Little Miss Jazz

Series: Beatrice LaPlante

Director: Fred C. Newmeyer

Producer: Hal Roach

Titles:

Photography:

Editor:

Stars: Beatrice LaPlante, John Richardson

Company: Pathé Exchange

Released: 08 August 1920

Length: 1 reel

Production No.: G-5

Filming dates: March 29 - April 17, 1920

Rating: -/10

Little Miss Jazz

A pair of crooks disguised as husband and wife pay a visit to an art gallery and when the owner is distracted, the husband (WILLIAM GILLESPIE) summons his two stooges (one is MARK JONES) to steal a naked statue. The owner's wife (BEATRICE LAPLANTE) then enters the gallery and together with her husband they realise the statue has been taken. After frantically searching for it (no, it's not under the rug, dear) and seeing other guests coming in to browse, the owner's wife strips off her clothes and takes up the pose of the stolen statue in the middle of the room and nobody is any the wiser. Everybody suddenly becomes interested in examining the life-like statue, including toff-looking collector JOHN RICHARDSON and tenant CHARLES STEVENSON (who cops a quick feel of her breast if you look closely enough!) [see image left]
Beatrice has to maintain the illusion of being a statue and so assumes a dead-weight position. The tenant and the collector bid for the "statue" and the tenant wins, paying the owner with a wad of banknotes before taking it/her away (watch as he puts her down in the hallway how far up her legs he has his hands!) When she runs off into a side room to hide she discovers the real statue hidden under a sheet. The gallery owner is alerted and the police are brought in by the outraged tenant who feels he has been swindled. The police are led to the statue where the original crooks are caught and taken away by the police. The tenant gets his statue back, but not wanting to be misled a second time, he pricks it with a pin first to ensure it is a statue...

Beatrice LaPlante and Jack Richardson in Little Miss Jazz (1920)

Favourite bit
Thinking that she is only a statue, this cheeky chap (Jack Richardson) uses Beatrice LaPlante's armpit to strike a match!

Trivia
• Copyrighted June 23, 1920.
• When the art collector and his woman realise the statue has been stolen, she looks under the rug. Because that's where you would apparently hide a full-size statue. Dumb.
• Beatrice frequently shows quite a bit of skin throughout the film, particularly her legs.
• After Beatrice poses as the statue, little Sammy Brooks takes a really close look at her exposed legs!
• For a supposedly motionless statue, Beatrice moves quite a lot! Also, there are times when the visitors inspect her by touching her body. How is it that they were not able to determine the difference between soft flesh and a stone cold, hard statue? Are we simply to believe that everybody in the room was stupid?
• When the guy hits Beatrice with his cane, she momentarily goes cross-eyed.
• After Beatrice goes dead-weight in order to resemble the statue she is picked up from a falling position by Charles Stevenson. Watch as he (deliberately?) puts his left hand on her breast. Later in the hallway he has his hands way above her knees and touching her bare skin.

	Beatrice LaPlante Miss Jazz
	John Richardson Art collector
	William Gillespie Crook
	Hazel Powell Crook's accomplice
	Charles Stevenson Boarding house tenant
	Mark Jones Crook
	Fred McPherson Gallery owner
	Sammy Brooks Gallery visitor

UNIDENTIFIED CAST
Unknown in Little Miss Jazz (1920)

Acknowledgements:
Dave Glass (review print)
Steve Massa (identification of Jack Richardson and Mark Jones)
Jesse Brisson (identification of Hazel Powell and Fred McPherson)

This page was last updated on: 08 August 2023