The Silent Influence of Del Andrews: Decoding The Galloping Fish

Freddy Wetherill and his bride, Hyla, quarrel at her mother's beach cottage, and Hyla sends her new husband home alone. Seeking distraction from his troubles, Freddy enters a vaudeville theater where Undine, "the diving Venus," and her trained seal, Bubbles, are performing. Outside the theater, Freddy meets Undine's fiancé, George Fitzgerald, and becomes involved in George's effort to hide Undine's seal from a bill collector armed with an order of attachment because of an unpaid hotel bill. Complications arise when Freddy Wetherill's dying rich uncle, Cato Dodd, notifies him that he wants Hyla to nurse him. To insure he stays in his uncle's will, Freddy substitutes Undine for Hyla and takes George along to act as his "valet." Naturally, Bubbles comes along, too. Hyla soon arrives in jealous pursuit, just in time for a nearby dam to break. As the Dodd home and other houses float downriver, various swept-away circus animals, including an alligator and a rhinoceros, find shelter with the humans on the roofs. The cab driver that brought Hyla to the house is also swept away, but he keeps the meter running in hopes of getting her back in his taxi. Bubbles rescues everyone with a floating telegraph pole, Freddy reconciles with his loving wife, and Uncle Dodd remains kindly disposed to his heir.