James Parrott

Slapstick experts host this look at the life and films of Charley Chase with rare film clips and photos.

Open details →

The king is a juvenile dolt who tries the patience of the shrewish queen. While she's in the throne room awaiting him, he's outside playing with guns, drilling his soldiers, and dallying with the wife of a new minister. The queen catches him kissing her, her husband figures out that something fishy is going on, and the king tries his best to proceed with his plans for a night out. The queen contrives to keep him cuffed in the bedroom: king, queen, minister, and coquette end up in a game of musical beds. Will his royal highness get his night out?

Open details →

The penniless tourist, "Appetite Andy" (Paul Parrott) stops by at the Hollywood Cafateria (sic) where the gullible boss (Mark Jones) welcomes him in to sample many of the soups and delicacies available to customers. After savoring many of the dishes, Andy refuses them all and attempts to leave, never intending to pay. The boss is having none of it and drags him back inside and puts him to work in the kitchen. The head chef (Charles Stevenson) is chopping food when the order comes in for chicken to be prepared. He instructs the new employee to grab a chicken (from a crate in the corner) and "prepare" it.

Open details →

An opportunistic umbrella salesman attempts to save a musician and his daughter from blackmail.

Open details →

James Parrott doing all kinds of handy work.

Open details →

James Parrott & Ernest Morrison gets chased around a lot. Filmed in 1921 and copyrighted in 1922, but not released until 1926.

Open details →

James Parrott joins every lodge in town to get in good with people as he tries to sell his fire extinguishers.

Open details →

The two-reel silent film comedy The Caretaker's Daughter was distributed by Pathe in 1925. Produced by the prolific Hal Roach, the film stars the great Charley Chase in a case of multiple incarnations!

Open details →

The troubles of a movie projectionist in a newly-purchased theater are chronicled in this two-reeler starring Paul Parrot and Mildred June.

Open details →

A cruel sea captain shanghais Jimmie to work on his ship, but Jimmie's girlfriend also stows away on board, disguised as a sailor.

Open details →

When Charlie borrows the policeman's uniform of his girl's father and captures a lunatic, his prospective father-in-law dons the uniform just in time to receive the reward of $1,000.

Open details →

A couple of pals tries to stay out of trouble, without much luck.

Open details →

'Snub' Pollard wants to hang himself but figures joining the circus was better idea.

Open details →

Two lifelong friends vie for the affection of the same woman.

Open details →

James Parrott having a lot of pets destroying the place.

Open details →

James Parrott, little Sammy Brooks, Baker and Jones ("the strong guy" = the drunk) are all workers on a construction-sit run by violent and exploitative boss Noah Young and it is a "building a skyscraper" comedy.

Open details →

Paul Parrott plays an obsessive-compulsive bill poster in this thoroughly average Hal Roach comedy from 1923. Hired to help publicize a new Gloria Snootful picture, Paul goes bonkers with glue and paper and ends up attaching promotional material to any surface within his reach, including the rear ends of a number of people, though his attempt to nail a poster to a glass window is somewhat less successful.

Open details →

Hal Roach short is a spoof of the 1923 Western COVERED WAGON, which was a huge hit for Paramount. In this film a group of people are heading out West to Hollywood so they pack up their "wagons" and head out where they must battle various elements including crossing a dangerous river and battling Indians. The "wagons" are actually cars with a cover on them and the Indians even ride in on bicycles so you can tell the type of humor that Roach is going for.

Open details →

James Parrott as a very persistent book salesman.

Open details →

SHOOT STRAIGHT - starring Paul Parrott, with Jobyna Ralston, Eddie Baker and George Rowe. A rarely-seen comedy short. Parrott is a hapless hunter in this predecessor to Tex Avery toons of the 1940s, and in a series of inventive gag sequences fails to capture squirrel, rabbit, chinchilla, bobcat, duck, and bear all in one reel.

Open details →

The setting is a shoe store and the action is pretty frenetic. You get to see Paul lose the store's money, catch a shoe thief, knock down a bunch of shelves and more.

