Plot
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. stars as Charles "Chick" Miller, a hobo released that day from jail along with fellow drifter "Scrap Iron" Scratch (Guy Kibbee). Through a series of chance encounters with travelers in a large train station, he becomes, in his own words, a "Gentleman for a Day" (the name under which the film was released in the United Kingdom).
He picks up Ruth Collins (Joan Blondell), a broke and out-of-work chorus girl, desperate to raise the train fare to Salt Lake City, where a job is waiting for her. She confides she is worried about being followed by Dr. Bernardi (George Rosener), a fellow resident of her cheap boarding house. He paid her to read to him in the evenings material she found disgusting.
Meanwhile, masquerading as a German musician, Bushy Sloan (Alan Hale) checks in a violin case full of counterfeit money. Soon after, a pickpocket steals his wallet, containing his claim check. When the thief throws the wallet away after taking the cash, Scrap Iron finds the claim check inside. Chick, who has "acquired" respectable clothing, then claims the violin case and discovers what it contains. He hides it in a coal scuttle and has his buddy stand guard, while he ponders what to do. Chick gives Ruth some of the money to buy clothes.
While Chick is away, Dr. Bernardi sends Ruth a train ticket and a message to meet him in the compartment. Believing the ticket is from Chick, Ruth goes there. When she finds Bernardi instead, she begins screaming. Chick breaks through the locked door, but Bernardi escapes through a window. However, in his haste, he is knocked down and killed by a passing train.
The suspicious dress shop clerk (Adrienne Dore) takes the counterfeit money to the station manager. Both Ruth and Chick are taken into custody by government agent Kendall (David Landau). Kendall has been alerted that Bushy may be at the station, but has no description of the counterfeiter. He believes that Ruth either is Bushy or is connected to him. To clear her, Chick goes to get the violin case, accompanied by agent Jim Parker (Earle Foxe). However, Bushy follows them, shoots Parker and flees with the case. Chick chases him down. All is eventually cleared up, and Ruth has a bittersweet parting from Chick, as she leaves on the train.
Read more about this topic: Union Depot (film)
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“Ends in themselves, my letters plot no change;
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Aspire, astound, establish or estrange.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
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“The westward march has stopped, upon the final plains of the Pacific; and now the plot thickens ... with the change, the pause, the settlement, our people draw into closer groups, stand face to face, to know each other and be known.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)