No More Orchids 1932

An ocean liner’s departure is held up to wait for the spoiled heiress Annie Holt Carole Lombard. On board, Tony Gage [Lyle Talbot] voices his contempt for her inconsiderate attitude to a fellow passenger, who agrees with him—despite the fact that she is the woman’s paternal grandmother, Gran Holt Louise Closser Hale. During the voyage, Annie Holt and Tony Gage become acquainted and fall in love, but he refuses to marry her because she is already engaged to Prince Carlos [Jameson Thomas] and because of the enormous financial gulf between them. He is so poor that he can’t even afford to buy her orchids.

Annie Holt’s father, Bill Holt [Walter Connolly], invites the man to dinner and ends up liking Tony very much. Eventually, Annie Holt breaks down Tony Gage’s resistance and they become engaged. Yet a formidable obstacle stands in their way—Jerome Cedric [C. Aubrey Smith], the grandfather who has spent years trying to secure royalty for his family. The richest man in America, Cedric had arranged the marriage to Carlos, going as far as financing a revolution to restore the prince to his position. When he learns of the danger to his plans, he first threatens to disinherit his granddaughter; when that does not work, he tells Annie Holt that Bill Holt’s bank is on the verge of bankruptcy and that he will not prop it up unless she marries his chosen heir.

Heartbroken, Annie Holt yields and breaks off her engagement to Tony Gage without telling him the reason. When Bill Holt learns of the rift, he lies to Annie Holt, claiming he has found alternate financing to save the bank. He arranges an impromptu wedding for Annie Holt and Tony Gage. Then, he flies off in his plane, supposedly on business, but aware that his life insurance policy is more than enough to cover the bank’s losses and his own failures, and he crashes the plane into a mountain to commit suicide.