As Man Desires

The rehabilitation of "Chicago Sal," a lady crook, is seemingly realized when probation officers send her to the country home of Steve MacLaren to work off money stolen from him by her partner. She falls in love with MacLaren and is accepted as a member of the household. Unable to resist the temptation, however, she leaves the farm with two former colleagues when they come to visit her. MacLaren follows her to the city. She commits a crime; he helps her escape but is himself arrested for vagrancy and sent to jail. Sal returns to the country and promises to wait for him.

In 1919 Virginia, Rose Trenton mistakes pity for love and agrees to marry George Prothero, who was blinded in the war. She breaks the engagement, however, when she realizes she loves Sandy Sanderson, and the heartbroken, cynical George goes to Europe to forget.

Young bride Patricia Morley's flirtatious ways at a summer resort keep her husband Henry in a state of continual anxiety. At an old-fashioned barn dance, Patricia enacts the role of a chicken breaking out of an egg, and Henry's wrath explodes. After accusing her of being in love with another man, Henry returns to New York and files for divorce. Heartbroken, Patricia sends her friend Victoria French to tell Henry that she is dying.

Crooked gambler Eddie Kane induces his estranged wife, Poppy, to help him blackmail Brownlow Clay, the owner of a clean-cut gambling establishment in Tijuana. The plan involves Kane "discovering" Poppy in Clay's private apartment to demand hush money. During the setup, Poppy finds herself genuinely falling for Clay. Overcome with remorse and ashamed of her part in the "badger game," Poppy chooses to protect Clay and double-crosses her husband instead. With Kane's plot defeated, Poppy and Clay are free to marry and start a happy future together.

Norine Lawton is a young woman living by her wits in New York City. When she becomes friendly with Count Bonzi, a swindler, he enlists her aid in his scheme to sell worthless Mercer oil company stock to wealthy Christopher Gibbons, a retired war hero.

A police commissioner investigates the murder of a nightclub owner who was under police protection.

Johnny, a racetrack tout in Tijuana, is unsuccessful in his gambling but leads his New England family to believe he is engaged in a legitimate business. He finally wins on a long shot and intends to return home, though he dislikes leaving his sweetheart, Norah Ryan.

Alice Faye plays the title role in this 1940 film biography of the early-20th-century stage star.

Cossetted and bored, Barbara Barry is finally sent off to school by her busy if doting widowed soap manufacturer father. When her nurse is injured en route, Barbara finds herself alone in town, ending up as part of radio song-and-dance act Dolan and Dolan sponsored by a rival soap company.

When a busybody teacher in a girls' finishing school finds a love letter from a student to an unknown man, a minor scandal erupts.

After railroad agents forcibly evict the James family from their family farm, Jesse and Frank turn to banditry for revenge.

An innocent bank teller, suspected of embezzlement, is aided by an eccentric, wisecracking waiter.

Wealthy Edward Morgan becomes charmed with a curly-haired orphan and her pretty older sister Mary and arranges to adopt both under the alias of "Mr. Jones". As he spends more time with them, he soon finds himself falling in love with Mary.

An orphan is provisionally adopted by the manager of a hotel populated by show business people. The hotel's owner doesn't like the entertainers and wants the girl returned to the orphanage.

The story—in which an American heiress on holiday in South America falls in love with an Argentine horse breeder against the wishes of their families—takes a backseat to the spectacular location shooting and parade of extravagant musical numbers, which include the larger-than-life Carmen Miranda singing the hit “South American Way” and a showstopping dance routine by the always amazing Nicholas Brothers.

An author and a literary agent become involved after selling film rights to his racy book.