has him fall in love with Carole Lombard's manicurist Regi Allen (and I've just noticed that his first name is the same as her last), and has her completely ignore his obvious besottedness, cry on his shoulder over her troubles with idler Ted and then he has to watch as they both fall into each other's arms in his hotel room (where he appears to live permanently)!
Meanwhile, Allen's loyal valet, who fully knows his feelings and knows that he has prepared this very day to propose to Regi, and even has a ring secreted about his person, has to watch all three! While we watch at one further remove! And then the manicurist and the idler disappear off into the sunset, the end!
Somehow it makes it worse that he's in a wheelchair, even if it's as a result of his gadding about in 'planes.
Anyway, to back up a little, Regi works as a manicurist in a fancy hotel but is always on the lookout for a rich man to marry. Yes, she is that staple of '30s films, the plucky working girl on the make. She gets called up to Allen's room and, apparently because he's in a wheelchair, instantly seems to dismiss him as marriage material, but is prepared to open up to him. He becomes her confidante, while she in turn makes him laugh, something he apparently hasn't done (according to the valet) since the accident. (This movie is decidedly dubious on disability rights issues.) So he keeps ordering manicures (apparently it was not as unusual for men to get manicures back then) - which must be the explanation for the title - until she admits that she can't do any more for his nails, at which point he invites her to tea on the balcony.
Meanwhile, after her first manicure with Allen, she bumps into (buffoonish) Ted playing hopscotch (an inauspicious entrance) in the hallway, and while she is appalled by him, he is intrigued by her and calls down to book a manicure. She is informed that a Theodore Drew III wants a manicure and everyone is convinced that he must be rich. But when the real Ted comes down she initially refuses to see him because he can't be the rich man of her dreams (schemes). But then, when it is confirmed, she is so nervous she practically shreds his fingers, to the extent that her boss lets him go without charge. See the contrast? She is herself with Allen but puts on a front with Ted. Still, Ted makes a date and she gets all dolled up (at great expense) and, while he arrives at her place (which I have to say is amazing - apparently being a poor struggling manicurist got you a lot more then than it would today) an hour late, they proceed to have a great night out.
So great, in fact, that although he has told her he has to be on a train at midnight, by the time that rolls around he is passed out in the cab outside her place and has to be carried in to spend the night on her couch. But not before drunkenly admitting he's engaged to be married He's still blotto in the morning, so she leaves for work (where, of course, she cries on Allen's shoulder about Ted being engaged), and returns to find him with his pants off, trying to press them (and clearly having no domestic skills whatsoever). Turns out he was supposed to be on a boat to Bermuda, paid for by his rich father-in-law-to-be (The Pineapple King) to keep him out of trouble, but he has not a penny to his name (now he blew it all on the previous night's festivities) and has to stay in New York on no money until he's due back from Bermuda. So he stays at Regi's (chastely) and, of course, they fall for each other, even while honestly admitting to each other that they are both looking to marry money. (His family had money, hence his lack of life skills, but no longer.) Anyway, I think we're supposed to be so charmed by Ted, and impressed by his change of heart (he eventually confesses to his bride-to-be, but not before she's worked it out already [thanks to his botched attempt to call her "from Bermuda", which involves Regi's giggling turn as the "Bermuda operator"] and confronted Regi), but as I said, MacMurray just doesn't have what it takes to win me over, especially when Allen is right there. You know who could have carried it off? Cary Grant, of course. Now that's the movie I wanted to see! (Somehow Cary would have managed to charm Allen and find him an alternative mate, I'm sure. Either that, or discreetly leave the better man with his woman, a la The Bishop's Wife (only this time, Allen really is the better man).)
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