Frankie and Johnny

Johnny and Frankie are performers on a Mississippi River riverboat that also houses a casino. Johnny is a compulsive gambler who is deep in debt. The couple balances show business with mounting financial pressure.

Johnny and Cully visit a gypsy camp for a fortune. A tea-leaf reader tells Johnny that a red-haired woman will bring him luck.

Back on the boat, Nellie Bly, Clint Braden's on-again, off-again girlfriend, is introduced after she catches Braden with Mitzi. Her red hair and presence stirs tension among the crew.

Nellie lets Johnny touch his chips for luck, and he wins, convinced the gypsy's prophecy is coming true. Frankie and Braden grow jealous as Johnny revels in his apparent luck.

During a musical-number on the boat's stage, Frankie shoots Johnny for dancing with Nellie Bly while singing Cully's latest song. The shot interrupts the show and panics the performers and audience.

A Broadway recruiter sees the riverboat show and buys the rights to Cully's new song. He invites Frankie and Johnny to work in New York City.

In New Orleans, the cast attends a masked ball. Frankie, Nellie, and Mitzi rent identical Madame Pompadour costumes, heightening the confusion around identity.

Masked and in costume, Frankie and Nellie switch places to test Johnny's luck with the red-haired superstition. Johnny believes Nellie is the lucky one and bets big on the outcome.

Johnny wins $10,000 at roulette, believing he is with Nellie, only to realize the switch. Frankie is furious and discards the winnings.

Blackie, a dim-witted henchman, swaps a blank cartridge in Frankie's stage gun for a real bullet. He hopes to provoke Braden and trigger a catastrophe.

Braden arrives on stage too late to stop the disaster, and Johnny is shot for real during the performance. Frankie fears for him as the crowd gasps and the show collapses into chaos.

Frankie forgives Johnny as he appears to be dying on stage, but he suddenly rises unharmed when the bullet hits the lucky medallion he wears, which Frankie had given him. The couple's love survives the near-tragedy.