Scattergood Baines (1941)

Guy Kibbee stars in the title role. He is hiking cross country, looking for the right place to settle. He talks to some of the leading citizens and mentions that he is planning to open a general store - in competition with them. He leases a building for three years. The merchants pay him $750 not to compete with them, but they forgot to mention hardware, so he goes into that line. He also builds a railroad, and his industry causes the community to prosper. Willie Best is his assistant. Baines is on the school board, and they pick a new teacher (Carolyn Hughes) because her picture makes her look plain. However, when fixed up she is right pretty. When she arrives, he tells her that the board won't accept her because she is pretty. But he enlists his wife to "plain" her down. Then they try to get her romantically matched with a young lawyer, John Archer. However, Archer is only seeing her plain personna and is not impressed. However, when he brings the school contract for her to sign, they visit and find a lot in common.

Joseph Crehan is one of the managers of the railroad, and he is trying to get control of it from Scattergood. Scattergood hires Archer to buy up the surrounding timberland on the sly. At the school carnival Hughes has to take off her glasses, and one of the school board members figures out they are plain glass. Archer dances with her. The school board sees a man in Hughes' room, and come to Scattergood to get her fired. Archer defends her to them. Then he goes to talk to her to try to defend her to the board, but she refuses to talk about it and they quarrel. Scattergood sells the railroad, but with the other land that Archer has bought, he has foiled Crehan. However, the townsfolk get wind of the deal, and turn against Scattergood, thinking he has sold them out for a profit.

Scattergood talks to Hughes, who tells him she is leaving town. The angry townspeople show up at Scattergood's house. They accuse him, and he sends them away without defending himself. When Crehan discovers that Scattergood has options on the timberland, he storms into his store. Scattergood forces him to sell the railroad back to him at a profit, and pay a fair price for all the timber. Archer catches Hughes at the station, and they all live happily ever after.