Flying High

The Synopsis

Pansy Potts is a waitress in a diner at the 10th Annual Airshow. A customer, ‘Sport’ Wardell, works for the Pilot’s Gazette, in which Pansy had advertised unsuccessfully for an aviator to marry. She tells Sport she came to the city to raise children, and is prepared to pay $500 for an aviator. 

Nearby, inventor Rusty Krouse, is working on his Aerocopter, a vertical take-off plane, but has never flown it because he is afraid of flying. Sport befriends Rusty after saving him from a bully. [I’ll Make a Happy Landing (the Lucky Day I Land You)]. Sport thinks the Aerocopter is a good idea and goes into partnership with Rusty, but they are dogged by Rusty’s creditors. 

Sport issues a bad cheque to a creditor who threatens him with jail if it bounces, so Sport needs to get £1,000 in the bank before morning. He is about to sell stock in the company to Fred Smith when he discovers that Smith has no cash either. But when Sport meets Fred’s daughter Eileen, he makes Fred vice-president of the company. Eileen works at the aviation school. 

Sport persuades Rusty to marry Pansy, to get hold of her $500. Sport makes the proposition to Pansy, but she wants to see Rusty before agreeing. He shows her a photograph of Clark Gable and Pansy gives Sport the money.  

Pansy meets Rusty and at first thinks he has a face meant to frighten women and children, but she becomes excited when she hears he is a mechanic. She decides she will make do with Rusty [It’ll Be the First Time for Me]. 

Mrs Smith finds Eileen with Sport and warns her that “those windy guys always end up in jail”. 

Sport persuades Rusty that the only way he can avoid marrying Pansy is to fly the Aerocopter and win the prize money. [song]. Trying to register as an aviator, Rusty finds himself in the office of Doctor Brown, who carries out a medical examination. 

Sport and Eileen are at a ball [We’ll Dance Until the Dawn]. Rusty is there and Pansy finds him. She says if he will marry her tonight, she will never ask him again. 

Sport asks Eileen to marry him, but then Sport and Fred are arrested for selling fake stock. Sport tells Rusty everything will be all right if he wins the meet tomorrow. 

Rusty marries Pansy, so they can use her money to bail Sport and Fred.

The next day, the Aerocopter is ready for the altitude flight. Rusty is late because he has to wrestle with Pansy to get out of the bridal suite. After causing havoc on the ground, the Aerocopter finally flies upwards, with Pansy as a passenger. The landing gear breaks and the plane continues to rise. Rusty makes Pansy use the only parachute, and the high altitude sends him to sleep. 

On the ground, Fred celebrates the Aerocopter’s victory. At over 50,000 feet, sleet wakes up Rusty. He syphons off the Aerocopter’s fuel, so that it begins to fall, passing Pansy on the way down. The Aerocopter crashes, but Rusty emerges unscathed and is joined by Pansy [I’ll Make a Happy Landing (the Lucky Day I Land You)]. Sport and Eileen kiss.