Niagara Falls 1941

A peanut vendor witnesses Sam Sawyer poised to jump from a cliff into the water below, and to tempt him into telling his story, offers a free bag of peanuts as payment.

Through a patient flashback, Sam recounts a honeymoon trip to Niagara Falls with his wife, Emily. On the way, they meet a bickering young pair, Tom Wilson and Margy Blake, who have become strangers after a string of car mishaps that left them furious with each other. The two end up at the same hotel where Sam and Emily are staying. Mistaking Tom and Margy for a married couple, Sam offers them his and Emily’s reserved bridal suite to help them reconcile, and escorts them toward the smaller room that the couple would share.

Tom and Margy are far from grateful, yet Sam remains determined to mend their relationship. He stays awake all night, his revolver ready, watching over their door to prevent any escape as if he were a one-man officiant of a makeshift wedding. Emily grows more distressed by Sam’s fixation, but Sam presses on with his unusual matchmaking mission.

During the long night, Tom and Margy realize they are in love and decide to marry. They seek out a minister and a witness, hotel guests, to perform the ceremony. In the morning, the hotel management discovers they were not actually married and had simply spent the night together. Outraged, several female hotel guests demand that both couples be evicted in shame.

Back in the present, Sam concludes his story with a bleak line, > Nothing will ever cure me.

In a cruel twist, the peanut vendor pushes Sam over the cliff. Sam clings to a branch and proclaims, > I’m gonna start minding my own business before it’s too late. When the branch snaps, he cries > Too late! and falls, only to survive the drop and tread water below.