Prolabas Deeper than the descriptions

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Hitchcoc Why do apes and monkeys bring out the worst in us when it comes to puns. I couldn't resist that tired title. I have to agree that when a gorilla was used in movies of the thirties and forties, they were men in shaggy suits with a glistening rubber (or plastic) chest. We can still buy or rent them for Halloween or costume parties. So, I have to admit, unfair as it may be, that when I see such a character, I can't take it seriously, like other real animals. In this one, our guys are part of a failed circus. When things fall apart, they are paid off with pieces of the big top, including the animals. Olllie gets a gorilla, the aforementioned Ethyl, and Stan gets the flea circus. Well, they need to stay someplace, so they end up at a motel where the gorilla is not allowed in. Also, a lion named MGM is on the loose. It turns out that the gorilla is smarter than the boys, with many a parry and thrust of mental acuity. It's all craziness, including the gorilla wearing a tutu and being mistaken for the landlord's wife.

SamHardy Admittedly there are some slow spots in this one, but overall it is one of my favs.Some have said this is one of their weaker shorts. Comedy is always very subjective so I respect their opinions. But I don't agree.The central joke here is that Ethel The Human Chimpanzee is just that: Human! Finn says in the introduction that she reads, dances, plays cards and milks a cow! About the only thing she can't do is speak. A perfect foil for the two of the screens most adroit physical comedians. Of course she is a guy in a gorilla suit. It is a farce. It's not supposed to be logical or realistic. We are all in on the joke and that is what makes it so funny.The gorilla gets her share of laughs here sharing the spotlight with Stan and Ollie. The boys and Ethel finally settle down and try to go to sleep. Ollie turns out the light, and Ethel turns it back on. The big ape is apparently afraid of the dark! At one point, after witnessing the boys non-stop ineptitude, Ethel displays a dismissive hand gesture that says: "you guys are hopeless".You just have to suspend belief to get the most out of The Chimp.

JoeytheBrit I'm sure I must have seen this short Laurel & Hardy comedy before but I don't really remember it. Perhaps that's because it falls far short of the standards of most of their other short films. Stan & Ollie are hapless assistants at a circus that literally collapses thanks to them being allowed too close to a cannon. The circus owner gives each employee an asset from the circus. Stan gets a flea circus (which soon escapes in his bed), while Ollie wins a gorilla in a tutu called Ethel. The trio then get into a number of misadventures, none of which are particularly funny. While the surreal image of a tutu-clad gorilla dancing ballet at the foot of Ollie's bed is certainly a striking one, the film as a whole will quickly fade from your memory. And is it me, or are the opening titles the wrong way around? Surely the line about Mr. Laurel never getting past the monkey cage should come last

Theo Robertson Sorry to see that Bob The Moo found this to be one of the weaker L&H shorts . By no means a classic compared to something like MURDER CASE it is very amusing . I guess if Bob saw this before watching THEIR FIRST MISTAKE we might have found this the superior short ? If THE CHIMP has a problem it's down to the internal logic and coincidence involved . For example if a circus went bust wouldn't the owner sell the animals to a zoo rather than give them away free to his now unemployed staff ? it's also strange that a lion can roam around an American city all day without someone calling the police , and what's the chances of a chimp arriving at a hotel where the landlord's wife has the same name as it ? Maybe you have to suspend disbelief a couple of times too often but I certainly found it very funny and well paced