Steve Drexel voluntarily strands himself on a deserted island on a bet. He intends to re-create civilization and carves a miniature city of 52nd Street and Park Avenue out of the jungle. Drexel is befriended by his dog, a native monkey, and a wild goat that is captured in one of his traps. He attempts to cultivate a native as his Man Friday from Robinson Crusoe, but fails as the native escape.
Joe Palooka is a naive young man whose father Pete was a champion boxer, but his lifestyle caused Joe's mother Mayme to leave him and to take young Joe to the country to raise him.
A circus performer falls in love with the son of a plantation owner in antebellum New Orleans. When the young man's stepmother objects to the wedding, the couple break apart and go their separate ways for a time. Also in the mix are two circus comics who feud over the heart of another Southern belle.
When Captain Howland decides that his daughter Tess is getting a bit to old to continue to go to sea with him, they move into a small cottage on the coast of Maine, but not for long. A local millionaire, Frederick Garfield, lays a false claim to the property and has them evicted. Later, when Tess saves a young man about her age from drowning, she is a bit dismayed to learn that he is Garfield's son. But when her father is jailed on a false-accusation charge of murder, the younger Garfield comes to their aid and proves he himself.
Sailor Spike dates girls whose names he finds in an address book. Each girl has the same tatoo, placed there by another sailor Bill. When Spike meets Bill they become friends. In Calais Spike meets Goldie. Bill warns him against her, but Spike ignores the warning until he finds Bill's tatoo on Goldie as well.
Grace Livingston is leading a happy life in her small town, with her mother and father, being courted by two men, the steady but predictable Tommy Tucker and the more ambitious, flashy, and worldly Dick Loring, who seems closer to Grace in his desire for travel and adventure.
During the Florida land boom, the Marx Brothers run a hotel, auction off some land and thwart a jewel robbery.
Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick is after gangster Sam Belmonte. He uses his own corrupt brother Ed to watch over Daisy who was associated with Belmonte.
The south sea island Tonga is full of plantations and scoundrels. Ellen Bradford arrives expecting marriage to respectable and successful plantation owner only to find he is a drunk and gambler. Being the only white woman she is the desire of scoundrels and cut-throats.
Jim Hutton and Mary Archer are two liberals who are content to remain faithful to each other in spirit only. They are married with all the ritual of a church wedding, the bride believing that each should be allowed perfect freedom in personal contacts. Complications arise when these ideals are put into practice.
Troubles begin for the Sterlings when they buy an expensive car and friends start pressing them for rides.
When motorcycle cop Dick Fay gives a ticket to Phyllis Crawford, her father's graft-fed influence leads to his demotion to foot patrolman.
Max Tracey is the head waiter at a London hotel. He falls in love at first sight with Sylvia Robertson, an aristocratic woman, and poses as a prince to win her love. In this venture, he is aided by Mr. Westlake, a Ruritanian monarch who owes him a favour. When Sylvia discovers Max's deception, she is appalled, but the situation is resolved when her father tells her that he was once a hotel dishwasher.
A naive farmer encounters a beautiful burlesque dancer on the streets of New York and agrees to pose as her husband during her mother's visit.
Culture shock bombards a woman and her family when they leave their hick town to help her sister out in her big-city beauty parlor.
During Civil War Reconstruction, the Connelly family is romantically restored to their former glory when Will Connelly marries a Yankee farm girl, Joanna Tate, despite the objects of his temperamental father Bob Connelly.
At a big party, Roger Fallon, now a woman-hater, right to the core - this all due to a failed marriage and disastrous love affairs - talks to Herbert Drake. Herbert who is happily married, bets Fallon that the next woman who walks into the room, whoever she is, won't let Fallon kiss her for 48 hours. Fallon takes the bet. Suddenly, a very beautiful and sexy woman walks in. It's Herbert's wife, Jeanne Drake...
Gabby Denton, a hard-drinking, down-on-his-luck drifter, seems to get a chance at redemption when his brother-in-law helps get him a job as a mechanic. Not realizing the garage he works for is actually a front for a stolen car ring, Gabby soon finds himself mixed up in both murder and a liaison with the boss's girl.
When a popular radio singer is knocked unconscious during a robbery, a squeaky-voiced college boy fills in for him. To everyone's amazement, especially his recent girlfriend, who just broke up with him, he becomes an overnight sensation.
A successful songwriter, dazzled by high society, falls for a society girl who is just playing around.