Plot
The movie begins with Georgia Drake (Kay Francis) performing on the stage, singing "Gypsy Lullaby" while her daughter, Pamela (Deanna Durbin), watches with her boyfriend Freddie Miller (Lewis Howard). Pamela Drake is the daughter of Georgia Drake, an aging Broadway actress who was once very famous. She has great acting skills like her mother and hopes to be a successful actress as well. At an after-party celebrating the closing of a play that Georgia was in, Pamela convinces director Sidney Simpson (Samuel S. Hinds) and writer Carl Ober (S.Z. Sakall) to attend one of the plays she is in. After the party ends, Pamela sings "Love is All" with the maid, Sara (Cecilia Loftus), playing piano and her mother listening.
Sidney and Carl go to Connecticut and decide to try out the second act of their new play, St. Anne. They put Pamela in the role of St. Anne. In the performance of the second act, Pamela sings, "Loch Lomond." (This is a particularly acclaimed version of that folk song.) The directors are impressed with Pamela's performance and offer her the role of St. Anne in their upcoming play. Pamela is very excited, but does not know she is taking over a role which they had originally offered to her mother. Georgia is unaware of what has happened, as she is in Honolulu to prepare herself. Pamela travels there to ask her mother to coach her.
On her journey, she is noticed by pineapple king John Arlen (Walter Pidgeon). At first, she thinks that he is a stowaway and he thinks that she is a troubled girl, who just got jilted by her love. In reality, Pamela is practicing the play, and he is just trying to cheer her up. Eventually they figure out the truth about each other, and they become friends. Soon after Pamela arrives in Honolulu, she learns she is replacing her mother in the role of St. Anne. Not wanting to hurt her, she decides to give the role up. In order to keep Georgia from the truth she asks John to take the two of them to dinner in order to avoid a call from Sidney that would reveal the truth to Georgia. The three of them go out to many dinners and spend time together. Pamela becomes determined that she will quit acting and she wants to marry John.
Meanwhile, John has fallen in love with Georgia. At a ball, he tries to avoid Pamela, who wants to propose to him. He knows her intentions and wants to propose to Georgia before Pamela gets the chance. He gets her to sing for everyone at the ball. Pamela sings, "Quando me n'vo - When I go along," from "La bohème". After she finishes the song while the crowd is around her, John takes Georgia outside and proposes to her. Georgia decides that she will marry him, and then she tells the producers that she will not be performing St. Anne, for she wants a real honeymoon. Pamela is initially crushed, but she was not really in love with John. Pamela devotes herself to her role, with the help of her mother, and becomes the star of St. Anne. The movie ends with Pam portraying St. Anne, singing "Ave Maria (Schubert), as John and Georgia watch from the audience.
Read more about this topic: It's A Date
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