Marry Me Again

During the Korean War, moments before Bill Anderson, a gas station attendant, and legal secretary Doris Doolittle are to be married in a San Fernando, California chapel, Bill receives a summons from the War Department and must leave without completing the ceremony. Bill, a fighter pilot, distinguishes himself in battle, and upon returning to San Fernando, is given a hero's welcome by the townspeople. While thanking the crowd with Bill, Doris invites everyone to their wedding the following night. Later, exhausted from the day's activities, Bill falls asleep at the apartment Doris shares with co-worker Joan Paxton and is in a deep sleep when Doris' boss, Mr. Taylor, arrives to inform Doris that her maiden aunt Minerva has died in San Francisco and left her one million dollars. Though ecstatic, Doris decides not to tell Bill about her windfall, as he has stated publicly that he is to be the sole breadwinner in their family. Leaving the still slumbering Bill behind, Doris flies to San Francisco and arranges with Courtney, her aunt's lawyer, to get the bulk of her money in cash once probate has been settled. Doris asks Courtney to keep her inheritance a secret, but the lawyer calls the press as soon as she leaves. On the plane home, Doris sees a front-page newspaper story about her inheritance and panics. The unsuspecting Bill, meanwhile, drops by a new housing complex designed for returning veterans and fantasizes about bringing Doris there for the first time. Later, at the gas station where he works, Bill is perplexed when a customer makes an oblique comment about Doris' wealth and then misdirects a television reporter looking for the lucky new millionaire. At Doris' request, Joan races to the gas station and asks Mac, Bill's boss and best friend, to keep Bill from finding out about her inheritance until after the wedding. Mac takes Bill drinking all day, then frantically sobers him up before the wedding. On the way to the chapel, however, Bill, an avid smoker, stops at a drug store for cigarettes and sees a television broadcast about Doris. Enraged, Bill bursts into the chapel and accuses Doris of making him look like a fool. When Doris refuses to call off the wedding, Bill stomps off, yelling. Later, Doris, who has been allowed to draw funds from her aunt's account, shows up at Mac's station in an expensive sports car and, calling Bill a "big drip," antagonizes him with her wealth. Unable to deal with his new status as the local jerk, Bill decides to re-enlist in the Air Force. However, while being examined by two military psychiatrists, who are intent on finding out why he refused to marry Doris, Bill loses control and kisses a WAC. Doris, meanwhile, visits her own psychiatrist, Dr. Pepperdine, and gets the idea to win Bill back by making him jealous. Doris recruits a reluctant Pepperdine to be her date at the movies that night and tells Joan to have Bill there at the same time. Doris shows up late at the theater and is unaware that Bill has brought the WAC with him. When the newsreel starts, Bill is startled to see Doris on the screen, talking to the audience about being in love with an idiot. Bill becomes upset and upon noticing Pepperdine with Doris, starts a fight. Bill is arrested and thrown in jail, but Doris is satisfied that he still loves her, despite the WAC, and decides to get rid of her inheritance. While Doris telephones Courtney with instructions to deliver her money that night, the now-free Bill announces to Mac that he is quitting and leaving town. After Eddie Jenkins, a former Air Force buddy, tells him that the veterans' housing project is a scam, however, Bill goes to Doris' home, intending to ask her to use her inheritance to help veterans. To his surprise, Joan and Mr. Taylor are there, busily working on Doris' plan to donate her million dollars to a veterans' housing project. Without reconciling with Bill, Doris leaves to pick up her cash at the airport, and Joan tells Bill that Doris is now flat broke. Guilt-ridden, Bill hops in his car and chases after Doris, who collects her suitcase from Courtney at the airport. Unknown to Doris, Courtney and his secretary, Miss Craig, have hired three thugs to follow Doris and steal the money from her. On the road home, Doris meets Bill, and the two happily renew their wedding plans, then are set upon by the armed thugs. Bill, however, tricks the thieves into taking an empty suitcase and zooms off with Doris and the cash. The thugs soon resume the chase and wind up fighting the couple outside the San Fernando Wedding Chapel. After thrashing the thieves and presenting them to the police, Bill and Doris, sporting matching black eyes, finally get married.