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Loose Ankles (1930)

Ann Harper Berry is bequeathed a $70,000-a-year income, a mansion and a pearl necklace by her late grandmother, whose will has several unusual codicils: The assets become hers temporarily the day after she marries a man who meets the approval of her staid aunts Katherine and Sarah and teetotaling uncle Rupert; she will receive the assets permanently only after the death from natural causes of her husband; and, no one in the family must do anything to cause a scandal or the entire estate will go to the Riverside Cat and Dog Home. Ann, who like her relatives, is already wealthy, doesn’t want the money and decides to break the will. With no prospects for either marriage or a scandal, Ann and her cousin Betty place an advertisement in the newspaper seeking a man willing to assist her in creating a scandal for a cash consideration. Gil Hayden, an unemployed college graduate who can’t even manage to make a living as a gigolo, answers the ad, after much prodding from his more successful gigolo pals, Andy and Terry. Despite his nervousness, Gil and Ann meet, they fall in love. When they are caught in a seemingly compromising position in her room, though, and ordered by Uncle Rupert to marry, Gil is so unnerved he jumps out the window and runs away. Heartbroken, Ann decides to try once more to be caught in a scandal. Looking at a ticket Gil dropped for a notorious new nightclub called The Circus Café, Ann decides to go there with Betty and Linton, a more mercenary member of Gil’s quartet of gigolo pals. Wishing to prevent a scandal, Katherine and Sarah follow them, but because they cannot enter the café unescorted, they allow Andy and Terry, who are standing outside and don’t have tickets of their own, to be their escorts. The aunts soon indulge in too much alcohol-laced punch and become loudly intoxicated. Meanwhile, Gil, who is also at the club, sees Ann and reveals to her why he ran away. When Rupert spearheads a police raid the café, Gil, Ann, Betty and Linton band together to escape. Gil risks his own freedom to enable the others to get away, but Linton lies to Ann that Gil turned coward and ran. Meanwhile, with Andy and Terry’s help, Katherine and Sarah pretend to be charwomen and sneak out through the kitchen, but are arrested after Katherine makes some drunken remarks that are overheard by a policeman. Back at home the next morning, Terry and Andy try to convince Ann that Gil is truly in love with her and not capable of being a coward. She refuses to listen at first, until Gil arrives and reveals what really happened. He wants to marry Ann, but Rupert still objects. Just then, a disheveled Katherine and Sarah return and, hoping to keep their previous night’s escapades quiet, heartily agree to allow the lovebirds marry. More on Wikipedia or Mubi

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