Mr. Chump

Good thing they tell you this specifically in this Warner B comedy, because this hodge-podge small town comedy might have been made by Mack Sennett in 1923, given sound. It's all very mechanical and by-the-numbers as small-town inventor and swing trumpeter Johnny Davis wrangles with sweetheart Penny Singleton (about ten minutes before she bolted for Columbia Pictures and the Blondie series) against stuffed-shirt banker and park-band conductor Donald Briggs.

This being a Warner B, everyone talks very fast and there is something heartless about the direction by perpetual Warner B director William Clemens. A few scenes show the gloss that a big studio could afford in their Bs, like the one in the roadhouse, but this is one you can skip.

This is a delightful and obviously obscure little movie since nobody has ever reviewed it on IMDb until now. The lead star is a musician named Johnnie Davis who was a lively sort of fellow, and an accomplished trumpet player and singer. The two young ladies starring are Penny Singleton who went on to become famous playing Blondie in the Dagwood series. Lola Lane was the sister of Rosemary Lane and Priscilla Lane. The story involves a young man who spends a lot of time making millions on paper playing the stock market, but since he does not have any actual money to invest, he is poor, but with big ambitions. Rather than work, he spends the rest of his time playing the trumpet. He shows his paper investments to a couple of guys who work in a local bank, one of whom is the manager and the other his girlfriend's brother-in-law. He doesn't divulge the entire secret to them, just enough for them to decide to embezzle $32,000 from the bank which they use to play his system in the stock market, and since they don't know all the details, the money is promptly lost. The trumpet player has left town touring with a band, and when he returns and learns about the theft, he convinces the two bankers to give him another $50,000 for another bout with the stock market. While all this is going on, a lively love story is evolving between the girls and the guys. Without divulging too many more details, let me say this was a surprising and funny film and I hope that others will watch for it to resurface on TCM where I saw it for the first time in October 2011. You won't regret spending an hour with this one.

Bill 'Scats' Small (Johnnie Davis) is a jobless lay-about trumpet player. His girl Jane Mason keeps complaining about it. He claims to have created a stock picking system which could have earned him $3 million in the last 7 years. Only he never invests any money. Others are interested in his system.

The old jazzy music is a little interesting and he's scatting. I don't care that much about his acting. He has his one expression where he's constantly smiling. I do like the character in theory. Like his stock market earnings, the comedy is rather theoretical. He's a happy-go-lucky guy and a bit dumb. There is potential, but I'm not really laughing here.

MR. CHUMP is a slight, fairly funny comedy musical toplining trumpeter-comedian Johnnie Davis and Penny Singleton, months before she became famous as Blondie. Davis is Bill Small, a lazy musician with big ideas but no job. He rents a room in the house inherited by his girlfriend Betty (Singleton) and her sister Jane (Lola Lane) but is behind in his payments. Jane, a young harridan, has enough problems with her considerably older husband Ed (Chester Clute) only bringing home $20 a week as a clerk in a small bank and is ready to kick Bill out. Another bank clerk, Jim Belden (Donald Briggs) has eyes for Betty and she's also getting tired of Bill's lack of ambition. Bill plays fantasy stock market regularly and brags to everyone he'd be rich if he had invested for real, pulling out years worth papers showing he'd have millions from his projections influenced by a stock tip newsletter he receives. Penniless Bill moves out and churchmouse Ed decides to try his luck on the stock market with Bill's old system but foolishly using unauthorized "borrowed" money from the bank.

This little B" comedy is not even seventy minutes long so it flies by pretty fast. Warner Bros. Briefly had Davis under contract for about two years and worked him nonstop but he never caught on although he is no worse (or better) than most second or third-tier movie comics. He and Penny Singleton worked several times together; Penny was also worked to death in her one-year Warners contract knocking out twelve films for them in 1938 in addition to three films elsewhere that year! She lucked out big time when her contract was not renewed and she was free to audition and land a starring role at Columbia as "Blondie" which became a series and led to her being a Columbia star for a dozen years. Davis' career in Hollywood, on the other hand, was over after Warners let him go.

Lola Lane is given second billing due to her fame as one of the Lane Sisters but her role is the smallest of the five main characters. Penny is delightful, chirping the comic "It's Against the Law in Arkansas" and doing the eccentric dance moves that brought her a touch a fame in early talkies like "Good News" under her real name, Dorothy McNulty. Johnnie Davis also a pretty good jazz number "As Long as You Live (You'll Be Dead When You Die)" delivered in a performance style very reminiscent of Cab Calloway. Obscure character actor Chester Clute is fun too as the hen-pecked Ed. "Mr. Chump" was a pleasant enough little B movie that I suspect 1938 audiences enjoyed and completely forgot the next day after seeing it.

Unemployed trumpet tooter Johnnie Davis (as Bill "Scats" Small) hopes for a big win playing the stock market. Perky girlfriend Penny Singleton (as Betty Martin) wishes Mr. Davis would get a real job. Employed bank manager Donald Briggs (as Jim Belden) also desires Ms. Singleton and conspires to keep Davis from getting a job. In one of the film's highlights, Davis interrupts his rival's traditional band with some modern swing-styled playing on his trumpet.

The most popular member of Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, Davis was a real "swing" record and radio star. Singleton went on to do the "Blondie" movie series. Jack Mower and John Harron are notable bank auditors. Lola Lane seems ill-suited in her subsidiary role. If you take away Davis' trumpet and the toupee worn by Chester Clute (as Edward "Ed" Mason), director William Clemens doesn't have much left.

**** Mr. Chump (8/8/38) William Clemens ~ Johnnie Davis, Penny Singleton, Donald Briggs, Chester Clute