I've made an exhaustive search for this movie, and I've managed to locate two publicity stills and a song sheet. (My thanks to Ron Hutchinson and the Vitaphone Project for aiding my search, and for some of the information in this review.) The film itself still eludes me, and I now believe that 'Leave It to Lester' no longer exists. The movie was originally a five-reeler; evidence indicates that it was eventually cut down to one reel and briefly released as either 'Lester Allen in Paris' or 'Bon Voyage'.
Anyroad, here's the plot of the five-reel original: Hal Thompson (the damp juvenile from 'Animal Crackers') and Evelyn Hoey (more on her later) portray newlyweds Jerry and Marian Townsend. When they plan a European honeymoon, their eccentric friend Lester Aloysius Sebastian Brown (Lester Allen) persuades them to let him tag along as their guide. (Lester Allen, a comedian with a brush moustache, had starred in a Broadway revue shortly before this movie was made.)
In a Parisian nightclub, Lester (in over-sized shoes) performs 'The Lights of Broadway' with the Maria Gambarelli chorus girls, and gets into an altercation with two husbands who think he's been flirting with their wives. In Switzerland, the honeymooners' aeroplane makes a forced landing near a wedding festival. In Cairo (part of Europe, apparently), Jerry is abducted and taken to a harem, from which Marian rescues him. Somewhere in there, Evelyn Hoey warbles the ditty "I'm Yours", lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, music by Johnny Green (billed as John W Green).
Why have I searched so exhaustively for this eminently forgettable movie? Because it constitutes nearly the entire film career of Evelyn Hoey. (She also appeared with Jack Haley in a semi-futuristic comedy short cried 'The 20th Amendment'.) Hoey was prominently featured in several Broadway musicals of the 1920s and '30s, as well as starring in stage shows in London and Paris. She also sang on the radio, at a time when radio programmes weren't usually recorded for posterity. She seemed destined for musical stardom, until she died of a gunshot wound in mysterious circumstances. With no legacy of films and gramophone recordings, only a few tantalising photographs of the beautiful Miss Hoey testify to what might have been.
As I've not seen 'Leave It to Lester', I shan't rate it. I suspect that this film was similar to the Haley/Hoey short 'The 20th Amendment', which I HAVE seen: enjoyable froth: neither better nor worse than dozens of other short subjects from the same period. Too bad we're not likely ever to know for certain.
