Summary
In the frantic world of Page Me, Bobby Vernon portrays a man caught in the crushing gears of a debt-trap economy. After failing to settle his hotel bill, Bobby attempts a desperate, luggage-laden escape down a fire escape, only to be intercepted by a predatory manager and a relentless house detective. His punishment is a stint of indentured servitude as a bellboy, a role that forces him into a series of humiliating proximity-based encounters with his sweetheart, Sally. The narrative takes a surreal, almost dystopian turn with the arrival of a scientist carrying a canister of 'laughing gas' intended for future chemical warfare. When Bobby mistakes the scientist’s experimental exhaust for a fire, he triggers a hotel-wide catastrophe. The resulting leak transforms the lobby into a site of hysterical, involuntary mania, pushing Bobby to the literal edge of a ten-story ledge. The film concludes not with a romantic triumph, but with a mercenary scramble for a $5,000 inheritance check that requires a wife’s signature, leading to a shotgun wedding of financial convenience.
Synopsis
Bobby gets a note from the hotel management that if he doesn't pay his hotel bill he will have to go to jail. He tries to make his getaway down the fire escape with his trunk and bags but is caught by the manager and the house detective who force him to work out his bill working as a bellboy. While he is on duty the manager orders him to take a pitcher of ice-water to his sweetheart, Sally's, room. He does so, but disguises himself so that she will not recognize him. As he leaves her room he picks up a paper and starts to read it. There are big headlines about a famous scientist who has just arrived in town with a new invention, laughing gas, to be used in future wars. The victims laugh themselves helpless. The scientist has arrived at the hotel and engaged rooms. He has with him two men, agents of a foreign government, As Bobby passes the room he sees smoke coming out of the door. He immediately thinks the hotel is afire and starts a general alarm. The manager, detective, and several of the hotel employees rush to the scene and Bobby starts chopping down the door. As he does so, the gas comes rushing out and the management and some of the guests are overcome and all start laughing. Bobby is also a victim and staggers to the window and climbs to the ledge. Looking down ten stories to the street below he thinks it is a huge joke and becomes hysterical. The house detective is after him but Bobby escapes and disguises himself as a woman only to be discovered. He pulls off his disguise and makes a dive for the hotel desk. In the mail box is a letter for him with a check for $5,000. The manager comes up furiously and Bobby hands him the check, asking him to cash it, but upon examination it is found to be made out to Mrs. Bobby. There is also a note from his uncle stating he had made it out to his future wife that Bobby will marry and settle down. Immediately Bobby thinks of Sally and rush to her room, followed by the manager and detective. After much difficulty the couple are married.
