SYNOPSIS

While on a cross-country lecture tour, Sheridan Whiteside, international orator, accepts an invitation to dine with the Stanleys, a prominent Ohio family. The Stanleys meet Whiteside and Maggie Cutler, his irreplaceable and tolerant secretary, at the train station and drive them to their home. While Mrs. Stanley coos over Whiteside, he showers her with condescending sarcasm. However, as he's walking toward the house he slips on the ice, hurting his leg badly. As he's carried inside, he threatens a lawsuit. The Stanleys, frightened by the threats, accommodate Whiteside's outlandish wishes, throwing the household into pandemonium.

Whiteside is confined to a wheelchair and he malevolently decides to have a bit of fun. He charms the servants, urges the Stanley children to pursue their dreams--despite parental disapproval­and receives exotic gifts from friends. He also attempts to break up a romance between Maggie and the local newspaper editor/playwright, Bert Jefferson, by promising sex-pot actress Lorraine Sheldon a starring role in Bert's play. Whiteside quickly learns from the doctor that his leg is actually fine, but he bribes the physician into silence by suggesting he can help publish the physician's memoirs.

Maggie is keen to Whiteside's motives and threatens to quit. Realizing that she is truly in love and that he will lose her anyway, Whiteside ships Sheldon off to a Philadelphia museum after tricking her into a mummy case. To top off his assault of the Stanley home, Whiteside holds his annual Christmas broadcast in the center of their living room. This latest upheaval sends Mr. Stanley into a tizzy, and he orders Whiteside out of the house. Surrendering, Whiteside is ready to go when he recognizes Mr. Stanley's peculiar and infamous sister, Harriet. Using this opportunity to blackmail Mr. Stanley and buy more time, Whiteside patches up Maggie's romance. His work done, Whiteside leaves the Stanley home, only to trip and fall again, this time truly breaking his leg. As he is carried back into the house, Whiteside is told that Eleanor Roosevelt is on the phone for him, and the picture ends.