Rags to Riches
Cast & Crew
Joseph Kane
Alan Baxter
Mary Carlisle
Jerome Cowan
Michael Morris
Ralf Harolde
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Truck driver Jimmy Long is impatient to marry his childhood sweetheart, Carol Patrick, but Carol is determined to have a successful singing career to improve their future. Wealthy music publisher Marshall Abbott sponsors Carol and encourages her to keep away from Jimmy. One night, Jimmy ends up an unwitting accomplice in a holdup of a fur company. During the escape he intentionally drives off the road to stop the heist, but the robbers are killed, weakening Jimmy's claim that he was forced into the crime. Unknown to Jimmy, Abbott is behind the fur ring and arranges for Jimmy's lawyer to sell him out. Jimmy is found guilty and sentenced to one to ten years. During the year he serves, Abbott cements a firm relationship with Carol, ensuring her public exposure and success as a singer. When Carol visits Jimmy in prison, she assures him she will wait for him so they can marry. Upon his release on parole, Jimmy goes to Carol's but, finding Abbott there, erupts in a jealous rage, vowing never to see Carol again. Abbott's secretary and former girl friend, Glenda Hayes, is also upset by Abbott's attentions to Carol and goes to a rival racketeer, Slip Conlan, to inform him about Abbott's method of using phony piano shipments on Blue Streak Transportation Company as cover for his illegal fur trade. Meanwhile, Jimmy and another parolee, Ace, find work at Blue Streak, an arrangement set up by company manager and Abbott cohort, Bickford. During Jimmy and Ace's initial run, a hijack attempt is made on their truck by Conlan. When Jimmy and Ace examine their load, they discover Abbott's involvement and are fearful their parole will be jeopardized unless they can prove it. Although depressed by Jimmy's aloofness, Carol pursues her flourishing singing career with Abbott's support. When Abbott proposes, however, Carol refuses, telling him she still loves Jimmy. Not realizing that Glenda is leaking the shipping schedule to Conlan, Abbott sends out a phony shipment on Jimmy and Ace's run to find out who is behind the hijackings. After Conlan makes another try, Abbott sets up an extra large shipment in an iron truck as a final trap. The night of the trap, Abbott learns about Glenda and before setting out after Conlan, confronts and shoots her. Although badly wounded, Glenda phones Carol and tells her about Abbott's longtime criminal activities and the plan for that night, and Carol phones the police. Conlan arrives at the delivery house first, followed by Jimmy and Ace, who are determined to foil Abbott. Abbott and Bickford then arrive and Bickford torches the house to force Conlan and his gang out. Jimmy rescues Conlan and his men in the iron truck, hoping to use them against Abbott. When the police and Carol arrive, Abbott tries to smooth-talk his way out of the situation, but a vengeful Conlan agrees to confess everything to the district attorney. Abbott is arrested and Carol and Jimmy are reunited.
Director
Joseph Kane
Cast
Alan Baxter
Mary Carlisle
Jerome Cowan
Michael Morris
Ralf Harolde
Paul Porcasi
Suzanne Kaaren
Eddie Acuff
Rosina Galli
Charles Trowbridge
Daisy Lee Mothershed
Joan Blair
Francis Sayles
Crew
Walter Bullock
Cy Feuer
Joseph Kane
John Victor Mackay
Sol Meyer
Ernest Nims
William Nobles
William O'connor
Adele Palmer
Victor Schertzinger
Jule Styne
James Webb
Al Wilson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to an onscreen note, this picture has no connection to the play From Rags to Riches, which was the film's working title. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, Michael Simmons was assigned work on the screenplay, but his participation has not been confirmed.
