Harry Raymond and his friend Jim Tierney work as song promoters for a music publisher. Harry pesters his boss to put out a song he's written with showgirl Dolores Fenton and the boss, irritated, fires him. Loyal friend Jim quits his job in solidarity. Harry and Jim then team up with Dolores and her friend Goldie to work up an act. Harry and Dolores become a Broadway sensation with their number "With You." They fall in love and get engaged, but as his fame grows, success goes to Harry's head. He spurns his old friends in favor of socializing with the upper crust. He becomes drunk and snubs Goldie and Jim at a Christmas party. Dolores leaves him. Harry consumes bad liquor and is struck blind. Jim stands by his old friend, but Harry makes him promise not to tell Dolores about his blindness.
Time passes, and Jim persuades Harry to accompany him to the opening of a new musical show starring Dolores. At the curtain call, the audience insists she sing the hit "With You." Midway through the song she falters, and Harry joins in from the audience. He tries to leave quickly after, but Dolores follows, and they are reunited.[1][2]
All current prints derive from a 1940s re-release print that was censored for pre-Code content and cut down by about twenty minutes. The title cards at the start and end of the film have also been edited and altered. Puttin' On the Ritz was originally shot with two-color Technicolor sequences, but today those sequences partially survive only in black and white.
