Florida Special


1h 10m 1936

Film Details

Genre
Comedy
Release Date
May 1, 1936
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Paramount Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
Paramount Productions, Inc.
Country
United States

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 10m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels

Synopsis

Bangs Tucker, a newspaper reporter, inadvertently boards a Florida bound train with his wealthy friend, Wally Nelson, who amidst much publicity, has broken his engagement to socialite Marina Stafford. They are both unaware that Marina and her uncle, Simeon Stafford, are also on board. Simeon hires police captain Timothy Harrigan to be his bodyguard, fearing for the safety of some jewels as well as his life. For safekeeping, he gives the jewels to Marina. When the train stops in North Philadelphia, Simeon disappears, and a group of mobsters are suspected, as is Jenkins, Simeon's secretary, despite the fact that he is found unconscious. Wally is smitten by hostess Jerry Quinn, and rescues her from the unwanted attentions of her former lover, Jack Macklyn, a jewel thief. Macklyn attempts to blackmail Jerry into seeing that he gets off the train safely with Simeon's jewels, but she resists. Harrigan and Bangs then find Jenkins dead, Marina tied up, and the jewels missing. After Macklyn tries to force Jerry to take the jewels, Wally breaks into his cabin, and he, Harrigan and Bangs find the jewels in Jerry's purse, although she swears Macklyn stole them. In another room, Bangs discovers an unconscious Simeon, being tended to by a doctor, who tells Bangs that Simeon hired him to kidnap him and keep him on sleeping pills because he was afraid he would be killed. Wally and Macklyn, meanwhile, fight for the jewels until Macklyn jumps off the train, but a recovered Simeon reassures everyone that he had the real jewels with him the entire time in his icebag. Gangsters then break into the cabin, handcuff Harrigan, steal the jewels and lock everyone in the cabin. On arrival in Virginia, hundreds of policemen wait to greet Harrigan. Jerry alerts them to the crooks, and the police round up the gangsters and the jewels. After Bangs receives a telegram from his newspaper informing him he is fired, he returns to New York with his story, while Wally and Jerry remain blissfully together on the Florida-bound train.

Film Details

Genre
Comedy
Release Date
May 1, 1936
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Paramount Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
Paramount Productions, Inc.
Country
United States

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 10m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

Although the Screen Achievements Bulletin notes that the film was based on Clarence Budington Kelland's unpublished short story "Recreation Car," the story was published while the film was in production in Country Gentleman magazine (Nov 1935-March 1936). According to the pressbook, the studio reconstructed Pennsylvania Station for this film.