What a Man!

Mild-mannered Henry M. Burrows works in the Los Angeles office of the Rankin-Phillips Chemical Company. At his bachelor home, Henry reads a newspaper report that gangster Trigger Boyle and his unnamed girl friend are being sought by both the police and the underworld. Later, when Henry lets his cat out, he leaves the door ajar and a young woman sneaks inside and hides. Henry's sister visits him and while she is there, two detectives come looking for a girl whom they have been following. After they depart, Henry bids his sister goodnight at the front door and she leaves. Moments later, Trigger Boyle is shot on his doorstep, and the woman who entered earlier stays hidden in the house. The next morning, Henry reads that Boyle is still alive and his girl friend is missing with a suitcase full of cash. Henry finds the woman asleep on his sofa and asks her to leave, but she fakes a fainting spell. Henry asks neighbor Dr. Williams to examine the girl, whom Williams assumes Henry has just married. She places the doctor's thermometer in a hot foot-bath Henry has prepared and, upon discovering that she has a temperature of 102, Williams confines her to bed. Henry leaves his housekeeper, Bluebell, in charge of the stranger and heads for the office. Before he gets there, however, Williams calls and leaves a message for him, and word spreads around the office that Henry got married the night before. Steve Anderson, an aggressive salesman for the company, and the others decide to say nothing but descend upon the couple for a party that evening. Although Henry and the woman, Joan, deny being married, they are not believed. Later, the Rankin-Phillips company comes under investigation as a takeover deal is expected and George Rankin is reported to be in a sanitarium with a nervous breakdown. Joan, who has realized that Henry has an inferiority complex, coaches him to be more aggressive. When Parsons and an associate, Harrington, come from the company's head office to inspect Henry's office, however, he is nervous about losing his job, as he had previously submitted an office reorganization plan which manager Harold D. Prewitt rejected. While Henry is at work, Steve propositions Joan, but she is not interested in him. The next morning, Parsons tells Henry that they are transferring Prewitt to the Kansas City branch and appointing him local manager. At the house, Joan says goodbye to a surprised Bluebell and asks her to give a letter to Henry. When he reads the letter, Henry, who is now in love with Joan, learns that she cannot tell him why she is leaving but that some day he may know why. A month later, Bluebell phones Henry at the office to tell him that there is a man at the house who wants to talk with him about Joan. The man is Joan's father, who accuses Henry of compromising his daughter, but Henry tells him that he loves Joan and would marry her if she would have him. Joan emerges from hiding and introduces her father as George Rankin, the company's co-owner, and explains that they planted the newspaper story about him being in a sanitarium and she hid in Henry's house with a suitcase full of documents in order to buy time until complicated business matters could be straightened out. Joan kisses Henry and their future together is assured.