The Story
Princess Veronica (Hedy Lamarr) of a mythical European kingdom visits New York , hoping to meet Paul MacMillan (Warner Anderson). They had been in love six years before when he had visited her country. At the hotel she meets Jimmy Dobson (Robert Walker), a bellboy who mistakes her for a new maid.
Jimmy lives with his pal Albert (“Rags Ragland), a porter at the hotel. Albert is torn between the desire to join a mob of gangsters or continuing as a poor but honest porter. Living in the same building is Leslie Odell (June Allyson), an invalid. The doctor declares that Leslie's ailment can be cured only by love and attention. She's in love with Jimmy but Jimmy is unaware of this. Every evening he and Albert carry her to the roof where Jimmy reads Grimm's Fairy Tales to her – and to Albert.
Jimmy learns that Veronica is really a princess after he almost loses his job for trying to date her. She asks that he be assigned to be her personal attendant.
Veronica learns from Jimmy that MacMillan, a newspaper columnist spends much of his working time in a bar called Jake's Joint. Veronica enlists Jimmy's help in arranging a meeting with Paul, but she doesn't tell Jimmy that she wants to revive an old romance. It is apparent that Paul still loves her although he doesn't say so.
Jimmy notes that Veronica apparently prefers his company to that of her ardent suitor, Baron Zoltan Faludi (Carl Esmond), and when he hears her and tell her lady-in-waiting, Countess Zoe (Agnes Moorehead), that she is in love with a “nobody” he concludes that she means him.
On the eve of her departure Veronica asks Jimmy to take he to Jake's Joint – where she hopes to see MacMillan again. While they're in the dive, Albert arrives with his gangster friends and Jimmy tries to get him to leave. A fight ensues and in the raid that follows, the princess is hauled off to jail. Paul gets her out and when they return to the hotel they learn that her uncle, the king, is dead and she is queen! She prepares to leave for her country and tell Jimmy he may accompany her if he wishes. He assumes that this is a proposal of marriage!
Next day Jimmy goes to say goodbye to Leslie. To convince him that she has recovered, she tries to take a few steps and falls into his arms. He realizes then that it is Leslie whom he really loves, that he cannot leaver her.
He returns to the hotel to tell Veronica that she “must give him up!” Touched by the example of a bellboy who relinquishes what he thought was an opportunity to be king in order to have real happiness; Veronica resolves to abdicate in order to marry Paul! “And they lived happily ever after,” proclaims Albert in the fadeout.
Copyright M-G-M Studios