''A Fool's Advice'' is a 1932 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...

film directed by

Ralph Ceder Ralph Carl Ceder (February 2, 1897 – November 29, 1951)"California, Death Index, 1940-1997," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VPZK-W5H : accessed 24 Nov 2014), Ralph Carl Ceder, 29 Nov 1951; Department of Public H ...

. The film is also known as ''His Honor the Mayor'' (American alternative title) and ''Meet the Mayor'' (American reissue title). It was produced by its star, Frank Fay, and released by

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of ...

. The AFI Catalog of Feature Films 1893-1993: ''A Fool's Advice''
/ref>

Cast

* Frank Fay as Spencer Brown *

Nat Pendleton Nathaniel Greene Pendleton (August 9, 1895 – October 12, 1967) was an American Olympic wrestler, film actor, and stage performer. His younger brother, Edmund J. Pendleton (1899-1987), was a well-known music composer and choir maste ...

as Kelly - Naughty Boy *

Edward J. Nugent Edward James Nugent (February 7, 1904 – January 3, 1995) was an American film and stage actor. Biography Born in 1904 in New York City, Nugent appeared in more than 80 films between 1928 and 1937. He subsequently had a second acting career o ...

as Steve * Ruth Hall as Norma Baker *

Berton Churchill Berton Churchill (December 9, 1876 – October 10, 1940) was a Canadian stage and film actor. Early years Churchill was born in Toronto, Ontario. After his family moved to New York City, he graduated from high school there, studied law a ...

as Mayor Martin Sloan *

George Meeker George Meeker (March 5, 1904 – August 19, 1984) was an American character film and Broadway actor. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Meeker made several films such as ''Crime, Inc.'' (1945) and ''A Thief in the Dark'' (1 ...

as Harry Bayliss *

Hale Hamilton Hale Rice Hamilton (February 28, 1880 – May 19, 1942) was an American actor, writer and producer. Biography Hamilton was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1880. (His birth year is sometimes listed as either 1879 or 1883.) Hamilton's Broadway debut w ...

as George Diamond *

Esther Howard Esther Howard (April 4, 1892 – March 8, 1965) was an American stage and film character actress who played a wide range of supporting roles, from man-hungry spinsters to amoral criminals, appearing in 108 films in her 23-year screen career ...

as Miss Prescott *

Franklin Pangborn Franklin Pangborn (January 23, 1889 – July 20, 1958) was an American comedic character actor famous for playing small but memorable roles with comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W. C. Fields films '' Interna ...

as Egbert - Hotel Clerk *

Mike Donlin Michael Joseph Donlin (May 30, 1878 – September 24, 1933) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder and actor. As a professional baseball player, his MLB career spanned from 1899 to 1914 in which he played mainly in the National L ...

as Mr. Wimple *

Eddie Borden Edgar Mason Borden (May 1, 1888 – June 30, 1955) was an American film actor who started his career in vaudeville as an acrobat and then successfully turned to comedy. Throughout the 1920s, he toured in the Keith, Orpheum and Pantages vaudev ...

as Catlett * Al Hill as Kelly's Henchman

1937 reissue

''A Fool's Advice'' was re-released as ''

Meet the Mayor ''A Fool's Advice'' is a 1932 American pre-Code film directed by Ralph Ceder. The film is also known as ''His Honor the Mayor'' (American alternative title) and ''Meet the Mayor'' (American reissue title). It was produced by its star, Frank Fay ...

''. Frank Fay had a terrible reputation in show business, owing to an exceptionally large ego and a history of abusing people verbally and physically. Warner Bros. declined to handle the reissue of ''A Fool's Advice'', but did agree to refilm the title sequence. These new credits reflect the low regard Fay's professional colleagues had for him: his name appears in the smallest possible type as both star and author, with the supporting cast members' names more than twice the size of Fay's.

References

External links

* * * 1932 films 1932 comedy films American black-and-white films American comedy films Films directed by Ralph Ceder Warner Bros. films Films scored by Edward Ward (composer) 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{1930s-comedy-film-stub