Shop Angel

With the connivance of her friend, Don Irwin, an assistant to James Walton Kennedy, owner of the clothing company for which she is an assistant buyer and stylist, aspiring dress designer Dorothy Hayes models her newest creation, "Midsummer Night's Dream," in a wedding procession at the annual style show. She catches Kennedy's attention and, after the show, accepts Kennedy's invitation to drive her to her grandmother's house in Garden City. During the ride, she proposes that she be sent to Europe as an advance scout, and Kennedy, attracted to Dorothy, finds the idea intriguing, thinking he will accompany her. While driving, Kennedy swerves into a tree to avoid hitting another car and is knocked unconscious. Kennedy's daughter Margot and her fiancé, Larry Pemburton, get out of the other car and to prevent a scandal, order Dorothy to drive back into town with Larry. Dorothy objects, but Larry puts her into his car against her will, while Margot drives Kennedy to a hospital in Mineola. Though he does not believe Dorothy's explanation for why she was with Kennedy, Larry is impressed when he sees her drawings of dress designs. After the police find Dorothy's bag at the accident site, Kennedy, who has recovered, claims the bag belongs to a friend of his daughter and, by offering to buy one hundred tickets to a police benefit, procures it. A reporter, however, steals a photograph of the bag. Irwin, whom Dorothy has refused to marry, suggests that Dorothy blackmail Kennedy. When Dorothy, who is now interested in Larry, rejects the idea, Irwin threatens to blackmail Kennedy himself. Dorothy and Larry spend time together at his country club, and she explains that, although she enjoys being with him, she realizes that she thinks of him as Margot's fiancé, while he thinks of her as the girl in Kennedy's car. Dorothy accepts Kennedy's invitation to discuss her idea and goes to his penthouse apartment, where he shows her a huge balcony made up to look like a replica of a lodge on an island in Canada, complete with a running stream and deer. Kennedy tries to seduce her, but she escapes his grasp. He then shows her the photograph of her bag for which he has just paid Irwin $50,000 and says that Irwin said she was in on the blackmail. Kennedy tells her that there is no way out of the apartment except for her to jump from the ledge and encourages her to ask plenty in exchange for sex with him. Dorothy sets fire to the brush surrounding the phony lodge. Kennedy smiles when he sees this, for a built-in sprinkler system soon puts the fire out. She demands to leave when he grabs her again, but when he hears Larry and Margot approach, he accuses Dorothy of trying to blackmail him with the photograph. After Dorothy leaves, Larry, unconvinced, tells Margot he is through with her and threatens to expose Kennedy in the tabloids if he tries to involve Dorothy in a scandal. Larry gets into Dorothy's taxi and proposes, whereupon Maxie Morton, the reporter who sold the photograph to Irwin, falls into the car from the running boards and says that he had been trying to frame Irwin for months. Dorothy finds Irwin waiting in her apartment and, by seductively apologizing, gets Kennedy's check and throws it into the fire. As they grapple for the check on the floor, she bites his hand and finally gets it to burn completely. Larry, Morton and a police officer enter, and after Larry slugs Irwin, he and Dorothy embrace. They then marry and leave the church as the wedding march from "Midsummer Night's Dream" plays.