Private Snafu is seen performing the tedious task of sorting boots. Driven to madness by boredom he is taken to visit his brothers, Seaman Tarfu and Fubar by the gruff Technical Fairy, First Class, somewhat in the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghosts of Christmas.

A poor cobbler’s son enters a $25,000 cross-country hiking contest sponsored by the footwear company that has nearly bankrupted his father. He also has fallen in love with the girl on the company’s billboards, the competition’s daughter, and her sweet inspiration keeps him tramping along.

Charles Laughton plays Kidd, a merchant captain who cons the King of England into allowing him to take to the sea to recover a lost treasure and escort a ship back to London. An old fellow conspirator who he thought dead (John Carradine) and a mysterious young man (Randolph Scott) manage to get on board and cause problems for Kidd.