Series: Charley Chase Director: Leo McCarey Producer: Hal Roach Titles: H.M. Walker Photography: Editor: Stars: Charley Chase, Beth Darlington, Noah Young, Sidney D'Albrook, Eddie Baker, Frank Butler Company: Pathé Exchange Released: 04 May 1924 Length: 1 reel Production No.: D-47 Filming dates: December 18-26, 1923; retakes February 29, 1924 Rating: 4/10

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Jimmy Jump and his wife are performers at the Brookline Amateur Drama Club when a theatrical producer offers Mrs. Jump a contract worth $2,000 a week. So the Jumps are chauffeur-driven to a hotel where a sign categorically forbids children and animals. They still manage to sneak in their pet monkey (seriously, who has a pet monkey?) behind the manager's back. From their room they see a boy on the street selling a bunch of balloons and Mrs.Jump tells Jimmy to go and buy one for the monkey. Reluctantly, Jimmy does as instructed and after buying a balloon he tries to sneak it back into the hotel under the back of his jacket. The suspicious manager spots it and Jimmy explains that the lump in his back is his heart trouble playing up again. The monkey quickly pops the balloon, which brings the manager banging on the door. Jimmy demonstrates the popping of a paper bag to satisfy the manager of the loud bang he had come to investigate. Not content with Jimmy's explanation, the manager seeks a detective agency to find out more. The monkey does a runner and after climbing out of the open window, scales the hotel building. Jimmy climbs up to follow the creature and into another woman's room (notice how the bed is set at a really strange angle?) The husband shows up and Jimmy pretends to be fixing the radiator before leaving to continue his pursuit of the monkey, who then runs into another room and out onto a ledge. Jimmy follows the pain-in-the-ass monkey out, risking life and limb but then slips on a discarded banana peel the monkey has left and has to hang on for dear life before he is able to climb back into the building. The monkey returns back to the hotel room just in time for when the producer turns up to propose he gets them a baby elephant as a new pet. The detective shows up at the hotel and determines that the odd footprints all over the walls in ink are the cause of all the disruption. They enter Jimmy's room and find the monkey with the producer and escort them out. The final scene has Mrs. Jump giving up her career in favour of focusing on her husband. The monkey gets the last laugh though....

Favourite bit When Jimmy offers the hotel manager a cigar and he puts it up to his ear before shaking it. It's the casual manner in which Noah Young plays the scene.

Trivia • Copyrighted April 18, 1924. • James Parrott was originally slated as director and worked on this film's script and preproduction from December 10-17, 1923. • The monkey's name is Jocko. • When Jimmy buys the balloon from the kid on the street, why didn't he just walk up to the window and hand it to his wife instead of trying to walk through the hotel and conceal it from the manager? It's obvious from a previous shot that their room was on the ground floor. • The woman who encounters Jimmy in her apartment doesn't seem to be preturbed his presence, and even co-operates with him to protect him when her husband comes home. • At least one source lists Sidney D'Albrook and Frank Butler as being in the film. I didn't see them anywhere and therefore have not included them in my cast listing. However, I did find Lyle Tayo and Jack O'Brien in the film, who aren't listed elsewhere. My opinion • I found this to be quite bland, slow and although only ten minutes, it was less than stimulating on every level. That monkey was a real pain in the arse.

	Charley Chase Jimmy Jump
	Beth Darlington Mrs. Jump
	Eddie Baker Dave Fiasco, producer
	Noah Young Hotel manager
	Lyle Tayo Mrs. Fiasco
	Jack O'Brien Stage actor
	Jocko Monkey

UNIDENTIFIED CAST

CREDITS (click image to enlarge)	INTERTITLES (click image to enlarge)

SHOT ON LOCATION (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: Smile When The Raindrops Fall by Brian Anthony & Andy Edmonds (book) This page was last updated on: 06 September 2019