Handlung

The ghosts of three elderly industrialists killed in an airplane crash return to Earth to help reunite a young couple they initially brought together.

Melton (Harry Carey), Chadwick (C. Aubrey Smith) and O'Brien (Charles Winninger), rich but lonely heads of an engineering firm, invite three strangers to dinner on Christmas Eve. Only two show up, James (Richard Carlson) and Jean (Jean Parker). They fall in love and become friends with their three benefactors, until the latter are killed in a plane crash and come back to their old home as ghosts. In the coming months, true love encounters some rough spots. Can ghostly O'Brien help the young folks?—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Christmas Eve. Michael O'Brien (Charles Winninger), George Melton (Harry Carey) and Allan Chadwick (C. Aubrey Smith) are three aging friends and millionaires businessmen that live alone in a mansion with Josef (Alex Melesh), the butler, and Madam Tanya (Maria Ouspenskaya), the innkeeper. After knowing that their party guests can't celebrate with them because one of them is sick, the three old men decide make a bet about the existence the goodness on the people, throwing by the window three wallets with ten dollars and a calling card, hoping that someone returns (the loser pays a dinner to the people that take back any wallet). Although the first wallet lost, the other two are found and returned in an independent way by two young ones, aspiring singer James Houston (Richard Carlson) and Jean Lawrence (Jean Parker), who works as teacher in a children's hospital. Meeting in the home of O'Brien, Melton and Chadwick, Houston and Lawrence fall in love, making a strong friendship with the old men and helping to these ones to recovery the joyful of life. But when the three travel to Pittsburgh by business reasons, their airplane crashes and they die, returning as ghosts to their former house. Josef and Madam Tanya ask Houston and Lawrence to live with them at the house, to have someone for whom to care. Having a chance to sing on the radio, Houston meets beautiful performer Arlene Terry (Helen Vinson), who put her eye on Houston, causing a distancing between he and Lawrence. It causes O'Brien, Melton and Chadwick try to help the innocent Houston to stay away from manipulative Terry and Jace Taylor (James Bush)--Terry's ex-husband and a singer in professional decline. Can the three old men save the situation and reunite Houston and Lawrence before the afterlife calls them to pass away from Earth?—Chockys

It's Christmas Eve, and elderly Allan Chadwick (C.Aubrey Smith), George Melton (Harry Carey) and Michael O'Brien (Charles Winninger), the partners of Chadwick, Melton and O'Brien Engineers located in Radio Center in New York City, are working late as usual before having a small dinner party at their home, which also serves as their office. While they treat their servants as friends, such as Josef (Alex Melesh) the butler and especially Madam Tanya (Maria Ouspenskaya) their housekeeper, she a deposed Russian countess (Josef her longtime servant before the two came to the US), they realize that they have lost many friends over the years in being workaholics when their dinner guests cancel at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances, George further believing their cancellation stemming from they learning of his attendance and not wanting to associate with him due to an unseemly issue from his past. Wanting to spend the evening with who they consider deserving people, Michael comes up with an idea to hold a lottery of sorts to find those replacement dinner guests with only the truly deserving who would come forward. Who shows up are James Houston (Richard Carlson), a Texas cowboy feeling emotionally lost in New York City, and Jean Lawrence (Jean Parker), a kindergarten teacher at a children's clinic. This entire collective end up as close friends, but that friendship is short-lived when the three partners are unexpectedly killed in an accident. Before they are called to their final afterlife resting place where they will spend eternity, Allan, George and Michael return as spirits to their home, Michael in particular who believes they sent back to ensure their friends are well taken care of, especially that there is a happily ever after for James and Jean who he could see were falling in love with each other. However, Michael may feel powerless, especially within the short time-frame he has before he goes to his final resting place, as he watches James, who becomes a singing star, take a wrong path in falling under the spell of his stage partner Arlene Terry (Helen Vinson), whom Michael considers a soulless woman.—Huggo

The ghosts of three elderly industrialists (Harry Carey as George, C. Aubrey Smith as Allen, and (Charles Winninger as Michael) killed in an airplane crash return to Earth to help reunite a young couple (Richard Carlson as James, and Jean Parker as Jean) they initially brought together.