You Live and Learn

Plot

American chorus-girl Mamie Wallace (Glenda Farrell) travels to Paris with a ramshackle touring musical revue. The company runs out of money, and it looks as though Mamie and her dancing colleagues are going to be stranded in Europe with no way home. Luckily, she meets a handsome, well-spoken Englishman Peter Millett (Claude Hulbert), who falls in love with her and proposes marriage. Under the impression that he is a man of means, she readily accepts, imagining an entrée to English high society.

The couple return to England, and Mamie discovers to her horror that not only is her new home a decrepit farmhouse out in the sticks, but that Peter is a widower and his three children also come as part of the package. Despite her disappointment, she shows her pluck and spirit by determining not to run away but to stay and make the best of things. However the local villagers are shocked by her city ways and appearance and make it difficult for her to fit in. An additional difficulty reveals itself in the person of local schoolteacher Dot Harris, who has long had an eye on Peter for herself and is now consumed with jealousy and spite, going out of her way to cause trouble for Mamie at every opportunity. However Mamie's good nature and decency are gradually acknowledged, and she triumphs in the end.

Cast