Turn Off The Moon (1937)

Stars:

Charles Ruggles, Eleanore Whitney, Johnny Downs

Department store owner J. Elliott Dinwiddy has waited ten years for the perfect astrological moment to propose to his secretary, Myrtle Tweep. His astrological advisor, Dr. Wakefield, has told him that if he can unite a boy and a girl in true love before midnight, he can propose to Myrtle the following night at 3:15 a.m. and she will accept. Fate brings unemployed dancer Caroline Wilson into the music department of Dinwiddy's, where she meets handsome songwriter Terry Keith. Keith has been writing music for Dinwiddy's Silver Jubilee show and has allowed Dinwiddy's nephew, Truelove Spencer, to take all the credit. That night, Terry comes into Dinwiddy's to work on the music and finds Caroline asleep in the Honeymoon Cottage, the section of the department store Spencer supervises. Posing as a man named "Pinky," Dinwiddy promises Caroline that Spencer will hire her as the bride of the Honeymoon Cottage and invites her to live there. Terry and Caroline dance beneath a fake moon, and Terry sings his new song, "Turn Off the Moon." Having matched his boy and girl, Dinwiddy has his models show Myrtle a trousseau for the tenth time. When Spencer finds Terry in the Honeymoon Cottage with Caroline, however, he fires him and asks her for a date. That night, Myrtle and Dinwiddy go to the Firefly Club and see Spencer with Caroline, and Terry with a blonde named Maizie Jones. Dinwiddy reunites Terry and Caroline and orders them to the Honeymoon Cottage, where he has prepared a romantic dinner. Unable to pay for their dinner at the club, the couple sits until the restaurant closes and are then arrested. In the Honeymoon Cottage, Dinwiddy and his security guard, Luke, drink champagne while waiting for Terry and Caroline and are arrested after Dinwiddy triggers the fire alarm. All parties converge at the police station, where Dinwiddy tries to get someone to identify him. At 3:15 a.m., Dinwiddy, terribly drunk, has the police call Myrtle, but she angrily insists she has never heard of him. By the next morning, the group is released from jail, and Wakefield informs Dinwiddy that he miscalculated the perfect moment for the proposal. Dinwiddy now has until 11:15 p.m. on the night of the Silver Jubilee show. After Dinwiddy fires Spencer, Caroline tells Dinwiddy that Terry is the true author of the show. Terry takes charge of the production, which features Caroline's dancing, and it is a great success. Wakefield arrives on the set with Myrtle at exactly 11:15, and when Dinwiddy proposes, she accepts. Caroline and Terry then kiss.