MR. CHUMP is a slight, fairly funny comedy musical toplining trumpeter-comedian Johnnie Davis and Penny Singleton, months before she became famous as Blondie. Davis is Bill Small, a lazy musician with big ideas but no job. He rents a room in the house inherited by his girlfriend Betty (Singleton) and her sister Jane (Lola Lane) but is behind in his payments. Jane, a young harridan, has enough problems with her considerably older husband Ed (Chester Clute) only bringing home $20 a week as a clerk in a small bank and is ready to kick Bill out. Another bank clerk, Jim Belden (Donald Briggs) has eyes for Betty and she's also getting tired of Bill's lack of ambition. Bill plays fantasy stock market regularly and brags to everyone he'd be rich if he had invested for real, pulling out years worth papers showing he'd have millions from his projections influenced by a stock tip newsletter he receives. Penniless Bill moves out and churchmouse Ed decides to try his luck on the stock market with Bill's old system but foolishly using unauthorized "borrowed" money from the bank.
This little B" comedy is not even seventy minutes long so it flies by pretty fast. Warner Bros. Briefly had Davis under contract for about two years and worked him nonstop but he never caught on although he is no worse (or better) than most second or third-tier movie comics. He and Penny Singleton worked several times together; Penny was also worked to death in her one-year Warners contract knocking out twelve films for them in 1938 in addition to three films elsewhere that year! She lucked out big time when her contract was not renewed and she was free to audition and land a starring role at Columbia as "Blondie" which became a series and led to her being a Columbia star for a dozen years. Davis' career in Hollywood, on the other hand, was over after Warners let him go.
Lola Lane is given second billing due to her fame as one of the Lane Sisters but her role is the smallest of the five main characters. Penny is delightful, chirping the comic "It's Against the Law in Arkansas" and doing the eccentric dance moves that brought her a touch a fame in early talkies like "Good News" under her real name, Dorothy McNulty. Johnnie Davis also a pretty good jazz number "As Long as You Live (You'll Be Dead When You Die)" delivered in a performance style very reminiscent of Cab Calloway. Obscure character actor Chester Clute is fun too as the hen-pecked Ed. "Mr. Chump" was a pleasant enough little B movie that I suspect 1938 audiences enjoyed and completely forgot the next day after seeing it.
