Ask Dad

Set in an office, this is a simple story of two men and a girl wherein the two men are father and son and the girl is the latter's secretary. Even at twenty minutes it is slow and could have been half the length with more running about and doors banging. Made in 1929 as it was the camera was rooted pretty much in one place to allow the dialogue to be recorded. The sound quality is excellent though.

The actor playing the son has mistaken painfully slow for painfully shy and the actor playing the girl is pretty but not much else. It does have, playing the father, Edward Everett Horton however and he is always worth seeing. In a long film career he played in many poor pictures as well as some classics but is always watchable on the screen whatever the movie. That harassed, narrow face and the unmistakable voice. There is a dictation scene that is most amusing. With a perkier cast and a bit of speed this could have been a much better short.

Tommy, home from school, is infatuated with his father's secretary, so he goes to their office to try to tell her.After quoting much poetry, he finds she loves another, causing more quotes.

As plots go, that's about it. However that does not do this film justice, like describing a Monty Python by saying "A man tries to return a dead parrot to a pet shop."

This is essentially a one-act stage play. The humor comes from the dialog. Edward Everett Horton, best known to our generation for his voice on the Fractured Fairy Tales,is incredibly funny. I would put him on the level of Groucho, while also being able to keep a real character.

For some reason it also reminded me of "The Importance of Being Ernest". I laughed very hard at this movie, and highly recommend it.

Edward Everett Horton talented actor that he was, should never have had the burden of carrying a film by himself. His type of personality just simply couldn't do it.

I'm not sure how to classify Ask Dad. It's a short three character play, certainly not a comedy because there are no jokes in it. Horton's son Winston Miller comes to Horton's office and waits for admittance to Dad's office. He's got a yen for the secretary Ruth Renick, but she's not got a yen for him. That's not hard to see why not, Miller's one real backward kid.

Some of Horton's fuss budget personality does come through in Ask Dad, but not enough. Maybe he could have been a lead in short subjects if given the right material, this clearly wasn't it. He's so much better in support of people like Fred Astaire or as part of a great ensemble cast. He certainly had his moments in films directed by Frank Capra or in Here Comes Mr. Jordan.

But explaining the birds and bees to his backward kid just wasn't him.

Home from college, 19-year-old Winston Miller (as Tommy) goes to father Edward Everett Horton's office. Mr. Miller is obviously infatuated with his Dad's fetching secretary Ruth Renick (as Grace Wilson); he runs errands and recites poetry for her. Ms. Renick is unresponsive, showing no romantic interest in the younger man; she is secretly in love with another...

"A Coronet Talking Comedy" by Joseph A. Jackson.

"Ask Dad" is a slight, but well-performed, and well-recorded, "talkie". Mr. Everett Horton performs excellently; he is obviously prepared for a long and successful career in the talking picture field. Casting Winston as his son was wise; on screen, the two actors seem to show a circumstantial family resemblance. Winston, who went on to write and produce, was the brother of more famous Patsy Ruth Miller. Renick was a versatile actress from the teens; like so many, she found good material become rarer with advancing years.

***** Ask Dad (2/17/29) Hugh Faulcon ~ Edward Everett Horton, Winston Miller, Ruth Renick

Dad is the irrepressible Edward Everett Horton, who takes to talking pictures with absolute confidence here. Sadly, even he's not enough to disguise the fact that there's not enough plot in Ask Dad to fill 5 minutes of film, let alone 20. Perhaps the makers simply figured that audiences would be so blown away by the spectacle of sounds emerging from actors' mouths that a plot wasn't particularly important.