Streamline Express

After an argument with Jimmy Hart, the director of her new play, Broadway star Patricia Wallis fails to appear for her dress rehearsal. Jimmy then learns that Pat is about to leave New York for California on the inaugural run of the Streamline Express , a luxurious high-speed train, with her fiancé, millionaire Fred Arnold. Jimmy rushes to the station in order to convince Pat, whom he discovered and made a star, to return to the show and, after several failed attempts to sneak onto the sold-out train, he succeeds in stowing away in a trunk. Despite his pleas and threats, however, Pat refuses to return to the theater, citing her desire to lead a quiet life as a wife and mother, and she has Jimmy thrown off the train. Desperate for more time to change Pat's mind, Jimmy bribes a steward into feigning a family emergency so that Jimmy can pose as his replacement. Also on board the train are philandering husband John Bradley and gold digger Elaine Vinson, to whom Bradley presents an expensive diamond pendant. Much to his surprise, Bradley returns to his stateroom to find his wife, Mary, whose suspicions were alerted when she accidentally learned of the purchase of the diamonds from her jeweler. Bradley asks her for a divorce and she sadly acquiesces, but before she can get off the train, it pulls out of the station and the couple is forced to share the same stateroom. As the train speeds west, Elaine is visited by Landon, an old acquaintance with a criminal background who knows secrets about her past, and when he makes subtle threats of blackmail, Elaine gives him the diamond pendant in order to insure his silence. Pat discovers Jimmy posing as a steward and attempts to ignore him, while Jimmy takes Arnold aside and hints that his future wife is a kleptomaniac who was once committed to an asylum. When Bradley notices that Elaine is not wearing her diamonds, she claims that they were stolen, and the conductor calls for a search of all the passengers. As the conductor approaches the bar, Landon surreptitiously drops the necklace into his cocktail, and the drink is picked up by Wilson, the train's resident lush, but Landon eventually recovers it. In the meantime, the conductor's suspicions fall on Jimmy, while Arnold, due to Jimmy's hints, fears that Pat has stolen the necklace and asks Jimmy to speak to her. Jimmy and Pat have a heated argument and pillow fight in Pat's stateroom after which they both confess that they have been secretly in love with each other for years. They decide to marry as soon as the train reaches California; however, when Jimmy tells her that they will not have time for a honeymoon, Pat flies into a rage and throws Jimmy out of the room, sensing that he is only marrying her so that his show can go on as scheduled. Shortly after, while cleaning Landon's room, Jimmy discovers the diamonds in Landon's shaving cream, but Landon accuses Jimmy of being the thief, and the conductor takes him into custody. Arnold, believing that Jimmy is covering for Pat's kleptomania, promises to help him, and Pat is confused when Arnold gently tells her that he will find her the best doctor money can buy. Jimmy declares to the skeptical conductor that he is actually Jimmy Hart, the celebrated theater director, and that Pat will vouch for him. Although Pat, still angry, initially denies knowing Jimmy, she later confirms his identity, but Arnold then claims that Jimmy stole the necklace in order to derail his marriage plans by making him believe that Pat was a kleptomaniac. Jimmy is saved when Mrs. Bradley provides him with an alibi. Landon confesses, revealing Elaine's complicity in the scheme, and the Bradleys are happily reconciled. Arnold graciously gives Pat up, and, as the train nears California, Pat informs Jimmy that the future Mr. and Mrs. Hart will be catching the first flight back to New York in order to make the opening of their new production.