Lady in a Jam is a 1942 film comedy directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Irene Dunne, Patric Knowles, Ralph Bellamy, and Eugene Pallette. It was made and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film's sets were designed by the art director Jack Otterson.
The film's alternate title is The Sheltered Side. A copy is preserved in the Library of Congress collection.
Plot
Jane Palmer's reckless spending and behavior concern her guardian Billingsley so much that he goes to a New York City clinic to seek psychiatric help for her. Dr. Enright, taking the case, sees how Jane refuses to even acknowledge that she has squandered her entire inheritance, and that her remaining possessions are being auctioned off.
Enright believes they need to trace the root of her problems, and accompanies Jane on a cross-country trip to her Arizona childhood home. "Cactus" Kate, her grandmother, is leery of Jane being in need of money, while childhood sweetheart Stanley Gardner deludes himself into thinking Jane has returned home just for him.
Jane begins prospecting for gold at her grandfather's mine. Seeing her growing romantic interest in the doctor, Stanley foolishly challenges him to an old-fashioned duel of pistols until he discovers Enright is a crack shot. Cactus Kate plants precious ore so that Jane can find it, inadvertently causing a gold rush by prospectors galore. Enright's seen enough craziness, and returns home, but Jane tracks him back to New York and declares that they were meant for each other.