Sam Wood directs this tidy, beautiful, socially conscientious and oftentimes bizarre comedy. Charles Coburn plays J.P. Merrick, the Bill Gates of his day. When Merrick discovers an effigy of himself hanging outside a department store he didn't even know he owned, he curiously ventures inside and becomes a clerk in order to investigate further. Naturally, the view from street level brings a new perspective and romance.

Jean Arthur plays Mary Jones, a shoe saleswoman who becomes Coburn's coworker and liaison to the world of the common man. The double-date sequence at Coney Island immortalizes the infamous beach in its masses of flesh and general bedlam.

William Cameron Menzies, the man for whom the title production designer was invented, created the extravagant, detail-rich sets, which are the perfect complement to the witty script, bringing the film alive.