Joe Buck (Spencer Tracy) and his assistant (??) Lucky (Stuart Erwin) travel around the countryside painting signs. They convince farmer Nathan Brown (Russell Simpson) to let them paint his barn. There they meet Cinderella-like farmgirl Madge (Marian Nixon), who is overworked and neglected by her brutish stepdad and flirted with by stepdad's son JIm. Nathan is pushing Madge into marrying her stepbrother whom she strongly dislikes - Holy Brady Bunch Batman! She can see her own future in the beat down face of her mother, so when she sees an opportunity to run away from all of this with Joe and Lucky, she takes that chance. Complications ensue.
Actually, Joe is the sign painter, and he considers himself a bit of a wistful artist type. And it must not have been easy to convince people to let you paint advertisements on their property during the Great Depression without getting paid in cash themselves. This is Spencer Tracy doing a variation on the same "hard guy" character he played at Fox in just about every part until he went to MGM in 1935.
This film doesn't know what it wants to be, so the plot meanders all over the place. It starts out being about the artsy wise guy falling in love with the farm girl and rescuing her. Then it is a combination road and carnival movie with no clear explanation as to why the carnival portion is the least bit relevant to the story. Finally it is a "Lost in the Big City During the Depression" tale with some weird stuff about people in billboards coming to life in an almost musical number. Lila Lee's part seems pointless. I have no idea what Lucky's purpose in life is since his character seems exist only to get Joe in trouble and yet Joe keeps him around.
Still it kept my attention because it moved around so much it never was boring. I'd recommend it on its weirdness factor and it being a chance to see Spencer Tracy's early work. Weird factoid - This film about a sign painter who sees himself as an artist was directed by Harry Lachman, an actual post Impressionist painter who was decorated by the French government for his contribution to art.