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Because
he was expecting American Indians, Alexander Voyda, the owner of the Café
Russe in Paris, refuses to honor his engagement contract with the Wabash
Indianians, an all-white jazz band led by the versatile Huck Haines.
With no immediate job prospects in Paris, the band follows John Kent, a
former college football star who is traveling with them, to Roberta's, an
exclusive dressmaking shop run by John's aunt, Minnie. There John
meets Stephanie, Minnie's devoted assistant and an exiled Russian princess,
while Huck runs into Lizzie Gatz, a former lover who is masquerading as the
temperamental cabaret performer, Comtesse "Tanka" Scharwenka.
To assure Huck's silence, Lizzie arranges for
the Wabash Indianians to audition at the Russe Café, unaware that Voyda has
already rejected them. In spite of the band's impressive audition,
Voyda refuses to hire them until Lizzie threatens to sing at a rival club.
Then John, whose snobbish fiancée, Sophie Teale,
had broken their engagement because of his simple country ways, is "made
over" by Stephanie and Minnie. A short time later, Minnie dies of a
heart attack, and John inherits Roberta's. After some argument, John
and Stephanie agree to form a partnership and run the business together.
When Sophie reads of John's new venture, she leaves America and heads for
Paris, her romantic interests suddenly rekindled.
Although jealous and hurt, Stephanie, who has
fallen in love with John, feigns indifference to her forceful rival.
However, when Sophie insists on buying a revealing dress that John had
previously ordered removed from the collection, Huck and Stephanie sell it
to her, knowing that John will react violently upon seeing it on her.
As predicted, John fumes at the sight of the tasteless dress, causing Sophie
to storm away from the Café Russe in a huff. Then Stephanie, who is
singing for a group of fellow Russians, admits that she sold Sophie the
dress and is denounced by John.
After both Stephanie and John desert the
business, Huck fills in for them temporarily but shows no talent for fashion
design. To save Roberta's reputation, Stephanie agrees to design a
line of clothes for an upcoming fashion show, at which Huck, Lizzie and she
will also perform. During the show, John shows up and hears that
Stephanie is going to marry Ladislaw, an exiled Russian prince. In
spite of the show's success, which has inspired Lizzie to accept Huck's
proposal, John prepares to leave Paris until Stephanie confesses her love
and assures him that Ladislaw is her cousin, not her lover. |
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