Lake Placid Serenade (1944)

On a peaceful, pre-war winter in Czechoslovakia, the genial godfather, Jaroslaw Haschek, of Vera Haschek, presents the young girl with her first pair of ice skates. Soon, she astonishes the warm-hearted people of her village with her skill and she is acclaimed a marvel on ice. She wins the ice-skating championship of her country and is invited to skate at the fabulous Lake Placid Carnival in the United States. Vera receives an offer of a contract from eager showman, Carlton Webb, and his press agent Jiggers - but she turns them down. The financial backer for the two men is a wealthy, gabby, man-chasing woman called "Countess". Vera is a sensation at Lake Placid when she learns of Germany's move on Czechoslovakia, and she immediately attempts to abandon her career and rejoin her people. The trip cannot be arranged and, alone in a strange country, she seeks an uncle, Carl Cermack, who has become a prosperous American citizen. The uncle welcomes her to his sumptuous Long Island home, where he lives with his spoiled débutante daughters Irene and Susan. Vera learns that the two sisters are fighting it out over the same man, Paul Jordan, Cermack's junior partner, who isn't overwhelmed by either sister. Vera invites her uncle and cousins to join her at Lake Placid, where she is to appear in the dazzling New Year's Eve ballet. She is named "queen" of the ballet, and Roy Rogers, a visiting movie-star cowboy is named "king." Paul begins to pick up interest in Vera, and she agrees to sign a contract with Webb, provided she can use an assumed name in his shows. Jiggers suggests they call her "Cinderella," because she has lost one of her famous skates. When Vera opens at Madison Square Garden, Jiggers plants the story that she refuses to appear until her skate is returned. Aware that Paul has kept her skate as a souvenir, Cermack telephones his partner in Texas. On the night of the opening, Webb and Jiggers are driven to desperation since Vera has taken their publicity gag in earnest and refuses to go on unless her skate is returned. None of the phony "Prince Charmings" Jiggers has hired has the right skate, of course. The weary Vera doesn't even look at the last applicant - but the skate is hers. She stares down and recognizes her godfather, Jaroslav, who has been brought to America by her uncle. He explains that her skate was given to him by a young man. He beckons into the crowd and Paul emerges. Vera finds herself in the arms of her own Prince Charming.