Open details →

Tired of being constantly nagged by "Paul" and another suitor, their shared romantic interest (referred to as Paul's inamorata) purposely has herself arrested for speeding. She vows to marry whichever man is able to get her released from jail. Both men make various, often bumbling, attempts to join her in jail to facilitate her release. After both suitors successfully manage to get themselves locked up, they discover that the woman has already been freed by her father. The film concludes with the two suitors facing actual prison terms while the woman remains free.

Open details →

Well executed but unexceptional one-reeler about a couple of incompetent paperhangers. James Parrott, brother of Charley Chase, was an equally skilled man behind the camera, later writing and directing some of Roach's best two-reelers, before he died too young, but while the gags here are well done, he never really developed much of a personality in these pieces and they are not, somehow, quite as sharp as the stuff he was co-starring in with Sid Saylor two or three years before. The extended gag with the plank of wood seesawing is typical.

Open details →

A James Parrott comedy short.

Open details →

Paul is practicing the art of being a cowboy. He consults a book before firing his gun, climbing onto a saddle on top of a chair and then falling off and dressing his wounds. He then gets back on his 'saddle' and fires his gun again, this time in the direction of another man who has just entered the room. Paul leaves abruptly and rides into town on a horse, and straight through a crowded saloon. A town marshal sees this as act act of bravery and rewards Paul with a sheriff's badge immediately. A fearful rival makes his mark when he lights his cigarette by tossing it into the air and shooting at it to ignite it!

Open details →

Paul, a great college athlete, is sent to his uncle's farm to be developed, but turns against the continual round of chores. And at the table he is continually elbowed aside by the huskier farmhands, until he gives up in disgust. But a last attempt to understand the intricacies of the tractor results in his demolishing the house, and the farmer's daughter aids his escape.

Open details →

Paul's career as a shoeshine man is interrupted when he is mistaken for an escaped convict, but after the Station Master gives him a job at the train station he proves his worth.

Open details →

The Golf Bug,1922, directed by James D. Davis, starring James "Paul" Parrott and Jobyna Ralston, is a short silent comedy film.

Open details →

A landlord is attending his new tenants' rollicking and well-attended housewarming party. As midnight arrives, a ghostly apparition appears outside the window--and our frightened hero immediately breaks out the shotgun to fend off the phantom menace.

Open details →

Hapless photographer James Parrott attempts to shoot a bathing beauty pageant.

Open details →

Paul plays at being a detective until dad, who is a revenue officer, sends him out to prove his worth by rounding up some desperate moonshiners.

Open details →

Paul Parrott comedy produced by Hal Roach.

Open details →

After many difficulties getting into a baseball game with his girl, Paul is pressed into service as a pinch hitter.

Open details →

In this 1922 Pathe-distributed, Hal Roach silent-era comedy, the owner of a local streetcar business is in danger of losing his franchise, but the streetcar operator (played by Paul Parrott) and his girl friend (who happens to be the boss's daughter; portrayed by Jobyna Ralston) try to save the day.

Open details →

Paul Parrott stars as a detective in a hotel trying to recognize a fake sheik

Open details →

A woman and her dog defend an innocent man.

Open details →

It's 1938, but Stan doesn't know the war is over; he's still patrolling the trenches in France, and shoots down a French aviator. Oliver sees his old chum's picture in the paper and goes to visit Stan who has now been returned to the States and invites him back to his home.

Open details →

Stan and Ollie are mousetrap salesmen hoping for better business in Switzerland, with Stan's theory that because there is more cheese in Switzerland, there should be more mice.

Open details →

Stan and Ollie try to deliver the deed to a valuable gold mine to the daughter of a dead prospector. Unfortunately, the daughter's evil guardian is determined to have the gold mine for himself and his saloon-singer wife.

Open details →

Novice policemen Stan and Ollie bungle a burglary investigation.

Open details →

A year prior to the first scene, Stan married Ollie's sister, and Ollie married Stan's sister in a double wedding. They all live together and Stan and Ollie work in the same office.

Open details →

Mrs Hardy is annoyed that her husband Oliver seems to spend more time with his friend Stanley than with her. After a furious argument, Mrs Hardy says that she is through if Ollie goes out with Stan again. Stan suggests that Ollie adopts a baby, which he does. Unfortunately, his wife has left their apartment on returning, and a process server delivers a paper informing Ollie that she is suing him for divorce, naming Stan as correspondent. The boys are now left to look after the infant on their own.

