Laurel & Hardy

A CHUMP AT OXFORD

United Artists, 1940.  Directed by Alfred J. Goulding.  Camera:  Art Lloyd.  With Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Wilfred Lucas, Forbes Murray, Charlie Hall, Richard Cramer.

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Desperate for employment, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy masquerade as a maid and butler to work at the snooty Vandevere party.  After they make a shambles of the evening and offend the distinguished guests, Baldy Vandevere chases the pair from his house at gunpoint.

Deciding that their lack of education lies at the root of their problems, Stan and Ollie vow to attend night school.  Their opportunity at higher education arrives sooner than expected when, as a reward for capturing a bank robber, the bank president sends the pair to Oxford.

Upon their arrival, the "chumps" are treated to a hazing by their fellow students, and end up spending the night lost in a mazelike, "haunted" hedge.  The next morning, they are played for chumps again when one of the students, masquerading as the dean, offers them the hospitality of his own quarters.  When the real dean arrives to find Stan and Ollie in his bed, the pair snitch on their classmates, who vow revenge.  While attempting to escape the wrath of his classmates, Stan suffers a blow on the head, which transforms him into the vile tempered Lord Paddington, the greatest athlete and scholar in the history of Oxford.  Relegated to the position of valet, Ollie quits after "his lordship" regains his senses, and the two thankfully return home.

American Film Institute Catalog

Poster artwork and photos courtesy of Gunnar and Gary