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The Chimp

The Chimp (1932)

May. 21,1932
|
6.8
|
NR
| Comedy

Stan and Ollie play bumbling circus performers who inadvertently drive the circus into bankruptcy. The circus can't pay them their wages so they are given a gorilla and a flea circus as payment. Bedlam ensues.

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Wordiezett
1932/05/21

So much average

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Exoticalot
1932/05/22

People are voting emotionally.

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Guillelmina
1932/05/23

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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Billy Ollie
1932/05/24

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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Hitchcoc
1932/05/25

Why do apes and monkeys bring out the worst in us when it comes to puns. I couldn't resist that tired title. I have to agree that when a gorilla was used in movies of the thirties and forties, they were men in shaggy suits with a glistening rubber (or plastic) chest. We can still buy or rent them for Halloween or costume parties. So, I have to admit, unfair as it may be, that when I see such a character, I can't take it seriously, like other real animals. In this one, our guys are part of a failed circus. When things fall apart, they are paid off with pieces of the big top, including the animals. Olllie gets a gorilla, the aforementioned Ethyl, and Stan gets the flea circus. Well, they need to stay someplace, so they end up at a motel where the gorilla is not allowed in. Also, a lion named MGM is on the loose. It turns out that the gorilla is smarter than the boys, with many a parry and thrust of mental acuity. It's all craziness, including the gorilla wearing a tutu and being mistaken for the landlord's wife.

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Jackson Booth-Millard
1932/05/26

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. At a performing circus, all the acts are entering the arena, including the big attraction, Ethel the Human Chimpanzee, while Stan and Ollie are just helping Destructo The Cannonball King (Tiny Sandford) with his act. After the boys collapse the arena tent with an early lighting of the cannon, the Circus Owner (William J. O'Brien) says he is broke, and to pay the circus staff, he is giving them a valuable part of the show to look after. Pulling the names out of a hat, Ollie ends up looking after Ethel, and Stan is looking after the flea circus, but it seems only Stan can get Ethel to do what she is told, she gets mad with Ollie telling her what to do. Trying to get Ethel tied up into a crate, Stan manages to get the lion, MGM, chasing after them, and after it looks like they got away, the find a hotel room to stay the night, until they can sell Ethel to a zoo. Joe the Landlord (Billy Gilbert) isn't happy with the boys bringing in a monkey to a room, so after avoiding the lion once again, they disguise her in Ollie's clothes to sneak her inside, and then Stan would chuck down his clothes. Unfortunately, tossing the clothes Stan and Ethel fall out the window, so they lock her in a near large box, without realising a side is missing. The boys are sleeping in the double bed, until Stan moves to a single, and Ethel manages to sneak into the room and make Ollie think he is still sleeping with a fidgeting Stan. After waking and making Ethel move to the cloak room, Ollie joins Stan in his bed, where they start itching, and realise the flea circus has escaped. In another room, a man puts on his record player, playing some piano music, and Ethel in her tutu starts doing some ballet dancing, getting Stan to join her. Joe manages to hear the boys shouting the name "Ethel", and he thinks they are shouting the name of his wife, so he goes to get her. Joe soon sees his real wife (Martha Sleeper) come in, and she screams and runs seeing their Ethel, and when Joe shouts for them to get out, the monkey steals his gun, and the film ends with her shooting all over the place. Also starring James Finlayson as Ringmaster. Filled with good slapstick and all classic comedy you want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Worth watching!

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naseby
1932/05/27

I can't disagree more with Neil Doyle, that this is a meager Laurel and Hardy story, he misses the point. It's a crazy farcical story, of being saddled with a chimp in lieu of your salary from the defunct circus (They actually destroyed). The boys intend to sell 'Ethel' the chimp, but in the meantime are having to hide her from their landlord (Billy Gilbert) at the hotel, who, incidentally is fretting about his absent wayward wife, who also happens to be named Ethel. On him seeing the chimp: "WHAT IN HEAVEN'S NAME IS THAT - GET IT OUT OF HERE, THIS IS NO ZOO!"Stan and Ollie are offered their rooms if the chimp is kept outside. As they are attempting to lock Ethel up somewhere the lion from the circus has followed them around too, to add the the craziness 'I just saw MGM!'. They hatch a plot to get Ethel into their room with them by having Stan take the chimp in, wearing Ollie's clothes. "Suppose the landlord sees us(this)?" says Stan. "Why he'll think it's ME!" replies Ollie, insulting himself unknowingly.It's Ollie who's 'earned' the chimp and Stan has the flea circus to cover his 'salary'. There's a scene where the boys are itching all over as Stan keeps the flea circus under his pillow and they've escaped!(A strange scene for me - I can't help but scratch myself when it's showing, and other people have said the same!). The boys manage to get Ethel into the hotel anyway as she later climbs up the drainpipe without inept help from the duo. But just as things start to settle down for the night, being a performing, 'human' chimp, Ethel starts to dance to some music being played by a guest in another room. The boys try getting Ethel to stop, naturally mentioning her name, which coincides with the landlord's wayward wife's name, who's been out all night (soon to return)!The landlord obviously enraged, thinking 'his' Ethel is in the boys' room with them, goes to the room at gunpoint and shoots the door open!When asking where 'Ethel' is, Stan points to the bed with 'Ethel' in it (She's under the covers at this point) leading the landlord to give a long speech about "her" 'knowing that he's loved her, doing this to him, being the mother of my children' etc unbeknowing he's talking to the chimp and giving Stan and Ollie the chance to look rightly confused! At this precise moment the 'human-wifey' Ethel walks in, Gilbert shouts : "Gahh Ethel!" The chimp wakes up to hear her name, leading the wife to scream (Her only 'line' in the short!) and have Gilbert exploding: "Get that thing out of here!" It's here where the chimp, Ethel gesticulates SHE'S had enough, Ollie kicks her up the behind, she grabs Gilbert's gun and lets rip with a few rounds, ending the short. A classic early one, one of the best! Especially the guy playing the chimp, although you can tell it's a man in a suit, he actually behaves very chimp-like!

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Tom May
1932/05/28

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/*****

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