I'm a Fool

I don't know this for sure, but I think in the United States this short film was shown on PBS, as they had a series which showed dramas like this back in the day.

Ron Howard plays a guy towards the bottom of society. He travels the country with a black man and his job is to take care of the horses they use for trotter races. Back in the 1920s, this was pretty low. But despite this, he aspires to be someone...and one day he uses his money to buy a nice suit and pose as some sort of gentleman at the races. There he meets and impresses a lady (Amy Irving) with his many lies.

Because this is a short, there really isn't any more to it than this. I wish it had been fleshed out more but the story just leaves you hanging...assuming the lie will eventually be discovered.

Overall, this has a strong okay vibe...nothing bad, nothing wonderful...it just is.

A virtually untapped source of dramatic material is the body of work by Sherwood Anderson. "I'm a Fool" is the ONLY Anderson work ever turned into film. His novel "Kit Brandon" was optioned but never made it to the screen. As Henry Fonda refers to Anderson's work in the introduction, this "sketch" is just that, as a story and as a short film. Being produced on a low budget, the film is kept simple and definitely not over-produced. The cast and portrayal of turn-of-the-century life in "I'm a Fool" are phenomenal for a low-budget film: Ron Howard, Amy Irving, and the late Santiago Gonzalez. Being a native Ohioan, I was only disappointed that "Cedar Point" was called "Cedar Lake" in the film. All else is true to form. Sherwood Anderson would be proud.