Gold Dust Gertie 1931

Gertie Dale, Winnie Lightner, is a calculating gold digger who marries men only to divorce them and collect alimony. She marries George Harlan, Ole Olsen, in 1927, divorces him, and then weds his friend Elmer Guthrie, Charley Grapewin, only to divorce him as well. By 1930, both men have remarried, but they continue paying alimony to Dale without the knowledge of their current wives. When the payments slip, Dale shows up at their workplace, a firm that designs women’s sportwear, stirring up trouble and forcing a change in the company’s fortunes.

Their boss, John Arnold, Claude Gillingwater, is old-fashioned and insists on designing bathing suits that are so modest they look like they belong two decades earlier, which drags the business into a slump. With cash running tight and no immediate hope of recouping her alimony, Dale decides to charm the boss and turn the situation to her advantage. She convinces Arnold to loosen his conservative stance, and she designs a bold, modern bathing suit that ends up winning an award, a turning point for the company and for her own schemes.

Arnold falls for Dale and proposes marriage, a development she accepts, yet trouble soon follows. As they celebrate their engagement, another ex-husband arrives and, taking pity on Arnold, tries to warn him away from the perilous arrangement. To complicate matters further, the Minister Tate, Arthur Hoyt, who is to officiate the wedding, knows all about Dale’s past and her long history of gold digging, casting a shadow over the upcoming union.