Who exactly is the Good Fairy?

For a film entitled The Good Fairy, you would think that it'd be clear straight away who the Good Fairy is. In fact from the beginning you see the poor orphan Luisa and you jump to the conclusion that she's waiting for her Good Fairy to come and bestow some good fortune her way. But in fact halfway through the film she decides that she will be a Good Fairy to someone out there. And that's just taking her character into account. There are other characters to consider as well.

There are four main characters in this film who all claim or declare another to be the Good Fairy by the end of the film. There's Luisa, then Detlaff the waiter, Konrad the wealthy meat businessman, and finally Dr Sporum the lawyer picked at random via phonebook. I'd say all share the title of Good Fairy by their various actions in one way or another. And this is pretty brilliant in keeping the characters connected with his theme.

Luisa is the one character who would seem to need a fairy but is determined to be one for someone else instead. She showcases the kind of naïveté of Preston Sturges' characters who are put in a situation that grows more ridiculous by the minute. She knows little of the world outside the orphanage and almost seems incapable of surviving in the world, which is why you know she needs a fairy to look out for her. When Luisa tries to shoo away persistent suitors, she announces she's married, which is what gets her into the predicament at hand. As a screwball heroine she's delightful, and Margaret Sullavan plays her well with the perfect innocent reactions which William Wyler captures beautifully. But as a Good Fairy? She seems less likely to be capable of the job.

Yet, when Luisa finally meets Dr Sporum, little by little we start to see that perhaps she very well could be the Good Fairy. After Dr Sporum and Konrad meet, Luisa goes over to check him out, make sure he doesn't do or say anything wrong, which apparently he always does according to Konrad. While Luisa and Dr Sporum meet, there's the arrival of the pencil sharpener with a handles and different holes, and slowly, they hit it off. Luisa finds him silly with his beard and soon enough she's advising him against the black car and to get rid of his beard. And while he's opposed to both suggestions, it's hard to be bothered by Luisa whose wide-eyed wonder is adorable. Before you know it, Dr Sporum has shaved off his beard and bought a new car and is simply happy in Luisa's company, so much so that at the end of the film he confirms to her that she is the Good Fairy who has changed his life completely.

Dr Sporum is perhaps the one with the weakest case for being the Good Fairy, but he is the one who has the true transformation in the film even though he's only in it for half of it. He starts off as a stuffy and snobbish lawyer who seems to know better than anyone else. He has his principles about how life is and he seems to like to almost talk down to others or as he might see to rather educate them in things they don't know. But as soon Luisa picks his name out of the phonebook, his life is changed. And when the two meet, further changes occur. It's as if Dr Sporum let's his guard down with all this newfound succes he's found. His idea that his hard work has finally paid off now allows him to relax. He's even generous with Luisa, never refusing a request of a Ginglebuscher and later even buying her the genuine foxine.

This newfound change in Dr Sporum has made him generous, a quality you don't think he really had before by the way he was reluctant to answer the door to Konrad at first. And his generosity is bestowed upon Luisa. He tells her, while they still go over the pencil sharpener, that he will give her his services for free. Again, later he buys her the genuine foxine. And even though there's that bit of misunderstanding that puts a temporary road block to their romance, he realizes he doesn't want to stop seeing her. He wants to take care of her and he marries her in the closing scene, and as so he can permanently provide for her like a Good Fairy can.

With all his wealth, Konrad would seem the ideal candidate for the Good Fairy, and in a certain sense he is, but rather if you'd call it the Goods Fairy. Konrad is the one character who one could call the antagonist, but he's really so tame. Even still, he pursues Luisa aggressively and even devotedly so that it's funny. He wants to spoil her but upon finding out she's "married" he decides to make her "husband" rich. But he still wants to wine and dine her and drops hints that he'll send Dr Sporum on a South American tour in the near future. Konrad is very silly, but he doesn't own a successful meat business and keeps it running for nothing. He wants Luisa and is trying to provide for her.

So Konrad is the moneybags here. He's the financial backer behind Dr Sporum's sudden generosity and he's the one who ultimately is behind the genuine foxine Luisa gets. The day she spends with Dr Sporum is basically done at Konrad's expense. Does all this make him the Good Fairy? He certainly thinks so. At the end he declares himself to be so, as he's just decided that he will keep Dr Sporum on staff since he could use one good lawyer. And Luisa and Dr Sporum could now be together and get married and live well-off in a fairy tale wonderland.

But finally, the one character who perhaps embodies the Good Fairy role best is Detlaff. And I don't just say that because he's perhaps the best character in the film. He's the Good Fairy in the sense of how we perceive a good fairy to be: selfless, mindful, a guide. And he's got a Cockney accent so who can beat that?

Detlaff enters into the picture and is such a great dose of comic relief. Almost every conversation he has with Luisa is bound with confusion and his reactions are hilarious and endearing all the same because he cares about her without having really known her for very long at all. After some Joe (Cesar Romero!) tries to takes Luisa out for beer and sandwiches, Detlaff, unwillingly and unknowingly, poses as her husband. He then decides to take her out for dinner. After he realizes she's an orphan he decides to invite her over to his hotel for a party that will be hosted there the following evening. Once at the party, he gives her instructions on how to behave and when Konrad shows up, Detlaff is quick to make sure that Luisa's honor remains intact. He is so flustered with worry that you can't help but laugh.

While in the second half Detlaff isn't seen until the last sequence of the film, he shows up determined to make sure that Luisa doesn't get into any trouble. He even kidnaps her from Konrad's room and threatens to tell all. In the end, when the couple is declaring the other as the Good Fairy, Detlaff begins to declare himself the one before Konrad shuts him up. Truth of it is that I think Detlaff really is the Good Fairy of this film. He does this willingly, it comes from inside of him, and he does it without wanting anything in return or as if planning to do something good. It's just in his nature.

I suppose there are many Good Fairies in The Good Fairy, which is pretty neat when you look back at the film and see how all of the main characters are connected in that way as well. But who is the Good Fairy in the end? I suppose what Sturges meant when he wrote that last scene is that just like beauty, who the Good Fairy is is in the eye of the beholder.