Kelly the Second

Mollie Patricia Kelly is rushing to her job as the lunch counter manager at Dr. J. Willoughby Klum's drugstore when her car accidentally latches onto a passing truck that drags her through half of New York. When the truck finally stops, she starts yelling at its driver, Cecil Callahan, and their arguing results in a free-for-all fight among bystanders. The police are used to Cecil's fighting and alert the station house, which dispatches a paddy wagon. When Mollie accidentally hits a radio, causing it to play "The Irish Washerwoman," however, Cecil quickly bests his opponents and the two flee. After driving Mollie to work, Cecil finally has to face the police, who spot his truck outside. Because Mollie and Dr. Klum try to hide Cecil, they are also brought into court, but are set free. Feeling sorry for Cecil, Dr. Klum offers to help and inadvertently winds up posting his store as a bond to ensure that the pugnacious Cecil will never fight again. Realizing that Cecil can't live without fighting, Mollie decides to turn him into a boxer, with Klum as manager and herself as trainer. On the night of his first fight, Cecil is a few pounds underweight, so Mollie stuffs him with bananas just before the match. Meanwhile, Klum is seated next to gangster Ike Arnold and unwittingly gets Arnold to bet $1,000 on Cecil when the two men find they have a common interest in astrology. When Cecil is quickly knocked out because of his upset stomach, Arnold thinks he has been duped and the frightened Klum rushes back to the drug store, closely followed by Arnold and his gang. Because he saw Cecil slug his opponent for real in the dressing rooms, Arnold knows that he can fight and proposes a partnership with Klum. Soon Mollie and Cecil go to train in the country and Cecil begins to win. Within a few months, he has won nineteen fights and is scheduled to oppose the heavyweight champion, Butch Flynn. At a party, Mollie becomes jealous of Gloria, Arnold's girl friend, when she thinks that Cecil prefers her. That same night, Gloria becomes angry at Arnold because he tries to palm a rabbit coat off as ermine, so she decides to make a play for Cecil. Cecil and Mollie argue, and when Gloria invites him to her apartment, he goes. On the night of the fight, neither Mollie nor Klum can find Cecil until their assistant Dan tells Mollie that he is in a nightclub with Gloria. Mollie goes to get him, but when he drunkenly says he is going to marry Gloria, she leaves. When Cecil finally comes back, Klum tries to sober him up, but Arnold sees him and secretly decides to bet on Flynn. When the fight starts, Cecil tries to win, but can't, because he misses Mollie. She, meanwhile, has disguised herself in a long beard and glasses and is watching the fight from the audience. When she hears Gloria tell Arnold that she wasn't fooling around with Cecil, and all he talked about was Mollie, Mollie rushes to the ring and encourages him to win. She uses a hatpin to stick him when he falls down, but when even this doesn't help, she asks Klum to play "The Irish Washerwoman" on a hurdy gurdy. Cecil then jumps into action until a nervous Arnold has the hurdy gurdy smashed. Now desperate, Mollie rushes into the audience, and after asking for Irishmen, gets them to sing the song. Soon the entire audience joins in and Cecil bests his opponent. Finally free from worries, Klum says that Cecil and Mollie can now get married, and after a few verbal punches, they agree.