In a prologue sequence, fictitious executive producer of Paramount Pictures Jack E. Mulcher
introduces the film, explaining that it has no story and no plot. The film simply shows a few weeks in the life of a person Mulcher calls "a real nut". Mulcher breaks into hysterical laughter as the story begins. Stanley the hotel bellhop finds himself in one ridiculous situation after another (by a series of
blackout gags) while working at the
Fontainebleau Hotel in
Miami Beach, Florida. Stanley does not speak until the last scene of the film, as he is always interrupted or silenced by another character.
Vignettes and gags • Stanley delivers an entire
car engine to Room 664 after being told to "bring up everything
out of the trunk" of a rear-engine Volkswagen Beetle. • The bellhops stand in a line and trip over each other when Bob the Bell Captain points at them from afar to get their attention. • Mr. Carter stays in Room 625 while Miss Winkley stays in Room 626. Stanley finds Miss Winkley's
brassiere in Mr. Carter's luggage and leaves without hanging any of his clothes up. • Mrs. Hartung loses a large amount of weight from extreme dieting, but when Stanley gives her a box of chocolates, she gains all of the weight back. • Stanley randomly assigns the keys for all the suites, locking the guests out of their rooms. • Bob sends Stanley to fill the hotel's empty auditorium with chairs. To Bob's shock, Stanley finishes in record time. • Jerry Lewis (as himself) arrives at the hotel accompanied by an entourage. The other bellboys comment on Stanley's resemblance to Lewis. • Stanley delivers a note to
Milton Berle, who mistakes Stanley for Jerry Lewis. Lewis then mistakes Berle for a bellboy who looks identical to Berle. • Stanley loses control over the hotel guests' dogs and they escape into the city streets. He visits the
dog track, steals the racing dogs, and takes them back to the hotel. •
Stan Laurel attempts to strike up a conversation with Stanley to no avail. • Bob puts Stanley in charge of the reception desk, and Stanley destroys the phones when they will not stop ringing. • After the other bellboys accost a group of
models staying at the hotel, Stanley is the only one allowed to handle the models' belongings. • Stanley is assaulted by a middle-aged couple after they drag him into one of their arguments. • Mr. Novak gives a lecture about being professionally dressed as he wears casual beach attire. • A packed dining room forces Stanley to sit next to a
gangster boss giving conflicting orders to his subordinates. • An exhausted woman named Dottie falls asleep on Stanley's shoulder as he takes a break. • Mr. Novak forbids his staff from going to a
burlesque club. Bob is then shown drunk at the club but leaves before the main performer arrives. • Stanley places a covering on a sleeping man's face to prevent
sunburn, but the mesh pattern gives him an uneven tan. • Stanley attempts to eat lunch by himself but is interrupted by hotel guests ogling at him from behind a window. • Stanley fails to listen to Bob's instructions and hauls a heavy
steamer trunk across the hotel lobby instead of the
hat box that Bob wanted. • A man eats an invisible apple and leaves some for Stanley to finish. • Stanley overhears a telephone conversation in which a female voice says she that wants to marry someone who doesn't love her for her fortune but finds that the voice belongs to Stan Laurel. • Stanley refuses to let go of a suitcase, and its owner drags Stanley through the hotel lobby and into a taxi before driving away. • Newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Manville wait in the lobby for their suite to be ready. Mr. Manville slips and injures his back as Stanley waxes the floor. • Stanley is sent to acquire a pickup order from Mr. Weal, but the elevator door fails to open. • Passing through the theater, Stanley picks up a drum
mallet and uses it to conduct an imaginary
orchestra. An imaginary audience gives him a round of applause. • A malfunctioning
trouser press leaves a hotel guest's pants as stiff as cardboard. • Stanley disfigures a
bust after failing to read a "wet paint" sign. • At a golf tournament, the
flashbulb of Stanley's camera costs
Cary Middlecoff the win and $25,000. • At 3:30 am, Stanley goes outside to take a photo of the full moon, but his flashbulb causes the moon to become the sun and the night to become daytime. • After Stanley is sent to retrieve a briefcase from the cockpit of an airplane at the airport, he commandeers an airliner back to the hotel. • Mr. Novak falsely accuses Stanley of being the organizer of an upcoming
labor strike. Stanley speaks for the first time in the film, answering the question as to why he never talks: "Because no one ever asked me." A voiceover narration states that while the film had no plot, it did have a moral: "You'll never know the next guy's story...unless you ask." ==Cast==