It's an old adage that one should never share the stage with children or animals. The thought is that if you do, they'll steal the show from you. Here Charley Chase lets a good portion of the laughs come from young Tommy Bond, who plays the impossibly obnoxious young boy whom Charley, an ice cream man, must serve while he flirts with his aunt. Along the way, of course, chaos ensues and he ends up chased by the police as a kidnapper.
Charley, however, knows that the funniest performers don't hog all the laughs for themselves, and that he only seems funnier if the people around him are funny too. The result, with Charley reacting ever less enthusiastically to Junior's terrors, is a very funny short.
It's also helped by beginning with one of Charley's best songs, a very cheerful and witty ditty about, of course, the selling of ice cream. The dialogue has a sparkle here too, and a novelty sound gag in which Charley swallows a whistle would be borrowed a couple of years later by Laurel and Hardy for their bit in "Pick a Star." Betty Mack is good as Charley's leading lady, and it all makes for a breezy delight of a two-reeler.