Open details →

Stan and Ollie play bumbling circus performers who inadvertently drive the circus into bankruptcy. The circus can't pay them their wages so they are given a gorilla and a flea circus as payment. Bedlam ensues.

Open details →

The Laurel & Hardy Moving Co. have a challenging job on their hands (and backs): hauling a player piano up a monumental flight of stairs to Prof. von Schwarzenhoffen's house. Their task is complicated by a sassy nursemaid and, unbeknownst to them, the impatient Prof. von Schwarzenhoffen himself. But the biggest problem is the force of gravity, which repeatedly pulls the piano back down to the bottom of the stairs.

Open details →

Ollie's house is a mess after a wild party from the previous night. Ollie receives a telegram from his wife (who is on vacation in Chicago), which tells him that she is returning home in the afternoon. Fearing his wife's wrath he calls Stan over to help him clean up. Things go downhill and they make more mess not less.

Open details →

Down and out Stan and Ollie beg for food from a friendly old lady who provides them with sandwiches. While eating, they overhear the lady's landlord tell her he's going to throw her out because she can't pay her mortgage. They don't realize that the old lady is really rehearsing for a play. Stan and Ollie decide to help the old lady by selling their car. During the auction a drunk puts a wallet in Stan's pocket. Ollie accuses Stan of robbing the old lady, but when the truth is revealed Stan takes revenge on Ollie.

Open details →

The Hardys wish to have a quiet evening in their apartment, but are interrupted when the Laurels pay a visit. Stan and Ollie go out for ice cream, and manage to prevent a shrewish woman from committing suicide on the way back home. The woman is ungrateful and makes threats against the them unless they look after her. They spend a chaotic evening trying to keep her hidden from their wives.

Open details →

First, Ollie can't find his hat. Then he and Stan attempt to install a rooftop radio antenna.

Open details →

Stanley and Oliver are trying to spend a relaxing night at home playing checkers, but the antics of their mischievous sons keep interrupting their recreation.

Open details →

Mrs. Hardy throws Ollie and Stan out of the house. They try to impress two young ladies at a golf course and end up fighting with other golfers.

Open details →

After being beaten to a story of scandal involving Countess Polasky, James W. Hornby assigns his son 24 hours to find an even more scandalous story about the countess. After spending the night in the wrong street looking for the wrong countess, he comes up with a plan: the butler will be seen in a comprimising situation with the countess, and then photographed. The countess, who is sick of reporters, has other ideas... Written by Paul L

Open details →

A butler is persuaded to pretend to be a man's wife so that he can inherit a million dollars.

Open details →

The crotchety dean of Pinkham University blames the "bad behavior of the school's female students on a dress shop owned by Helene, and informs her he's shutting her shop down. Meanwhile, her boyfriend Napoleon has invented a plaster that restores youth. The dean accidentally sits on the plaster and reverts back to his younger days when he himself used to chase college girls. Complications ensue.

Open details →

A divorced couple try to pretend they are still happily married in order to get $100,000 from the woman's divorce-disapproving aunt.

Open details →

Casper is the baby-expert at a large department store and his life is less than peaceful as he provides much amusement for the babies at his own expense. On Sunday, he and his wife go on a picnic with the neighbors and hoe comes home on his day of rest with three traffic tickets and numerous stings from the hornets he failed to amuse.

Open details →

A cook for bridge constructors is told to collect food for dinner-Ritz style trout, Palmer house rabbit and a 15cm frosted cake. He sets off into the wide open spaces to collect the food, coming into contact with a mad hermit, who hates anybody seeing his daughter, before returning to cook dinner.

Open details →

Finlayson plays an intrepid army cameraman on the battlefield in the world war, and Rowe plays his hapless assistant. Cranking away in no man's land, they take foolish chances and must dodge flying shells, falling down and losing their film repeatedly.

Open details →

A very good as a faithful husband, whose wife is looking for proof that more than his eyes have been roving. She hires a private detective to provide it.

Open details →

A man tries to win over the daughter of his boss.

Open details →

A car salesman wants to get marreid but has to make one last sell first.

Open details →

A lightning rod salesman gets in the middle of a western shootout.

Open details →

A man arrives late at his own wedding.

Open details →