Wine, Women and Song

Marilyn Arnette, who loves to tap dance, leaves the St. Cecilia School for Girls after she learns that her father has died in an accident and that her mother, an actress, whom she never knew, has written to the nuns, begging to see her. Marilyn finds her mother Frankie performing a risque number in a New York burlesque house. The theater is raided by police, but Marilyn escapes arrest. When Marilyn visits her mother in jail, she learns that Frankie planned the raid to cash in on the ensuing publicity. Marilyn is about to go back to the convent, but with Frankie's encouragement, she goes instead with Frankie's friend, comedienne Loretta Oliver Potts, to rehearsals for a new show. Dance director Ray Joyce is impressed with Marilyn's dancing and attracted to her beauty, as is the backer of the show, Morgan Andrews, a playboy about whom the chorus girls gossip. Andrews has Jennie Tilson, dramatic editor for a newspaper, set up an interview with Marilyn, during which Jennie is supposedly called back to her office, a ruse she arranged with Andrews so that he can invite Marilyn to lunch. Later, at a party in Andrews' apartment, located in the front of the theater, Ray sees Marilyn drinking with Andrews. Seething, Ray leaves with his star, Imogene, in view of Marilyn. Andrews gives Marilyn a bracelet of diamonds and emeralds and, offering to make her a star, kisses her. Marilyn then faints and Andrews gets Jennie to undress her. He sends the rest of the party off to a nightclub, and after Jennie leaves, Frankie, now out of jail, arrives with Lolly and sees her drunken daughter come out of Andrews' bedroom in a dressing gown. Lolly takes Marilyn home, and Frankie viciously scratches Andrews' face. He throws her down and, when she doesn't get up, calls a doctor, who revives her with a capsule that she inhales after he breaks it. Frankie, who has a heart condition, knows that the capsules are fatal to anyone with a normal heart. Because of the doctor's orders, she has to stay in Andrews' apartment at least ten days. The next day, the girls in the chorus gossip about Marilyn staying with Andrews the previous night, and when she comes to rehearsal, Ray is curt with her. When she explains what happened, Ray apologizes, and he is about to express his love for her, when they are interrupted and have to begin rehearsing a number. When Andrews threatens Frankie that he might keep Marilyn from becoming a star unless she begins a liaison with him, Frankie agrees to allow her to sign Andrews' contract if he promises not to bother her until after opening night. He consents, agreeing that Marilyn should keep her mind on her work. On the night of the big opening, Frankie sits at a table watching Marilyn perform, and after saying that this is the happiest moment of her life, she breaks one of her capsules and pours the powder in Andrews' drink. She toasts the future, and he falls after drinking and realizes that she has killed him. After he dies, Frankie cries and dies herself, as Marilyn dances. Afterwards, Marilyn embraces Ray behind the curtain and cries as she kisses and hugs Lolly.