Jonah Jones

Lloyd Hamilton is an all but forgotten comedian from silent films who made quite a few films during his relatively short life. Today, only a handful of his 250+ films exist, as the ravages of time on nitrate film stock have certainly taken their toll. It's interesting to see that this comedy short is now available in two different DVD sets--Ham: The Lost Magic of Lloyd Hamilton as well as in Volume 2 of American Slapstick.

Here in Jonah Jones, Lloyd is a guy with girl trouble. On one hand, he has a chunky girlfriend who is quite jealous and on the other there is a pretty lady who Lloyd comes to her aid--enraging his girl. Aside from this broad plot, there isn't much consistent plot in the film--with many episodic bits. Some are very funny (such as the cute car that you just have to see to believe) and some just fall flat. Part of this is because it's obvious pieces of the film are missing--such as when Lloyd's hat gets stuck to his head. It just abruptly occurs and you are confused how this occurred. There are also some very funny but cruel fat jokes that might make you laugh or cringe--you be the judge. Overall it's a very mixed bag and Hamilton definitely made better.

There is a word in Yiddish that can be transliterated as "Shlamiel." Nothing ever works out for a shlamiel. If one apple in a barrel is wormy, that is the one he bites into. If he plugs a device into a socket, the wiring will be faulty and he will get a shock. If there is a banana skin anywhere in the city, he will trip on it and fall down a manhole.

There is another Yiddish word, "Shlamazel". When the shlamiel trips on a banana skin and falls down a manhole, he will land on the shlamazel. Who will be named Lloyd Hamilton.

That is the basis of Lloyd Hamilton's comedy and character in the 1920s and this particular film, while not from his peak work, is full of beautifully composed and executed gags on the theme: among the worst falls he takes is to fall for beautiful Dorothy Seastrom, who gets him in all sorts of amusing trouble.

Also on hand is fat girl comedian Babe London. Now best known for her role as Oliver Hardy's fiancée in OUR WIFE, she handles her role as the discarded woman with good will and plenty of energy.

But Ham is really the whole show. Poor fellow.

This two-reeler is one of several Lloyd Hamilton comedies recently restored and made available on DVD as part of a set called "Ham: The Lost Magic of Lloyd Hamilton." Jonah Jones is one of the better films in the set, although its impact is diminished by a chunk of missing footage at the beginning of the second reel that renders the plot a little confusing and, worse, wrecks one of Ham's sight gags. Still, there's plenty here to enjoy, and for those who've never seen this neglected comic at work the film presents him in his characteristic role, i.e. that of the well-meaning schnook who can't get a break and almost never wins.

Set in the bucolic countryside, the opening sequence introduces Ham and his girlfriend Babe London as "the hired man and his three acres of love." (Miss London, best remembered as Oliver Hardy's hefty fiancée in Our Wife, made a career out of serving as the butt of jokes about her weight.) After a number of gags about cars, cows, and accidentally swallowed cigarettes, the plot proper gets under way when Ham encounters an attractive, prosperous-looking young lady who is having car trouble. After gallantly fixing her flat tire he leans against a nearby fence and waves her on with an insouciant, even cocky grin; moments later, the young lady crashes through the gate and dumps Ham into a mud puddle. This gag sums up Ham's comic Modus Operandi in a nutshell: even when the guy wins, he loses. But when he realizes that the young lady has left her purse behind with her address inside he sets out to return it, no doubt hoping for a reward, either monetary or romantic.

Unfortunately, this is where the damaged footage hits and we're left to piece together an important element of the plot. It appears that the young lady's wealthy father, Mr. Morgan, is forcing her to marry an exceptionally unsightly aristocrat, Sir Algernon Wellington FitzHugh, described as "master of horses to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and Saturday Knight of the Bath." Sir Algernon is played by Dick Sutherland, unforgettable as the criminal tramp in Harold Lloyd's Grandma's Boy, whose casting here as a haughty, upper-class snob must have been something of an inside joke. In any event, Ham quickly recognizes that Miss Morgan is a damsel in distress and makes a determined but inept attempt to rescue her, despite the unwelcome and decidedly unhelpful assistance of his girlfriend Babe.

Like so many silent comedies, Jonah Jones culminates in a wild chase; this particular mêlée is highlighted by a nicely staged gag involving Ham's trademark cloth cap getting shot off his head by the angry Mr. Morgan. Aghast, Ham chases the cap down the street, right off a cliff and into the ocean. Although he never quite made it into the top tier of screen comedians, anyone who watches this pleasant short comedy will have to admit that Lloyd Hamilton worked hard for his paycheck.

This is one of two Lloyd "Ham" Hamilton comedy shorts I watched on the "American Slapstick 2" DVD set. In this one, he and farm girlfriend Bebe London (who later on would portray Oliver Hardy's fiancée in the talkie short Our Wife) seem to be doing fine by themselves. Then, Ham encounters a young slender woman who's being chased by some cops for speeding. Smitten, he goes to her house where he finds out she's engaged...The print I saw seemed to have some abrupt edits making part of the story confusing and also cutting some of the gags. Despite that, I enjoyed much of this short so on that note, I say give Jonah Jones a look.