Village Barn Dance (1940)

• 69%
• 1940
• Comedy
• Music
• Romance
• Frank McDonald
• Richard Cromwell
• Doris Day
• George Barbier

Dan Martin, an unemployed college graduate, drifts into the town of Lyndale, only to learn that the town and everything in it are dominated by Minerva Withers, a tightfisted, old skinflint whose welcome does not extend to tramps. Dan, who is hungry, joins a group of college students at Uncle Si's ice cream parlor, where he meets Betty, Minerva's granddaughter. A friendship develops between the two, alarming James Rutherford, Betty's snobbish boyfriend. The young people of Lyndale operate a small radio station that broadcasts a program known as "The Village Barn Dance". Because of Dan's training as an electrical engineer, he is given a job as technician at the station. Meanwhile, Minerva, determined to make Lyndale a large manufacturing city, turns a receptive ear to James Rutherford, Sr., who tells her that he will bring his large milk factory to Lyndale provided that the water and power works can handle the additional load. By threatening to refuse the local merchants credit at her bank, Minerva browbeats them into floating a loan to build a new power plant. The new plant is built on funds the merchants have raised by mortgaging their businesses, but Rutherford reneges on his offer, stating that he will bring his factory to Lyndale only if James, Jr. lives there and manages the plant. James, Jr.'s decision depends on whether Betty will marry him, and so, to save the town, Betty refuses Dan's offer of marriage and promises to marry James, Jr. Uncle Si, learning of this, reveals that he is Minerva's estranged husband, and as Betty's grandfather, he feels entitled to save her from an unhappy marriage. He then takes The Village Barn Dance program to a nearby city that boasts a national network, commandeers the station and broadcasts the show nationally, announcing that it is being sponsored by the Rutherford Milk Company. Betty and James are about to be married when she hears the radio show and realizes that she is free to marry Dan. The program is so successful that the radio fans force Rutherford to retain the program and pay the participants a salary that will more than pay for the mortgages written to finance the power plant.