SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
Mr. Schmidt’s costume store is bankrupt because he spends his time on Rube Goldberg-style inventions; the creditors send a young manager who falls for Schmidt’s niece Louise, but she’ll have none of him. Schmidt’s friends Ted, Queenie, and some goofy firemen try to help out; things come to a slapstick head when Louise needs rescuing from a fire.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Soup to Nuts Plot Summary and Synopsis
Ted Healy is a salesman for the Schmidt Costume Shop who likes to hang out at the fire station where Moe (billed as “Harry Howard”), Larry, and Shemp (along with Fred Sanborn) work.
Old man Schmidt spends more time building crazy inventions (typical of devices by writer/cartoonist Rube Goldberg) than tending to his business; as a consequence he is bankrupt and his business is taken over by his creditors, who send a young man named Carlson to manage the business. Carlson immediately falls for Mr. Schmidt’s niece, Louise, but she resists him.
Meanwhile, a certain General Avocado wants to organize a revolution in San Stevedore and comes to the costume shop to order uniforms; sadly his army flees in fright without paying at the sound of a child bursting a toy balloon.
Ted also swings a deal with the Fire Department to supply costumes for the fireman’s ball. Carlson wants to take Louise, so Ted hatches a plan to take Louise, and have himself and Carlson dressed alike, then switch places at the ball.
When Louise learns of the switch, she runs back to the shop and locks herself in her room. Carlson chases her home, and unknowingly starts a fire while trying to persuade her to come out.
Soup to Nuts Ending
The firemen (the Stooges) arrive to extinguish the blaze — with the unexpected help of one of Old Man Schmidt’s inventions — and at last Louise and Carlson are a couple.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).