Prenez garde au lion

I have a fondness for "The Chimp" as it was the first time I saw a Laurel and Hardy film. That was about 1983 and I haven't stopped laughing at Stan and Ollie's antics ever since. In the above film, they are members of the local circus. Due to their blundering incompetence, the circus has to close up. Regulars James Finlayson and Tiny Sandford make welcome appearances during the opening scene. Ollie doesn't particularly care for a comment made by Stan at the beginning of the film. The owner being flat broke, gives his employees a share of the circus in place of their salary. Each person draws a certain animal. In the case of Laurel and Hardy, the former picks the box of fleas and the latter a gorilla named Ethel. After being chased by the lion of the circus, the three of them need to find a room for the night. That is where the trouble begins! I laugh myself silly, every time I watch the bit where Ollie can't retrieve his own trousers and Ethel lends a hand! Her and Ollie don't get on too well but she likes Stan alright. The scene where Ollie is stalked by the same lion is very funny. Billy Gilbert is on top form as a somewhat perturbed landlord of the boarding house where Ollie attempts to procure a room. He has hardly rung the doorbell before he is yanked into the building and wonders what the hell is going on! To his credit, Billy Gilbert is sincere in his apologises. Gilbert was certainly blessed with a powerful voice and he puts it to good use (David Niven eat your heart out). The dancing scene was well done as Stan and Ollie struggle to get some sleep. "The Chimp" is a bit longer than the usual comedy short, clocking in at 25 minutes. It is a joy though.

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. In lieu of salaries, a bankrupt circus gives its property away to its workers. Stan gets the flea circus - Ollie is given Ethel, THE CHIMP. The big simian takes an immediate dislike to Ollie, but becomes very fond of Stan. Deciding to sell Ethel to the zoo, the Boys look for a hotel to spend the night. Trying to do so with a great, hairy beast in tow is hard enough; an escaped lion and a volatile landlord only ensure that getting a good night's sleep will be almost impossible.

A very funny little film, with genuine belly laughs. Watching Stan dance with Ethel is priceless. That's James Finlayson as the circus Ringmaster; Billy Gilbert plays the dyspeptic landlord.

It's really difficult to rate this movie. The movie beginning very promising and solid but soon descents to a lower level, due to some improbable moments and dragging humor.

Reason why I still decided to rate this movie a 7 is due to the first halve of the movie which is set in a circus. The humor and slapstick moments in the first halve are extremely well placed and executed by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Also the presence of James Finlayson as the ringmaster is a reason to consider this movie an above average Laurel & Hardy picture. Finlayson delivers some fine comical lines in this movie and adds to the amusement level of the movie.

The second part of the movie in which the boys have a some mishaps with their chimp (a guy in a monkey-suit) too often gets too ridicules and simple to consider it funny all of the time. The humor is for most part dragging, also because of this very reason. Definitely not Laurel & Hardy finest moment.

The first halve and some other minor things still however make sure that this movie is an above, although slightly, average movie from Laurel & Hardy by director James Parrott, who in the same year also directed the far more classic Laurel & Hardy short movie; "The Music Box".

Entertaining enough but could had been far more classic, if the rest of the movie was just as good and solid as the first halve.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is not amongst my favourites of the many Laurel and Hardy shorts I have seen, but it was a perfectly passable short subject.

James Finlayson as ever is a boon of a presence; making a brilliant foil to the pair. Laurel and Hardy are as wonderful as ever, though possibly a slight weariness is evident; the antics here being so very similar to many other of their shorts. What especially enervates this film are the early, possibly all too brief, sequences in the circus; to see, largely in atmospheric long shot, the great duo comically spoiling the planned circus gags, only to create new ones in their bungling, is a wonderful spectacle. The spatial atmosphere given by a visible audience - though amusingly small - is quite a refreshing dichotomy; the performance-within-a-performance air of this section is beautiful to watch.

Yes, things slip towards far more laboured chimp-related gags, but this is professional stuff; Laurel and Hardy executing the comedy finely. It does tend towards going through the motions, but, cripes, this is the funniest and most loved double act of all, on screen for our benefit. And thus, it's a film more laudable than so many.

Rating:- *** 1/2/*****

Sorry to see that Bob The Moo found this to be one of the weaker L&H shorts . By no means a classic compared to something like MURDER CASE it is very amusing . I guess if Bob saw this before watching THEIR FIRST MISTAKE we might have found this the superior short ?

If THE CHIMP has a problem it's down to the internal logic and coincidence involved . For example if a circus went bust wouldn't the owner sell the animals to a zoo rather than give them away free to his now unemployed staff ? it's also strange that a lion can roam around an American city all day without someone calling the police , and what's the chances of a chimp arriving at a hotel where the landlord's wife has the same name as it ?

Maybe you have to suspend disbelief a couple of times too often but I certainly found it very funny and well paced