Smart Girl

Law student Nick Graime is unable to serve a summons on bankrupt James Raynolds after Raynolds commits suicide on his Long Island estate. Raynolds' twenty-year-old daughter Pat, an amateur artist, falls quickly in love with Nick, but he prefers her older sister Kay, who is fond of luxurious living. At the Raynolds' estate auction, Pat meets milliner Karl Krausemeyer, who admires her sketches. Krausemeyer hires Pat on the day that Kay and Nick marry. The newlyweds plan to live in a friend's penthouse. Kind-hearted Nick, meanwhile, refuses to serve summonses on indigent families and is fired. Shifty oilman Harry Cortland then recruits Nick into his business, although Pat knows that Cortland's refusal to help her father caused him to commit suicide. Kay knows Cortland's Midland Petroleum stock is insolvent, but encourages Nick, who not only sells to innocent buyers, but purchases a large amount of the stock himself. When Pat learns that Cortland is being investigated by the Department of Justice, she rushes home to warn Nick and finds Kay in Cortland's arms. Nick walks in on the sisters as they fight and kicks Pat out. At the Krausemeyers', Pat schemes to ruin Cortland by having their son Hans pose as an oilman interested in Midland stock and trick Cortland into buying back the stock that Nick sold, believing he is buying stock in Hans's company. Pat plans to use the money Cortland gives to Hans to pay back Nick's losses. Krausemeyer generously puts up a $100,000 certified check that Hans will use to impress Cortland. Pat and Krausemeyer then start a rumor that Midland has a new oil well, and Krausemeyer visits Cortland. He gets his signals crossed, however, and leaves Cortland's office with twenty thousand shares of Midland stock and control of the company. Cortland skips town with Kay, and Nick finally realizes he has been duped. The G-men arrive to arrest the owners of Midland, and Karl and Hans are about to be apprehended when men from Pacific Refiners, a company that owns land adjacent to the Midland fields, purchase Midland Petroleum. Krausemeyer makes a profit and hires Nick for his millinery, while Pacific Refiners hires Hans. Nick proposes to Pat.