper, which, much to their chagrin, turns out to be the “Check and Double Check” note. Amos and Andy are in turn very disappointed the next day when they discover that they have the deed and not the note, but Amos reasons that the deed, which bears Richard’s grandfather’s name, must be important and should be given to Richard. Meanwhile, at the Blair estate, Richard bids a sad farewell to Jean, for although he loves her, he feels that he cannot marry her because he did not find the deed. After Richard leaves for the train station, Amos and Andy call the Blairs to find him. They then rush to the station and find Richard just as he is boarding his train. With the deed in hand, Richard thanks Amos and Andy for insuring his future happiness. Several days later, while Amos and Andy are in their garage bemoaning the fact that Madame Queen and Ruby still have not forgiven them for breaking their date to go dancing, they receive part of Jean and Richard’s wedding cake as a present. Just then, Ruby calls and tells Andy that she and Madame Queen are no longer angry with them. Amos and Andy then rush out to take the cake to their girl friends, but drop the cake in the street and it is run over by a truck. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
TOP 10 HIGH GROSSING MOVIES FROM 1930
Watch Check and Double Check (1930)
