... yet worthwhile viewing because of the stars and because of the strange pacing and overall presentation. None of the principal players (Albert Gran, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Anita Page, or Zasu Pitts) were under contract at Universal, in fact all were in the middle of good careers at other studios, so it would be interesting to know why all of this talent was assembled for such a film into which such little effort was spent.
Norman Overbeck (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), member of a prominent family, is about to be married. Unknown to his family, he was married for a short time the previous year to artist Isabel (Anita Page). They annulled the marriage before they could disclose the news to their families. But there was one thing Norman could not annul - his son by Isabel. Norman is informed of his birth and his existence for that matter by the maternity hospital where his son is born. Needless to say, Norman rushes down to the hospital to see his son along with his good friend Gilbert (Roscoe Karns).
This is where the movie completely loses its way. There are some expectant fathers that completely hijack the film for about 20 minutes or so with the usual expectant father jokes. Problem is, the jokes just aren't that funny. The highly anticipated meeting between Isabel and Norman is brief and disappointing. The end result is, Isabel insists on putting their son up for adoption, and after she leaves the hospital Norman steals the child from the hospital and takes him to an undisclosed location to raise the baby himself. At least, that's all I can surmise as the scene changes from Norman in the hospital sneaking along the hallway with the child to Zasu Pitts on the phone, presumably a servant of Norman's.
Norman makes quite a mess of things in the next ten minutes. He winds up engaged to three women simultaneously in his haste to find a mother for the baby, Zasu accidentally gives away the baby's location to the maternity hospital who is now fast on their heels, and Isabel shows up at Norman's apartment, her maternal instincts having suddenly kicked in.
How does all of this turn out? With disappointingly pat answers is all I will tell you.
The other weird thing about this movie is the score. A song that sounds like something from the gay 90's plays at the introduction and then again at the end, completely out of step with the mood of the film. In between there is dead silence - no score at all.
The print I saw of this film was in very bad condition. Visually it was bad enough, being a rather blurry print. The audio was just awful with the early recording techniques causing a very loud hum to vigorously compete with the dialogue. If someone offers you a copy for viewing just don't get your hopes up too high.
