Mrs. Plum's Pudding
Summary
An unassumingly bucolic ranch, suddenly gushing black gold, catapults the widowed Mrs. Plum and her guileless son Eddie from dust-choked paddocks into the chandeliered salons of a city that chews up new money and spits out gossip. Enter Lord Burlington, a velvet-gloved predator whose vowels drip like treacle yet whose solvency evaporates faster than morning dew; he orchestrates a quadrille of affections, steering the Plums toward the bejewelled Van Zants—mother a matriarchal barracuda, daughter Betty a sloe-eyed siren whose laughter ricochets between sincerity and strategy. Under gilded ceilings the courtships bloom: Burlington murmurs land-poor poetry to Mrs. Plum while Eddie, all elbows and ardor, stumbles into Betty’s radiance like a moth enticed by a kerosene lamp. Banns are read, florists summoned, organists rehearsed—until a parchment vanishes, supposedly the very deed to the ranch, and the baroque edifice of matrimonial mercantilism collapses. Burlington flees, coattails fluttering like white flags; Eddie and Betty, unchastened, dash to a justice of the peace; Mrs. Plum, pride scorched, prepares to slink back to sagebrush and solitude. Yet the dowager’s coup de théâtre arrives with a wink: the purloined papers were decoys, her oil fortune still bubbles beneath the prairie, and the penniless aristocrat, now contrite on bended knee in a dusty depot, discovers that love, like crude, can be prospected in the most barren hearts.
Synopsis
After Eddie Plum discovers oil on the family ranch, he and his widowed mother move to the city where they meet Lord Burlington, a British fortune hunter. Burlington introduces the Plums to two socialites, Mrs. Van Zant and Betty, her daughter, and while Burlington woos Mrs. Plum, Eddie falls in love with Betty. A double wedding is arranged, but on the day of the ceremony, Mrs. Plum announces that the deed to her land has been stolen and without it she has no claim. Devastated by the news, Burlington requests a postponement and leaves. In spite of the apparent disaster, Eddie and Betty elope while Mrs. Plum, hurt by the Lord's sudden departure, plans to return to the country. Realizing that his affections for the widow are genuine, Burlington asks for her forgiveness and insists on the marriage. Her faith restored, Mrs. Plum reveals that the stolen documents were fakes, and that her oil millions are safe.
