Father Steps Out

A remake of Monogram's City Limits (1934) with practically all of the character role names the same as in the earlier film, and the primary difference is that the author of the original story, Jack Woodford, receives no mention here. George Waggner (as Joseph West), who adapted the story for the first film, takes an "original screenplay" credit here with no nod in the direction of the man who wrote the story in the first place. A glance at a few Universal B-westerns Waggner "wrote" for Bob Baker will find that the majority of them had also been written before by other writers, mostly in the John Wayne Lone Star westerns. Edmond Kelso's additional dialogue credit must have been for the interplay between Frank Faylen's and Charlie Hall's hobo characters, especially when Faylen starts explaining why the sixty-cent dollar is still worth a dollar in a 40-year precursor to voodoo economics. Story concerns railroad tycoon J.B. Matthews (Jed Prouty) taking over a rival line, being sent on an R&R vacation by his doctor, falling off his private train-car and landing in a hobo jungle occupied by Faylen and Hall, and being cured of all his ills, while reporter Jimmy Dugan (Frank Albertson) poses as a doctor in order to get an exclusive story about the railroad takeover. Father Steps Out featuring Frank Albertson and Jed Prouty is streaming with subscription on Hoopla, free on PlutoTV, available for rent or purchase on Apple TV, and 4 others. It's a comedy movie.