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Frank Rocci, a familiar but feared patron of Broadway
establishments, is the president of a protection racket that demands one
dollar per coop from poultry companies for assurance that "accidents" do
not occur. When a childhood neighbor from the Bronx, Esther
Whelan, visits and tells him that her mother has died and her sister
Joan needs a job, Rocci arranges with Tex Kaley, owner and hostess of
the Klub Kaley, and the perfectionist (but easily intimidated)
impresario Max Mefoofski to put Joan in the chorus.
After Rocci gives Joan the eye during her first number,
he invites her to his apartment but, when she speaks innocently of their
childhood and says she feels she can trust him, Rocci curbs his
salacious inclinations and takes her home. Rocci then buys the
club and demands that Max star Joan in his new revue. After Walter
Winchell's column links Joan and Rocci, Esther, greatly upset, confronts
her sister, but she stands up for Rocci.
Joan is a success, and Rocci sets her up in a Park Avenue
apartment. As he talks about marriage and implies that he will ask
her once he is able to get out of the racket, gunshots from a rival
shatter the window and mirror. For her protection, Rocci sends
Joan to Miami with Sybil Smith, the girlfriend of Rocci's lieutenant,
Chuck Haskins. At a dinner show, radio crooner and bandleader
Clark Brian invites Joan to sing with him. Although Joan discovers
that Clark is a chronic hypochondriac and he admits he is a coward,
during the next couple of weeks they grow fond of each other.
After the funeral of the rival responsible for the
gunshots in Joan's apartment, Rocci reconciles with his main rival, Tim
Crowley. When Rocci calls Joan to tell her she can return, she
says she wants to stay a little longer. Just then, a telegram
arrives from one of Rocci's pals in Miami, stating that he saw Joan with
Clark. Rocci immediately orders Joan to take the next plane.
When she returns to New York, Rocci asks Joan about Clark; however,
because she is afraid to hurt Rocci, she says that Clark means nothing
to her.
Clark follows and visits Joan at the club. She warns him
about Rocci but, when he says that he will not be afraid if she loves
him, she acknowledges her love. Rocci confronts Clark, who says
that he wants to marry Joan and that he is willing to die for her if
necessary. After some hesitation, Rocci tells him to be good to
her and leaves. When Joan is hijacked after the wedding, a
battered Clark accuses Rocci. Crowley, who engineered the
kidnapping, tells Rocci that he had Joan taken to a hotel room to please
him. Rocci then goes there, and Crowley tips off the police, who
shoot Rocci in the corridor. At the hospital, Rocci gives his
blessing to Joan and Clark. Comforted by Winchell's column, which
exonerates him with regard to Joan's kidnapping, and by the news that
Crowley has been shot, Rocci wistfully looks out over the lights of
Broadway. |
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