Mania for Melody

Scott Durham, a suave promoter, has made a racket out of producing charity benefits with his wife Evelyn, and then deducting so much money from the gross that very little is left for the charitable organization sponsoring the shows. Johnny Cassidy, Durham's assistant and a song and dance man, works unaware of his employer's unscrupulous methods. When Durham leases new offices in the Marlowe Building, Agatha Marlowe, the straight-laced head of the blue-blooded family that owns the building, threatens to throw the scandalous theater people out. However, those theater people become a blessing to the Marlowe family when the Marlowe Orphanage faces financial reversals and the family decides to hire Durham to stage a benefit show. Agatha relents and allows the troupe to rehearse in the mansion, where her sister Susan becomes smitten by Hector Bates, a middle-aged gentleman who has paid Durham a thousand dollars for theatrical training. Unknown to Durham, Bates is an undercover agent investigating the producer. Love abounds as Agatha's niece Irene falls in love with Johnny and decides to become a professional singer. As the charity show readies for its performance, Hector accumulates enough evidence to indict Durham for fraud. Learning of this, Durham and Evelyn flee town with the proceeds from the benefit. Discovering their whereabouts, Hector and Johnny devise a clever trap. Hector, masquerading as the Hindu Princess whom Durham is about to fleece, lures the producer across the New York state line where he is indicted on charges of graft. With the charity funds recovered, the show goes on.