Thursday, Oct. 26 - Melody in Spring

Melody in Spring (1934)

While staying at the George Washington Inn, singer John Craddock falls in love at first sight with Jane Blodgett, and serenades her from his balcony while she awaits her fiancé Wesley Prebble in her car. Late one night, Jane's father Warren, the "dog biscuit king" and a souvenir collector, sneaks into a room to steal the bedknob from a bed in which George Washington once slept. Unfortunately, he awakens its blonde occupant, who screams for help. Her cries bring John to her rescue, and he calls the house detective. Eventually, everything is cleared up, but John has engendered Warren's permanent hostility. Some time later, John appears at the Blodgett mansion hoping to get an interview with the biscuit king, who sponsors a music hour on the radio station on which John would like to sing. John is delighted to find Jane there, and vows to woo her, but is distressed to discover that the man he wants to impress is the same man on whom he called the cops. On Jane's advice, John attempts to get on Warren's good side by telling him that his hobby is carving his initials, as Warren believes in hobbies, but Warren is unimpressed and vows he will never let John sing on his radio hour unless Jane agrees to marry him. Because John is already in love with Jane, this provides an added impetus to woo her, and she does not resist. Attempting to use reverse psychology to get rid of John, Jane's mother Mary invites John to sail with them to Paris, but her plan backfires. Finally, the family tries to elude John in Switzerland, but he follows them there, where he bests Warren at climbing Mt. Ildenhorn and carves his initials in the pinnacle. When Jane tells her father that she is breaking her engagement to Wesley to marry John, he tells her of his deal with John. She decides to remain with Wesley, who arrives at the hotel. John gives Warren a cowbell for his collection, but Warren is caught with it and despite John's confession, Warren is arrested for theft. John attempts to get him out of jail by distracting the guards with a song, but in the meantime, Wesley has Warren released legally and John is imprisoned for trying to start a riot. Still in love with John, Jane gets herself incarcerated in the same prison and, from the prison yard, tells her parents and the astonished Wesley that she will meet them in Paris after she and John are released and married.