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Long before he was established as screendom's Charlie Chan, Warner Oland was Warner Bros.' "all-purpose" character actor, playing everything from kindly rabbis to evil Chinese warlords. In What Happened to Father, Oland was afforded the opportunity to display his comedy prowess as henpecked scientist W. Bradberry. Unbeknownst to his nagging wife (Vera Lewis), Bradberry has written a musical comedy, replete with a line of scantily clad dancing girls. While trying to sneak a peak at the opening night of his masterpiece, Bradberry gets innocently mixed up with leggy chorines Violet (Cathleen Calhoun) and Gloria (Jean Lefferty). Barely escaping his wife's wrath, our hero manages to secure his daughter Betty's (Florbelle Fairbanks) happiness by arranging the girl's marriage with her true love Tommy Dawson (Hugh Allen) -- whose father, by a wild coincidence, is the man who bankrolled Bradberry's play.