This is a delightful and obviously obscure little movie since nobody has ever reviewed it on IMDb until now. The lead star is a musician named Johnnie Davis who was a lively sort of fellow, and an accomplished trumpet player and singer. The two young ladies starring are Penny Singleton who went on to become famous playing Blondie in the Dagwood series. Lola Lane was the sister of Rosemary Lane and Priscilla Lane. The story involves a young man who spends a lot of time making millions on paper playing the stock market, but since he does not have any actual money to invest, he is poor, but with big ambitions. Rather than work, he spends the rest of his time playing the trumpet. He shows his paper investments to a couple of guys who work in a local bank, one of whom is the manager and the other his girlfriend's brother-in-law. He doesn't divulge the entire secret to them, just enough for them to decide to embezzle $32,000 from the bank which they use to play his system in the stock market, and since they don't know all the details, the money is promptly lost. The trumpet player has left town touring with a band, and when he returns and learns about the theft, he convinces the two bankers to give him another $50,000 for another bout with the stock market. While all this is going on, a lively love story is evolving between the girls and the guys. Without divulging too many more details, let me say this was a surprising and funny film and I hope that others will watch for it to resurface on TCM where I saw it for the first time in October 2011. You won't regret spending an hour with this one.
Review of Mr. Chump
