Her Wild Oat

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• 1927
• 1 hr 10 mins
• Comedy

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• Watchlist

Mary Lou Smith, who runs a New York City lunch wagon inherited from her father, pinches pennies and saves everything she can. One of her customers, newspaper reporter Tommy Warren, regales her with stories about Plymouth Beach, an exclusive summer resort that he has never seen, but continually writes about. One morning, Philip Latour, a wealthy playboy who has been robbed of his wallet and clothes, comes to the wagon for a cup of coffee after some workmen give him coveralls and a dime. When Phil cannot pay because he has lost the dime, Mary, who is attracted to him and assumes he is broke, puts him to work cleaning dishes. Phil is terrible at the chore, but is smitten with the pretty, hard-working Mary Lou, who encourages him to get a job. A few days later, Phil goes back to the lunch wagon and tells Mary Lou that he is now chauffeur to "the young Mr. Latour" and will be driving his boss to Plymouth Beach. Later, when Tommy stops by, he tells Mary Lou about the luxurious hotel, which costs $30 a day. Because she has saved over $800, Mary Lou decides to close the lunch wagon for two weeks and have a glamorous vacation in Plymouth Beach. Customer Daisy Dean, a flashy cabaret dancer, offers to help her buy clothes and instruct her in the proper way to walk flirtatiously. When Mary Lou arrives at the hotel, the cheap-looking clothes and hip-swinging walk that Daisy taught her are completely out of place, causing the wealthy guests to shun her and the house detective to suspect her of being a floozie. Crushed, Mary Lou is ready to leave just as Tommy checks in. The sympathetic Tommy tells her that Daisy's advice was completely wrong, and determines to help. After hitting upon a new name taken from " Potage de Granville ," a soup on the hotel menu, Tommy suggests that Mary Lou re-register at the hotel as the Duchesse de Granville . He then calls his editor to tell him that he will be writing a huge story about a visiting duchess. That afternoon, Mary Lou, dressed in aviation garb, arrives by plane on the hotel's golf course, making all of the wealthy guests wonder who she is. After starting rumors about the wealthy Duchesse , Tommy arranges for local beauticians and couturiers to transform Mary Lou into an elegant aristocrat. Meanwhile, unknown to Mary Lou or Tommy, Phil has received a telegram from his father, the Duc de Grenville , saying that he and his new wife, who are planning to spend their honeymoon at the Plymouth Hotel, have been delayed. When Phil enters the hotel's dining room, he sees the transformed Mary Lou and asks the waiter who she is. When informed that she is the Duchesse de Granville, he goes over to the Tommy and Mary Lou's table and addresses her as "Mother." He then introduces himself as her new stepson, Philip Latour de Granville, and asks about his father. A shaken Mary Lou tries to avoid Phil's gaze and says that his father will arrive later. She then quickly leaves the restaurant and determines to flee the hotel before her true identity is uncovered. As she is writing a letter of explanation to Phil, he comes to her door, so she escapes through the window and shimmies down a fire house to the ground floor, under the watchful eye of the house detective. She and Tommy have arranged to meet at the train station, but she when doesn't arrive on time, Tommy leaves. Although she wants to catch the train at the next station, seeing the house detective again, Mary Lou accepts the offer of a ride from a kindly older gentleman. To her chagrin, his car takes them back to the hotel, where she discovers that the gentleman is Phil's father. Amid the confusion, Mary Lou apologizes to the Duc and Phil. He says that he knew all along who she was, but when she sees the house detective approaching, she jumps onto a milk wagon and hurries back to New York. Sometime later, as Mary Lou tends the lunch counter, Daisy tells her that Phil will come for her if he truly loves her. Just then, the wagon starts to move after being hitched to a car. The wagon rushes through the city, then winds up at Westwood, the Latour family estate. A frightened Mary Lou exits the wagon to find the Duc, who welcomes her, and Phil, who tells her that they are going to be married.