Summary
Broke and teetering on the parapet of Waterloo Bridge, John Peters—eyes raw from London fog and loser’s tears—eavesdrops on two gents chatting about a steamship ticket to New York. One well-aimed punch later, he’s wearing Kluck’s pinstripe suit, pocketing Kluck’s passport, and sailing into Ellis Island as a phoenix with a forged name. Cue racetracks flashing past like nickelodeon reels, ticker tape raining on Broad Street, and a skyline still half-scaffold. Rechristened Lucky Carson, he turns long-shot nags into gold, corners copper futures, and buys a Fifth-Avenue mansion whose ballroom swallows orchestras whole. Yet the past hitches a trans-Atlantic ride: Kluck surfaces, hat in hand, begging salvation from femme fatale Madame Marinoff, whose cache of incriminating letters could dynamite both men. Carson, gambling on redemption, filches the evidence, but Kluck—sniffing conspiracy—howls betrayal. Their clash detonates just as Doris Bancroft, Kluck’s luminous sister-in-law, deciphers the masquerade and exonerates her reluctant benefactor, leaving Carson to ponder whether luck is grace or merely a loan shark with a velvet glove.
Synopsis
Having lost all his funds betting on the races in London, John Peters contemplates suicide; then, overhearing the conversation of two men, he considers a new course of action. He stuns one of them--Kluck--and after changing clothes with him, he makes his way to the United States, where he wins at the races, speculates successfully on Wall Street, and amasses a fortune under the sobriquet "Lucky" Carson. Kluck arrives in America, makes Carson's acquaintance, and begs for his help, which is freely given. Carson manages to retrieve some incriminating correspondence between Kluck and an adventuress, Madame Marinoff, who is threatening him. Kluck accuses him of a conspiracy, and a quarrel ensues when Carson reveals his true identity; but Doris Bancroft, Kluck's sister-in-law, discovers that he is innocent.
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