The Princess Pat

About the show

Setting: Long Island, New York It is spring 1915. Princess Patrice de Montaldo (O'Connor), an Irish-American, is married to the Italian Prince Antonio "Toto" di Montaldo. The Prince is unattentive and possessive, now that the couple has married. Pat loves her husband but was unhappy living in Sicily where she was homesick for her Easthampton, Long Island home, and her beloved dogs and horses. The two have moved to her estate, but the Prince is unhappy there. Meanwhile, aging, wealthy, widowed, German womanizer Anthony Schmalz has become engaged to Pat's young friend Grace Holbrook, because Grace's uncle, the befuddled General John Holbrook, has recently lost his fortune. Assisted by New Yorker Bob Darrow, Pat comes up with a plan to make her husband jealous: she pretends to elope with Schmalz. The scheme works well: the Prince's passion is revived. At the same time, Bob's friend, Schmalz's loafing but handsome Yale-educated son Tony, needs a spirited woman to set him straight, and the plot proves to Grace that Schmalz, Sr. is a philanderer; she decides to marry the younger and more suitable Tony Jr. A bumbling sheriff, Si Perkins, pursues Tony and Bob to arrest Bob for speeding.