Merle Oberson is Mary Smith, daughter of a potential presidential candidate.
When she’s in a gambling house when it’s raided, her father whisks her off to Palm Beach rather than risk a scandal. Well, if it’s a scandal he wanted to avoid …
Bored in Palm Beach, she goes to the rodeo with two of her maids and meets a lanky cowboy named Stretch Willoughby.
Using the maids’ tips on how to get a man to kiss her, Mary tells Stretch (Gary Cooper) a sob story about her drunken father and the four sisters she is helping raise.
Oh, she also passes herself off as a maid. Just as well, since Stretch makes it clear he prefers workhorses to showhorses — by which he means rich young women who can’t carry their own weight.
Well, one kiss is all it takes, and the two are hooked. Mary tags along on a boat trip to Galveston, and the two are married while aboard.
But trouble lurks. What will Stretch do when he discovers Mary is a showhorse after all? And what will the abrupt marriage to a lowly cowpoke mean for Mary’s father’s political career?
Entertaining romantic comedy — this could hardly be called a Western — that dates surprisingly well.
Walter Brennan, in his mid-40s at the time, plays Cooper’s sidekick Sugar, who also finds romance in the form of Patsy Kelly’s Katie Callahan.
Cast:
Gary Cooper … Stretch Willoughby
Merle Oberson … Mary Smith
Patsy Kelly … Katie Callahan
Walter Brennan … Sugar
Fuzzy Knight … Buzz
Mabel Todd … Elly
Henry Kolker … Horace Smith
Harry Davenport … Hannibal Smith
Emma Dunn … Ma Hawkins
Walter Walker … Ames
Berton Churchill … Henderson
Charles Richman … Dillon
Frederick Vogeding … Captain
Runtime: 91 min.