Feudin’, Fussin’ and A-Fightin’ 1948

Wilbur McMurty Donald O’Connor is a traveling salesman who is captured and held hostage by the local authorities in a small town. They want him to run in the annual foot-race against a rival town, with the stakes that the losing side will be absorbed by the rival town they despise. The feisty mayor, Maribel Mathews Marjorie Main, is determined to stop this plan. When a stagecoach chase unfolds, she overtakes the stage and grabs Wilbur, signaling the start of a quirky, high-stakes contest that blends comedy with small-town politics.

Wilbur soon takes a liking to Maribel’s niece, Libby Mathews Penny Edwards, and discovers that his opponent in the race, Emory Tuttle Fred Kohler Jr., is also his romantic rival. This double-edged rivalry makes his decision extra difficult, but eventually he chooses to throw himself into the race, drawn by a mix of charm, ambition, and the prospect of a fresh start.

To prevent him from backing out, Wilbur is kept in the town livery stable, a makeshift semi-prison that keeps him close and nervous about the outcome. The rival town makes a bold move and tries to slip him a Mickey Finn, but the plan backfires when Jasper the Horse drinks it instead. The town veterinarian, working with the other side, insists the horse must be kept active all night or it will die, leaving Wilbur exhausted and running on empty the morning of the race.

Mother Nature itself becomes an unlikely mood booster for Wilbur, with tense encounters involving a rattlesnake, a porcupine, and a skunk testing his resolve. Yet it is a dose of his famous patent medicine that finally gives him the surge he needs to sprint to victory on the day of the race. The town celebrates wildly as Wilbur is crowned the new Mayor, a twist that shifts the town’s dynamics and finally settles the political tension that started the whole contest.

With Maribel now facing a new reality as her position shifts, her longtime admirer Billy Caswell [Percy Kilbride] finally finds the nerve to propose, and is welcomed into the Mathews family in a quietly satisfying, cheerful ending. The story blends humor, rural charm, and a wry look at civic vanity as a plucky outsider navigates love, rivalry, and the oddball rituals of small-town America.