Stand Pat

Series: Paul Parrott

Director: Raymond Grey

Producer: Hal Roach

Titles: H.M. Walker

Photography:

Editor:

Stars: James Parrott, Ernest Morrison, Mark Jones, Ethel Broadhurst, Eddie Baker

Company: Pathé Exchange

Released: 16 April 1922

Length: 1 reel

Production No.: C-40

Filming dates: December 6-15, 1921

Rating: 3/10

Stand Pat

Available on DVD:

Ernest Morrison, James Parrott and Eddie Baker in Stand Pat (1922)

A gambling craze has gripped the whole world, but not everybody is happy about it. "Gambling shall be stopped! I'll bet 2 to 1 on it!" says one outraged man (Wallace Howe) in the opening scene. He climbs a fire escape on the outside of a building only to see everybody inside it gambling. Susie (Ethel Broadhurst) pulls up two framed photographs of her two boyfriends - Paul and Eddie. She cannot decide on which man she wants. Her father tells her he prefers Eddie because he is a better gambler. Eddie is shown rolling dice (he throws double-ones), whilst Paul is introduced as "the student" who has been studying poker for four years. He sits alone at a table playing with himself. (Okay, maybe I should have worded that a bit better but given the likelihood of anybody ever reading this is practically zero.....) Paul adopts the position of an imaginary opponent at the table and even tries to cheat his way through the game before er... shooting the imaginary man! (this whole sequence is tediously boring).
Paul goes outside and finds rival Eddie in his car. Eddie challenges Paul to a race to get to Susie's house first, so Paul rides a motorcycle with Sunshine Sammy in the sidecar. Paul wins the race when Eddie drives his car into the back of a truck. Or so it seems? Paul knocks on the door and Eddie answers it (yeah I'm confused here too). Both men go inside and compete for Susie's affections whilst continuing to niggle one another. The three of them sit together but it's not long before Eddie and Paul start fighting. Susie's father suggests the men compete in a game of 'pin the tail on the donkey' - with the winner getting the girl. The men agree and Paul goes first, and gets a pretty good guess. Eddie's turn and he is blindfolded and then kicked out of the door by Paul, who drags Susie off to the registry office to get married. Eddie ends up pinning the tail on a real donkey which kicks him into the air and has him landing inside the registry office as Paul marries the girl.

Favourite bit
Pinning the tail on a real donkey wasn't the best idea Eddie Baker ever had!

Trivia
• Copyrighted April 27, 1922.
• This was the fourth film in the Paul Parrott series.
• Approximately 4 minutes of the film was incorporated into the "Laff-A-Bits" re-iusse under the title Paul Gambles On Love. This footage picks up 1 minute and 50 seconds into the film with the girl going over the cabinet to pick up Eddie Baker's framed photograph.
• It's pretty obvious that the fire escape staircase that Wallace Howe ascends at the beginning, shown in separate shots to represent different levels of the building was all in fact the same location, just repeated over and over.
• And AGAIN the film ends with Paul leading the girl off to a registry office to get married. That gag is starting to get boring now as it is repeated so many times in Paul Parrott films ("Touch All The Bases", "Loose Change", "Friday The Thirteenth" etc.)

My opinion
• Well that was the most random piece of rubbish I have seen in a long while. Seriously, what is with these films?

	James Parrott Paul
	Ernest Morrison Sunshine Sammy
	Mark Jones Susie's father
	Ethel Broadhurst Susie Sorghum
	Eddie Baker Eddie
	George Rowe Justice of the Peace
	Wallace Howe Outraged man
	Molly Thompson Shocked woman
	Chet Brandenburg Snoop
	Roy Brooks Guest