Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933)

Storyline

Bumper (Al Jolson) is a vagabond leader of a strange group of tatterdemalions and eccentrics who hang around New York's Central Park. Among his followers are Egghead (Harry Langdon), Sunday (Chester Conklin), Acorn (Edgar Conner) , The General (Victor Potel), Orlando (Tammany Young) and Apple Mary (Louise Carver). Bumper's idol is Mayor Hastings (Frank Morgan), whose life he once saved and frequently has lunch at the Park Casino. Bumper is always on hand to open the door of the Mayor's Rolls Royce, and the Mayor makes it a point to linger a moment at the entrance and listen to the whimsical Bumper's philosophy and ideas abut life. Through his contact with the Mayor, Bumper is able to "fix" things when the other vagabonds get in trouble. The Mayor cannot fathom why Bumper, an unusually bright fellow, is content to spend his life in the park, doing nothing. The Mayor, for all his power and popularity, is unhappy. He's in love ----and madly jealous. He believes his sweetheart June Marcher (Madge Bellamy) is "two-timing" him. At lunch he slips a $1,000 in her purse. She loses it and the Mayor accuses her of giving it to another man. Bumper find the purse and takes it to the address in the purse and is met there by the exiting Mayor. He does not see nor know June. Later,The grief-stricken June attempts suicide by jumping from a bridge and is rescued by Bumper, but has lost her memory. He takes her to the tenement home of the Sundays, and asks the Mayor to get him a job, as he has a new interest, known to him as Angel, in his life. He spends his money making Angel happy and she falls in love with him. Meanwhile, the Mayor, despondent over not being able to locate the missing June, goes on a drinking binge and is found asleep in the park by Bumper's friends, who take him hoe and notify Bumper. While Bumper is trying to sober him up, Hastings begins talking to a photograph. Bumper discovers the woman in the photograph is that of Angel, and that the girl of his dreams is the Mayor's sweetheart. Bumper takes his friend to the Sunday family tenement and the sight of the Mayor and his voice as he clasps her in his arms restores June's memory. She pleads to be taken away from "this awful place". All she remembers is walking in the park at night. Bumper is a stranger to her. The Mayor takes her away, out of Bumper's life. Bumper returns to the park and his former life.—Les Adams