Summary
A tipsy valise of contraband gin, a midnight whistle-stop, and one spectacular case of mistaken identity set the comic dominoes tumbling in this effervescent 1920 caper. Jimmie Jones—equal parts hail-fellow and accidental anarchist—boards the rattler toting liquid solace for his parched pal Bobbie Brown, only to find his hooch heisted somewhere between clattering rails and small-town shadows. While haggling for emergency refreshment with a furtive bootlegger, our hero collides with a sheriff whose badge gleams like a death warrant. Panic sparks improvisation: Jones drapes himself in the sanctimonious tweed of visiting temperance crusader Anthony Goodley, sermonizing against demon tobacco while the real McCoy languishes in blissful ignorance. The masquerade combusts when rowdy locals, smelling hypocrisy, storm the lecture hall, pitchfork wit poised. Into this crucible barges Goodley’s fiancée—an antique-spinster termagant whose fluttering eyelids recalibrate toward the impostor like a compass gone berserk. Through trapdoors, haylofts, and a baptismal horse trough, Jones pirouettes, hand-in-hand with true love Cissy Smith, as moonlight and mayhem conspire to crown the fugitive couple while the genuine reformer inherits the whirlwind.
Synopsis
Heeding the pleas of Bobbie Brown, Jimmie Jones packs his trunk full of liquor to present to his desperate friend and hops on a train. Upon his arrival, Jones discovers that his cargo has been purloined in transit, and while attempting to replenish his supplies by bargaining with the local bootlegger, is detected by the local sheriff. To escape arrest, Jones impersonates reformer Anthony Goodley but his ruse takes him out of the frying pan and places him in the fire when some troublemakers decide to disrupt his lecture on the evils of tobacco. Matters are further complicated when Goodley's old maid fiancée begins to focus her attentions on the disguised Jones. After several harrowing brushes with the crowd, Jones escapes with his fiancée, Cissy Smith, leaving the real Goodley behind to face the music.
Director
