A Fool's Advice

Frank Fay is the helpful elevator operator at a small town hotel. He has good advice for everyone, whether it's mayor Berton Churchill who's facing a tough re-election campaign, or Eddie Nugent who needs help with his newest invention, and with asking Ruth Hall to be his girl. Frank will give them good advice, even when he thinks Ruth will be his girl when he asks her.

It's a slow-paced and very odd comedy that Mr. Fay stars in. You can see a persona completely different from any of the standard screen comics; in fact, the only role this reminds me of is Elwood P. Dowd in HARVEY. Mr. Fay would originate the role on stage.

It's not really a movie, but actually a stage play sized for the screen, written by Walter DeLeon and Charles Belden. This was his character -- on stage anyway, if not in real life.Fay shares screenwriting credit with them, but I suspect he did his own dialogue. This was his character, after all, on stage, if not in real life, and he knew what the character would say: kind, easy-going, smart and persuasive.

Anyway, it's worth seeing for Mr. Fay's performance.