After Martin J. Canavan (Don Ameche) is appointed city editor of the New York Daily Express, rival reporter Stephen "Steve" Leyton (Tyrone Power) quits. When a hot tip comes in that the multi-millionaire heiress, Antoinette "Tony" Gateson (Loretta Young), will be landing shortly at the Newark airport, Martin accepts a sock in the jaw from Steve and tricks him into covering the story.
Steve, a prying newspaper reporter, goes after the rich heiress, to get an exclusive story with her. At the airport, Steve gains Tony's confidence after posing as the leader of a special police detail to help her and learns she has broken with her fiancé, Count Andre de Guyon (George Sanders), whom she calls a "blue-blooded moron." Tony learns Steve's identity and is annoyed with the articles he has published labelling her the "Tin Can Countess". When Steve refuses to kill the story about her breakup, she turns on Steve and announces to the other reporters that they are engaged to each other, so that he will experience what it feels like to be a "public freak."
Steve, thinking that he has a scoop on his hands, calls up Martin and dictates a story for him to write, but the news that Tony is engaged to Steve upsets the story. Martin is angry and fires Steve, who is now finding himself hounded by reporters, autograph-seekers, a horde of salesmen, and hustlers trying to sell their stuff.
Steve is at first outraged at Tony and tries to refute the story, but the press does not believe him. Desperate, Steve begs Tony to call off the act, but she refuses, saying that he should experience how it is like to have his every move watched.
Tony then agrees to meet him for lunch to discuss the situation. Steve brings Marty to prove that the story is not true, but Tony kisses Steve passionately so that photographers from the other papers can get pictures of them. Steve chases after Tony into the country, and Tony's speeding car catches the attention of a police officer. She is arrested for speeding and reckless driving, and taken to Judge Hart (Slim Summerville), and Steve purposely irritates the judge, convincing him to give Tony a 30-day sentence. Tony tricks Steve by telling him to get her vanity case from the car, and then accuses him of theft. As a result, Steve gets thrown in jail along with Tony. The story catches the attention of the press and Tony's uncle, and Judge Hart is forced to let her go. Before she leaves, Tony pays Steve's fine, and as a result, he is released as well, much against his will. She tells the press that "Steviekins" had himself thrown in jail to be near her.
On the way back, Tony teases Steve and offers him a lift, but he refuses, and Tony fakes a car crash and pretends to be unconscious. Steve picks her up, and throws her into a puddle of mud. By this time, Steve is trying to get his job back, and Tony persuades her uncle to do something about the mess between Steve and Count Andre, who has arrived in New York. Tony's uncle buys a share in the company, and Steve is made editor. Count Andre, having been jilted by Tony, offers to sell their love letters to Steve. Steve buys them, and Tony is upset when she finds out.
Steve walks out from the office when he finds out that he was made editor because of Tony's uncle, and tells the group that has gathered in his office that he put the love letters in the safe. Tony finds a note written by Steve, saying that he destroyed the letters, and she runs after him, finally persuading him that she loves him, and the two kiss in a store, to a cheering crowd watching through the window.
A 1937 American Black & White romantic comedy film directed by Tay Garnett, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, screenplay by Harry Tugend, Jack Yellen, Allen Rivkin and Wallace Sullivan, story by William R. Lipman and Frederick Stephani, cinematography by Ernest Palmer, starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Don Ameche, Slim Summerville, George Sanders, Dudley Digges, Jane Darwell, Pauline Moore, Walter Catlett, Frank Conroy, Edwin Maxwell, and Elisha Cook Jr.
The first film for Power to get top billing, and Young's only picture in the 1930's to be a top-ten moneymaker. She was furious that Power was given top billing. Otto Preminger was set to direct the film, but Young objected to Preminger as being "too foreign to direct such an American story," so Tay Garnett was switched from The Last Slaver, the working title for Seventh Heaven (1937)
Twentieth Century-Fox remade it as "That Wonderful Urge" (1948). Power also starred in this version. His co-stars were Gene Tierney (in the Loretta Young role), and Reginald Gardiner (in the George Sanders role) with Robert B. Sinclair directing.
It was a 1940 one-hour radio adaptation on Lux Radio Theatre, starring Bob Hope, Madeleine Carroll and Ralph Bellamy, and a 1943 30-minute adaptation on Screen Guild Players, starring Jack Benny, Ann Sheridan, and James Gleason.
This funny unpretentious little screwball comedy is hilarious from beginning to end.