A Chump at Oxford
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| A Chump at Oxford | |
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 Original one-sheet for A Chump at Oxford (1940) |
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| Directed by | Alfred J. Goulding |
| Produced by | Hal Roach Jr. Hal Roach |
| Written by | Charley Rogers Felix Adler Harry Langdon |
| Starring | Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy Wilfred Lucas Jimmy Finlayson Anita Garvin Forrester Harvey Peter Cushing Charlie Hall |
| Music by | Marvin Hatley |
| Cinematography | Art Lloyd |
| Editing by | Bert Jordan |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | February 16, 1940 |
| Running time | 63 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
A Chump at Oxford, directed by Alfred J. Goulding and released in 1940 by United Artists, was the penultimate Laurel and Hardy film made at the Hal Roach studios. Originally released as a featurette at forty minutes long, twenty minutes were later added for the British and European distribution.
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[edit] Plot
Stan and Ollie are down to their last 6 bucks and thumb a lift to a job agency to find a work. A City Water Dept. truck driver offers them a lift then drenches them with water and leaves them behind. They arrive in a car that's been in a crash and is being towed. At the job agency a call comes from Mrs. Vandeveer looking for a maid and butler to help at a dinner party she is holding that night. Ollie tells the receptionist he can fill the post and to leave it to him. Stan and Ollie are going to take the job. They arrive and Stan is dressed in drag. Stan curtseys to Mrs. Vandeveer and his underwear rips loudly. As he walks off they are around his ankles.
At the dinner party Stan eats the nibbles he's supposed to be giving to the guests and tips the rest into Mrs. Vandeveers lap. Ollie calls the guests to the meal with a hand held xylophone. He says "there is everything From Soup To Nuts folks, come and get it". Stan is told to take the cocktails and instead of clearing them away he drinks them and becomes drunk. Mr. Vandeveer then tells Stan to "stir up the salad without dressing" so Stan serves the salad in his underwear. Seeing this Mr. Vandeveer takes a rifle and chases Stan and Ollie out of the house. A single gunshot is heard, followed by a loud bellowing, "Ohh!" Mr. Vandeveer returns, followed by a policeman, who tells him, "why don't you be more careful, you almost blew my brains out". When the cop turns to leave, the seat of his pants have a large jagged hole ripped in them, revealing smouldering undershorts.
Stan and Ollie become road sweeps and wonder why they are always in the gutter. They decide to get an education because in Stan's words "we're not illiterative enough". They are sitting outside the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Commerce building. eating a packed lunch, as a robbery is taking place inside. They inadvertently catch the robber when he slips on a banana peel tossed in the gutter by Stan. A grateful bank manager offers them a reward by suggesting that they could have a job in his bank. When Oliver mentions they wouldn't be much use since he and Stan don't have an education, the bank president expands on their goal to attend night school by saying, "If it's an education you want, you shall have the finest education money can buy." He enrolls Stan and Ollie at Oxford University in England and they depart the U.S. by steamship.
When Stan and Ollie arrive at the University the undergraduate students decide to give them the "royal initiation". Which involves a number of pranks. They are sent off into a maze in order to get a pass to see the dean. They become lost. One of the students dresses as a ghost in order to frighten Stan and Ollie. Whilst they are sat on a bench the ghost's hand comes through the hedge and helps Stan to smoke his pipe and cigar.
They spend all night in the maze and exit the next morning. Johnson poses as the dean and gives Stan and Ollie the real deans quarters to live in. They make themselves at home only to be confronted by the dean. The prank is uncovered and Johnson is due to expelled. Before this happens the students decide to run Stan and Ollie out so they can't give evidence against Johnson. The boys are taken to their real quarters where Meredith the valet recognises Stan as Lord Paddington, the greatest athlete and scholar the University ever had. He says Stan lost his memory when the window fell on his head.
The students arrive and decide to throw Stan and Ollie out of the window. They decide to escape through the window and in doing so it falls on Stan's head. He becomes Lord Paddington once again. He becomes angry and his ears wiggle after which he throws all of the students out of the window. Stan doesn't remember Ollie any longer. He takes pity on Ollie and employs him as his personal valet. Stan calls Ollie by the nickname "fatty" and patronises him. Ollie becomes angry and quits the job. Stan hears students come to cheer him outside. He looks out of the window and it falls on him once again. He returns to his usual self. Stan and Ollie make up and go home. The film has a happy ending. Rather than the more usual unfortunate ending.
[edit] Flm production details
- The dinner party scenes are those omitted from the original American release and are a partial remake of their 1928 silent film From Soup to Nuts.
- The dinner party ends in the same way as in their 1927 film Slipping Wives.
[edit] Cast
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