.... and this is one of those times! This is a remake of the 1932 film "The Expert" starring Chic Sale as the old man. Chic Sale was a man much younger than the older men he was playing. This time the role of the older man went to Fred Stone, who was actually the age he was playing and much stronger and huskier than the lanky Chic Sale.
Joe Plummer (Dennis Morgan) has just been promoted to district sales manager, and has an attack of conscience about his widower father living in a state home for veterans. He decides to lie to his dad and tell him that he needs his help at work and ask him to come live with him and his wife, Trudy (Gloria Dickson). Dad is glad to be needed and moves in with his son and daughter-in-law.
And then the problems begin. From the start, dad is well intentioned but embarrassing and a know it all. He runs off a parade of servants with his criticism and interference in their duties and cooking. He tries to tell the gardener how to garden. A former wrestling champion he practices wrestling moves and amateur chiropractor maneuvers on the boss when he comes to dinner. And on it goes.
Eventually Joe has to tell dad that it was a lie - he just said he needed him to get him to move in with them. Dad takes to strolling about town to kill time and ends up befriending a street urchin who technically has a home - he lives with a low life uncle in squalid conditions - but is in dire need of moral guidance.
The film is poorly editted. Definitely a B feature, it is obvious Warner Brothers cut this film to fit into the space before the A feature. There are scenes discussed between the players that never happened on screen, and suddenly the boy's dog belongs to Dad. How did that happen? It is never mentioned.
Because Fred Stone plays the old man, he is able to do different types of slapstick than Chic Sale did in the original. Stone was a headliner in circuses in the US at the turn of the 20th century, and the photos of Dad as a young man are actually pictures of Stone himself. As for the rest of the cast, they do a fine job, but except for Dennis Morgan their careers did not take off. In the case of Gloria Dickson, she made a series of bad decisions, but then her life ended at only age 28 in 1945, and not of natural causes. Sonny Bupp, the actor who plays Tommy, the street kid, actually bears a great resemblance to Dickie Moore who played the parallel part in "The Expert", but WWII caused the shelving of lots of "cute kid" roles in movies, and by the end of the war he was still playing bit parts.
Even if you have seen "The Expert", this film is interesting enough to be worth its under an hour running time.
Joe Plummer (Dennis Morgan) has just been promoted to district sales manager, and has an attack of conscience about his widower father living in a state home for veterans. He decides to lie to his dad and tell him that he needs his help at work and ask him to come live with him and his wife, Trudy (Gloria Dickson). Dad is glad to be needed and moves in with his son and daughter-in-law.
And then the problems begin. From the start, dad is well intentioned but embarrassing and a know it all. He runs off a parade of servants with his criticism and interference in their duties and cooking. He tries to tell the gardener how to garden. A former wrestling champion he practices wrestling moves and amateur chiropractor maneuvers on the boss when he comes to dinner. And on it goes.
Eventually Joe has to tell dad that it was a lie - he just said he needed him to get him to move in with them. Dad takes to strolling about town to kill time and ends up befriending a street urchin who technically has a home - he lives with a low life uncle in squalid conditions - but is in dire need of moral guidance.
The film is poorly editted. Definitely a B feature, it is obvious Warner Brothers cut this film to fit into the space before the A feature. There are scenes discussed between the players that never happened on screen, and suddenly the boy's dog belongs to Dad. How did that happen? It is never mentioned.
Because Fred Stone plays the old man, he is able to do different types of slapstick than Chic Sale did in the original. Stone was a headliner in circuses in the US at the turn of the 20th century, and the photos of Dad as a young man are actually pictures of Stone himself. As for the rest of the cast, they do a fine job, but except for Dennis Morgan their careers did not take off. In the case of Gloria Dickson, she made a series of bad decisions, but then her life ended at only age 28 in 1945, and not of natural causes. Sonny Bupp, the actor who plays Tommy, the street kid, actually bears a great resemblance to Dickie Moore who played the parallel part in "The Expert", but WWII caused the shelving of lots of "cute kid" roles in movies, and by the end of the war he was still playing bit parts.
Even if you have seen "The Expert", this film is interesting enough to be worth its under an hour running time.
