Hal Roach | Ask Father / 1919

the pillow

by Douglas Messerli

 

H. M. Walker (screenplay), Hal Roach (director) Ask Father / 1919

 

In Hal Roach’s Ask Father (1919), the generally maltreated “boy” (Harold Lloyd) falls in love with a young woman (Marie Mosquini) who two other boys are equally courting. But surely, the piles of candy and roses the boy brings with him—carried to her like a tribute to a queen by three other younger boys Lloyd has bribed for the occasion—outweigh the kisses and hand-holdings the two other suitors offer.

     The young woman is delighted to be asked to marry the boy if only he first “asks father,” an obsessed business man (Wally Howe) already wandering the early morning gardens with his “Corn-Fed” secretary (Harry Pollard)—a man obviously kept on the special diet of his master’s words—at his right hand no matter where he turns. However the boy attempts to gain access to the busy pair, he fails to attract their attention, and before he can catch up to their numerous paces back and forth across the garden, they have jumped into a car and are on their way to the office.

 

      The boy is ready to knock of the office door, but observes others lined up about to enter. As each of the salesmen enters, he is promptly thrown out by the trio of office guardians (Sammy Brooks, James A Fitzgerald, and William Gillespie) whose major purpose seems to be making certain that no one gets through to the boss.

        Except for the Corn-Fed male secretary, only the Switchboard Operator (Bebe Daniels) seems to be devoted to communicating with others. She is delighted to find the young handsome boy at their door, and pleased that he seems to have escaped the first couple of door guardians, but is so accustomed to the whole procedure, that she immediately places her office chair pillow into position to cushion the boy’s head when the third burly guardian tosses him out.

        Observing a large-framed woman (Margaret Joslin)—evidently a feminist crusader described in the credits as a “mannish woman”—bull her way through the front room and into the inner sanctum, the boy gets an idea and quickly turns to the nearby office door which announces the location of the Continental Costume Company. He enters and exits, now dressed as a woman, his face hidden behind a veil.

         This time he makes it past the trio and, after revealing his identity to the lovely Switchboard Operator, makes it into the inner sanctum. The Secretary and the Boss, perceiving the entry of a young woman, immediately throw out the previous female trouble maker (read “lesbian”) and excitedly gather ‘round the newer, leaner offering of the female sex. 

         But at the very moment the boy’s dress falls down, revealing his gender. The Secretary quickly spots the transformation, but the Boss is still preoccupied with arranging his hair and suit to attend to the new beauty, until the Secretary calls his attention to reality, at which time he activates the mechanically moving walkway that electronically hurries all visitors out as soon as they have entered. No matter how hard the young man tries to move forward against the movement of the walkway, he can’t speed up enough to resist the pull back into the outer office where the trio now await with especial vengeance, the “operator” once more arranging the pillow in preparation for his crash onto the floor—and from the outer office once again into the hall, where the young girl has prepared yet another fanny pillow.

        Frustrated with events, when he spots a man with a gun holster seeking directions (to god knows where?) the boy steals his guns and moves into the outer office firing, gaining access to the boss and pointing his guns at his face as he attempts to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage, only to have the boss pull a nearby lever that drops the floor away sending him down to the trash room of the building where, upon exiting, still holding the guns he accidentally catches two robbers, turning them into the police.

      He doesn’t even stick around for congratulations, however, as he scales the office building’s exterior, entering back to the floor on which he previously waited, again visits the costume shop, returning this time as a medieval knight in armor. Despite the outer office threats his mace allows him entry into the inner sanctum and he is finally ready as a knight in shining armor to announce his intentions to this maiden’s pater when the phone rings. He answers only to hear his beloved on the other end announce to her father that she has just married Willie, presumably one of the others who had been courting her all this while. 

      As disconcerted as our hero is, he has the fortitude to ask the switchboard operator on his way out “how busy is your father?” Her answer, “Alas, I have no father. He died when he was a mere boy,” pleases him to no end, as the two snuggle up on the office bench.

 

Los Angeles, January 21, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (January 2022).