LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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

Neil Doyle Only true Laurel and Hardy addicts will appreciate this sub-standard short that has the boys doing their best to demolish a circus tent with explosive gun powder, after which STAN LAUREL is given a flea circus for a parting gift, and OLIVER HARDY, a chimp called Ethyl.Naturally, when they decide to look for lodgings they get a hard time from landlord BILLY GILBERT who refuses to have them under his roof when he spies the chimp. Gilbert is already in a dither because his wife hasn't come home yet--his dear Ethyl.The rest of the short has the boys getting into one sticky situation after another, but the laughs are meager and the obvious use of a man inside an ape costume takes a lot away from the gags. Funniest line has Stan sighting a loose lion on the prowl and Oliver asking him what's the matter. "I've seen MGM," is his straight answer.But the slapstick happenings are not on par with the duo's best comedy shorts. This is strictly an early Laurel and Hardy featurette from Hal Roach that needed a much better script. At least BILLY GILBERT gets to do his customary energetic job as the irate husband who overhears Hardy telling the chimp, "Come to bed, Ethyl."Good potential material, but it should have been a lot funnier.

theowinthrop As mentioned in reviewing LAUGHING GRAVING, the plot of that film was based on the silent L & H comedy ANGORA LOVE, and the same plot was used (with changes) in THE CHIMP. LAUGHING GRAVY described how the boys attempts to hide a cute little dog from landlord Charley Hall eventually lead to that worthy's self-destruction. THE CHIMP does not quite end that way, although there is a chance that Ethyl the Chimp may hurt somebody at the conclusion.The beginning of THE CHIMP makes one wish it was a longer feature film. It is a comedy that starts off in a circus, which is on it's last legs. The clumsiness of Stan and Ollie (culminating in their firing a cannon upward so it destroys the big-top tent) leads to the bankruptcy of the circus, and the division of the animals between the employees (they are to draw lots for them - Jimmy Finleyson, the circus ringmaster, is certain he'll draw the cuckoo bird). The boys end up with Ethyl, who in the course of the short does something neither Angora Love the goat nor Laughing Gravy the dog ever did - she keeps demonstrating she is smarter than the two humans who got her. In fact, at one point she even gives Ollie a stare of disdain at a particularly stupid action of his.This intelligence leads to certain activities that could not be done in the earlier versions. In LAUGHING GRAVY Stan frets about his dog's freezing in the blizzard-like cold outside. In THE CHIMP, we see how really smart Ethyl is - she is supposed to be boxed up in a crate that Ollie is putting together. Instead she puts Ollie into the crate and starts sealing it! The conclusion is when they sneak the chimp into their rooms. Landlord Billy Gilbert is as rule conscious as landlord Charley Hall had been. When earlier he saw the chimp with Stan and Ollie he insists that they keep him outside. Stan says he might get pemonia. Ollie frowns and corrects Stan: "He means penumonia!" Gilbert smashes the language difficulty, saying "I don't care if you all get penumonia - keep that beast out of here!" But, as I said, Ethyl is sneaked back in. Soon she is dancing up a storm (wearing a tutu) and actually dancing cheek to cheek with a frightened Stan. Ollie yells, "Ethyl, will you stop that and come to bed." Unfortunately Gilbert is a jealous husband, whose wife is named Ethyl. He bursts in and melodramatically denounces the figure under the bed cover as a fallen woman. Just then the real Ethyl turns up, and the Chimp removes the cover and makes a quizzical grunt noise. Gilbert is furious and insists they take Ethyl out. But she does not want to go, and finding Gilbert's pistol on the floor starts firing it - and Stan and Ollie run about the room in a panic as the short ends. A very amusing short - and one that shows how low the level of the boys' mental abilities was in comparison to the animal kingdom.

Boba_Fett1138 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.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Tom May 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/*****