Series: Paul Parrott Director: Alfred Santell Producer: Hal Roach Titles: Photography: Editor: Stars: James Parrott, Jobyna Ralston Company: Path Exchange Released: 21 October 1923 Length: 1 reel Production No.: C-42 Filming dates: March 15-24, 1922; retakes March 10 and June 12, 1923 Rating: 5/10

Winner Take All

There is an open tournament at the Clear Valley Country Club where anybody is invited to participate. Enter Paul (James Parrott) and his rival (Eddie Baker). Paul uses one of Eddie's many trophies as a drinking cup when he cannot find his own. The club President is keen for his daughter (Jobyna Ralston) to marry the rival though she is in love with Paul. The two men go head-to-head in a game of golf where they argue over whose turn it is to hit their ball. In an effort to cheat, Eddie stuffs a rabbit down one of the holes which means Paul misses his shot. Eddie wins the game. Next up is high diving. Eddie shows off his skills first before Paul makes his dive from a higher board. Eddie is then forced to dive from the top board whilst blindfolded as the two men attempt to outdo one another. When it is Paul's turn, Eddie waits until Paul is at the top and about to jump (blindfolded) when he turns the diving post around. Paul makes the dive and lands in a bucket in the yard. The last event sees the two rivals on pogo sticks jumping down the road in a race. In a close race, Paul pips Eddie to the finishing line after he is chased by a goat. The president reluctantly offers Eddie the trophy but a group of spectators contest the decision and his daughter snatches it away and offers it to Paul, leaving Eddie annoyed at having just lost both the competition and the girl.

Favourite bit The two men compete in the diving competition.

Trivia • Copyrighted November 23, 1923. • I used two prints of the film for review on this page. One was a Laffa-A-Bits segment called "Paul's Rival" (run time: 4 mins 27 secs) and the other was a home projection print called "Two Suitor Champions" (run time: 6 mins 43 secs). Both prints contain unique footage. In October 2019, I successfully edited the two sets of footage together using all the footage and with 26 separate edits to make one almost-complete print at 7 minutes 57 seconds. My opinion • Pretty much the same routine with Eddie Baker stepping in as a rival to James Parrott and ultimately losing the girl to him. It's a repeated formula which grows increasingly tired and predictable. The diving scene in the pool goes some way into bringing a glimmer of humour to an otherwise stale storyline.

	James Parrott Paul
	Jobyna Ralston Club president's daughter
	Eddie Baker Paul's rival
	Chet Brandenburg Onlooker
	UNIDENTIFIED Club president

SHOT ON THE BACK LOT (click any image to enlarge)

This page was last updated on: 21 October 2023