A publicity-hungry radio broadcaster hypes the planned elopement between Joan Winfield Bette Davis and famous bandleader Alan Brice Jack Carson, daughter of Texas oil tycoon Lucius K. Winfield Eugene Pallette. Steve Collins James Cagney runs a small air-charter service that is deeply in debt, and he’s desperate to avoid having his plane seized when the finance company demands $1,112.77 by midnight. Hearing the news on the radio, Lucius K. Winfield calls the airport to prevent the match, accusing Brice of being a fortune-hunter and pressing Joan’s return to Amarillo, Texas. In a shift of the plan, Steve proposes a bold bargain: he will stop the elopement and deliver Joan to her father, unmarried, for a cash-on-delivery price that hinges on her weight—$10 a pound—and the weight estimate of about 115 pounds. The moment the creditor arrives to take back the plane, Steve knocks him out to keep the scheme on track, then tricks Brice by claiming a urgent phone call requires his attention and—under the pretense of a trip to New York—takes off with Joan instead.
The press seizes on the story, declaring that Joan has been kidnapped, and the headlines go national. Joan tries to negotiate, offering to pay more, while Steve steadfastly refuses to back down from their bargain. When she makes a bid to jump from the aircraft, he swerves to prevent it, only to crash land near the ghost town of Bonanza. At the crash site, the assistant district attorney pressures Sheriff McGee [William Frawley], arguing that the missing aircraft constitutes theft from the finance company rather than a kidnapping, a distinction that complicates the legal chase. Pop Tolliver [Harry Davenport], the town’s solitary resident, hears the radio reports and “arrests” Steve at gunpoint, then heads off with Joan in his old 1920s jalopy, which breaks down not far from Bonanza.
As news crews close in, Tolliver frees Steve when he discovers that a nationwide manhunt is underway, and the two set out to reunite Joan with her father. Tolliver’s wartime pragmatism shines through as he guides them toward safety, even as the pair are briefly captured again and separated. The lovers eventually reunite when Alan Brice, joined by a Nevada judge [Harry Holman] and the sheriff, locates their whereabouts; Tolliver then fabricates that Bonanza lies in Nevada to invalidate the arrest warrant and buy them time. Through it all, a floor of romantic tension remains intact: Steve confesses his love, and when he kisses Joan she detects mustard on his lips, realizing his deception and the extent of his calculated audacity.
Despite the mounting complications, Joan remains torn between her impulsive, carefree life and the gravity of her commitment to Brice. The Nevada judge arrives to formalize the situation, but the marriage that follows is technically invalid, prompting another twist: the couple board a second aircraft, only for Joan to spot a souvenir labeled “Bonanza, California,” which convinces her that the ceremony wasn’t real. She parachutes out to seek Steve, and in a dramatic turn of fate, she and Steve ultimately choose to marry with her father’s blessing and honeymoon in Bonanza. In the final twist, Joan weighs 118 pounds—just enough to yield a COD payment of $1,180—enough to settle Steve’s debt and bring their story to a close with a mix of reconciliation, risk, and renewed partnership.
Throughout this whirlwind, the movie unfolds with a steady tempo of quick reversals, comic irony, and melodramatic peril, balancing farce with a tension-filled escape from a desert town and a mine-bound sequence where the two lovers reckon with their own motives, hopes, and fears. The back-and-forth between law, love, and outlandish stakes creates a cinematic mood that is equal parts bright entertainment and sly social satire, anchored by a cast that brings sharp wit and color to each beat.
