Ruth Earlton has come home to her ancestral mansion to claim her inheritance. Accompanied by her boyfriend, she discovers that her father died suddenly under suspicious circumstances. Now it's her turn, as her deranged and relentless uncle targets her for death with the help of his wife and son, plus a very unhappy ape.
Esther Clay, wife of District Attorney John Clay and mother of attorney Bob Clay, is having an affair with Jack Keene. Scorned by him Esther kills Jack. Bob comes to her defense and confesses to the shooting. The father prosecutes the son who receives a life imprisonment sentence. Jack Keene's butler Druggett knows the truth and blackmails Esther. Bob's girlfriend Peg Harper summons John Clay to the scene...
"Wildcatter" Dave Warren and his crew are trying to bring in a new oil well. Dave gives troublemaker Simmons a good thrashing and orders him off the site. In order to complete drilling Dave borrows $50,000 from investment banker J. T. Varley and also begins a romance with Varley's daughter Alice. Varley suffers market reverses and knowing that Dave is about to strike oil hires Simmons to wreck the rig so he can foreclose and take over.
Doctor Smith and his wife, Mary,depart a riverboat and are met by Phil Talbot. Phil informs Dr. Smith that Jessup, the only other white man in the village, has died while the doctor and his wife were off on a two-day holiday. Unknown to Smith, Jessup and his partner, Ross King, had a large cache of ivory tusks in the jungle, and he had told Phil about it. Meanwhile, Mary Smith has decided to steam-boat down the Congo River to Capetown for an extended holiday. Kuba, King's gun-bearer, asks Smith to write a letter to King, currently residing at a New York City Explorer's Club, and advise him that his partner has died. Talbot sends a letter to his stateside sweetheart, Diane Cameron, and her father, asking them to come to Africa and join him on an ivory-treasure expedition, and replenish their family-fortune lost in the recent stock-market crash. What Mr. Cameron and Diane don't know about Talbot is that his years in Africa have unhinged him...
Prizefighter Bob Neal (Ray Walker) is in debt to gangster Vic Santell (Hooper Atchley) for training expenses. Santell orders Bob to take a dive in the fourth round so Santell can recoup prior gambling losses. Taunted by his ring opponent, Bob wins the fight. Realizing that his profession and underworld characters connected to it are causing him problems, Bob decides to join the police force. After taking nurse Mary Prentiss (Geneva Mitchell) to a drive-in restaurant where the total bill is a depression-era cheap eighty-two cents, Bob and his fellow officers round-up a gang of fur thieves in a warehouse shoot-out.
Life gets complicated for a taxi driver when it's discovered that he's the spitting image of the murdered heir to a fortune.
A musical revue featuring children, primarily girls, is presented. The first number has a chorus of girls performing a high kicking dance routine with tambourines, before two soloists, a boy and a girl, take center stage to do a gymnastic dance number. The girls chorus then takes over to perform a synchronized song and tap dance style number. Next, the young female orchestra leader introduces the Gumm Sisters, the three who sing and dance on stage by themselves. The final number has another chorus of dancing girls performing an Arabian-themed number.
