STORY

Wanting to see the world, Chris Miller leaves his farm after his mother dies. Upon finding his father Nifty, a carnival barker, Chris talks his way into a job despite Nifty’s desire that he get an education and insistence that carnival life is not right for his son. Ashamed to let Chris know about his relationship with Carrie, a dancer in the show, Nifty orders her to bunk with Lou, another dancer, on their train. Insulted, Carrie entices Chris into a drinking party. When Nifty sees Chris drunk, he angrily throws Carrie down and tells her they are through. Carrie gets a gun, which goes off as Lou struggles with her, but no one is injured. As Lou puts the angry, crying Carrie to bed, Carrie offers her one hundred dollars to make Chris fall in love with her so that Nifty will feel the pain of losing someone he is crazy about. Lou, who earlier seduced a farm boy to obtain a diamond ring, brags that it will be the easiest hundred dollars she will ever make and accepts twenty dollars on account. At the next town, as the carnival is being set up, Lou invites Chris to her tent, where she seductively undresses behind a curtain. When Nifty sees Chris leave the tent, he warns him to keep away from her.

A week later, as Lou has not yet seduced Chris, Carrie demands her money back, but Lou brags that she can get Chris anytime she wants. She then leads him to a lake where, as he averts his eyes, she removes her clothes and goes swimming. Afterward, she induces him to make love to her, but they are interrupted as the train pulls out, and they barely catch it in time. Later, during a show, when a man climbs onto the stage and taunts Lou to “take it off,” Chris fights him and a brawl ensues. When Chris proposes marriage, Lou reveals her scheme, but he says he does not care as long as she loves him now. Although she calls him a “hick,” she confesses in tears to Carrie that she’s crazy about Chris because he treats her with respect. When Nifty tells his son that Lou is a tramp, Chris calls him a liar. Enraged, Nifty hits Chris, but then hugs him. Chris and Lou marry and plan to go to Chicago, whereupon Nifty tells Chris that he never wants to see him again.

Sometime later, Lou dances in a scanty costume at the Chicago World’s Fair midway, while Chris works in a law office. Nifty comes to the midway looking for a job, but when he is offered one as a barker for Lou, he turns it down. Lou urges Nifty to stay for Chris’s sake and breaks down crying. Chris sees them and orders his father to leave her alone. Chris reveals that Lou got the job dancing so that he could continue his studies, and that she is doing everything Nifty did for him, but doing it better. Nifty sadly leaves, but when he sees that the barker for Lou is not very good, he climbs onto the stage and, with tears in his eyes, begins his spiel and says of Lou, “She’s plenty good.” (TCM)