"Doctor" John Pearly (Will Rogers) in a steamboat race to save a life in this 1935 film, directed by John Ford.
Briefly, "Doctor" John Pearly buys an old steamboat and names it the Clarmore Queen. He plans to refurbish it to run for profit with his nephew Duke (John McGuire I), who is a steamboat pilot. Doctor John sells an elixir that is nothing more than run and he runs a side show - a wax museum he picked up from some friends. One of the figures in the museum is a large whale head. The Stepin Fetchit character rolls out of the whale's mouth and so Doctor John dubs him Jonah.
On the way to join Doctor John, Duke befriends Fleety Belle (Anne Shirley) a beautiful young woman from the swamplands of Louisiana. On the way to meet John, Duke is forced to kill a man to protect Fleety Belle from rape. Duke talks it over with the only witness to the unfortunate incident: The New Moses (Berton Churchill). The evangelist roams the river country baptizing people and preaching against the demon rum. The New Moses tells Duke that his violence was in self-defense and not a crime, but that it would be best if he would turn himself in to the authorities.
In one of the first scenes, John is cooking supper on the boat when Duke arrives with Fleety Belle. Duke explains his situation, so John takes him to the sheriff's house. The sheriff (Eugene Pallette) has already retired for the night, so he tosses John the prison keys and says to leave them on his front door knob after he's dropped off Duke.
