Ready for Love
Cast & Crew
Marion Gering
Richard Arlen
Ida Lupino
Marjorie Rambeau
Trent Durkin
Beulah Bondi
Film Details
Technical Specs
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Synopsis
Eighteen-year-old Marigold Tate runs away from yet another boarding school hoping that her actress mother Goldy will include her in her traveling stage show. Instead, Goldy sends her daughter to stay with her Aunt Ida in the small New England town of Chetwattle Falls. As she gets off the train, Marigold cries because she lost her dog "BooBoo," but her actions are misinterpreted by the Burkes, a prominent family, and by Julian Peters, a New York journalist who runs the local newspaper. All parties believe Marigold to be the secret lover of the late Nathaniel Burke, whose casket arrives on the same train. Because of this inauspicious start, Marigold is shunned by all the women in town, but receives special interest from all the married men. To help Julian out of a bad situation, Marigold pretends actually to have had an affair with Burke, whose family lawyer threatens to sue for libel after Julian prints a story based on Marigold's arrival. Villager Joey Burke, meanwhile, falls in love with Marigold and writes poetry to her, but his parents, Chester and Louella, Nathaniel Burke's brother and sister-in-law, disapprove of his romancing and prevent him from buying Marigold's picnic basket at the Colonial Basket Social by buying it themselves. Thus, while dressed like a Puritan, Marigold is obligated to dine with Chester. During the meal, Chester is knocked out by a rock with a poem attached to it that Joey throws from a rowboat in the nearby pond. Joey falls overboard and when he cries for help, Marigold undresses down to her slip and dives in to save him. Misinterpreting Chester's unconsciousness and Marigold's near nudity, the women of the town become outraged and tie Marigold to an antique dunking stool and dunk her in the lake. Julian saves Marigold, but his stories about the incident are printed all over the country, bringing fame to Marigold, and shame to Louella, who led the mob. Just as Marigold accepts Julian's marriage proposal, her mother arrives with a handful of press agents and plans to sensationalize the story. Marigold goes along with this plan, but appalled by the sensationalism, Julian renounces their engagement, and returns to work for a New York newspaper. Marigold is miserable at the loss of Julian, and when she convinces her mother she really is in love with him, her mother has the local newspaper print the headline "Blue Law Girl Says She Was Little Fool." Julian reads this and responds with a headline in his newspaper, "Newspaper Man Hasty Idiot--He Loves Ducking Stool Victim." The headlines continue until their marriage, at which point Ida and her fiancé Sam Gardner finally get married as well.
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Director
Marion Gering
Cast
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/RichardArlen.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Richard Arlen
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/IdaLupino.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Ida Lupino
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/MarjorieRambeau.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Marjorie Rambeau
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i70/juniordurkin_188x141_092320080520.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Trent Durkin
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/BeulahBondi.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Beulah Bondi
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/HenryTravers.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Henry Travers
Esther Howard
Ralph Remley
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/CharlesArnt.5879.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Charles E. Arnt
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/CharlesSellon.174001.2.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Charles Sellon
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/IrvingBacon.7795.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Irving Bacon
Franklyn Ardell
Fred Santley
Louise Carter
James P. Burtis
David Loring
Wilbur Mack
Eleanor Wesselhoeft
Ralph Lewis
Bernard Suss
Burr Caruth
Oscar Smith
Ben Taggart
Harry Dunkinson
Howard Brooks
Lucille Ward
Joseph J. Franz
A. S. "pop" Byron
Cecil Weston
Blanche Rose
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/AnnSheridan.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Clara Lou Sheridan
Crew
Charles Brackett
George S. Brooks
Lenore Coffee
Emanuel Cohen
Hans Dreier
Jack Goodrich
Earl Hedrick
Albert Lewis
J. P. Mcevoy
William Slavens Mcnutt
Marguerite Roberts
Harry Ruskin
Leon Shamroy
Tiffany Thayer
Wanda Tuchock
Eda Warren
Adolph Zukor
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Film Details
Technical Specs
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com//img/global/logo-AFI.png)
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
A pre-release article in Motion Picture Herald gives an adaptation credit to Virginia Van Upp, and Daily Variety news items credit Byron Morgan as a contributing writer. Their contribution to the final film has not been determined. Richard Arlen's character in the pressbook is listed as "Julian Barrow." The pressbook also notes that some scenes were filmed at Sherwood Lake, near Los Angeles, CA.
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