AllMovie

The Columbia "special" Sweet Rosie O'Grady was purportedly inspired by the ballad of the same name. Orphaned at birth, Rosie O'Grady (Shirley Mason) is raised jointly by kindly Jewish pawnbroker Ben Shapiro (E. Alyn Warren) and Irish beat cop James Brady (William Conklin). When wealthy Victor MacQuade (Cullen Landis) gets lost in the tenement district, he is rescued from a street fight by Rosie. Victor invites the girl to a rags-to-riches costume ball, where she wins first prize for her "costume" -- actually, her regular street clothes. Angry and humiliated, Rosie rushes back to her Uncle Ben's pawnshop, where she is comforted by Brady, who fortunately for the plot has become quite wealthy and is living in a luxurious mansion. Searching for the girl, Victor stumbles upon her at Brady's mansion and proposes to her on the spot. Still smarting from her experiences at the party, she refuses, whereupon her headstrong young swain forcibly elopes with her. Thinking that Rosie is being kidnapped, Brady hops into his roadster and gives chase. As a result, Rosie, Victor and Brady are all arrested by a rustic traffic cop -- who unexpectedly serves as plot resolver when it turns out that he's also the local justice of the peace.