A Chump at Oxford is a 1940 film directed by Alfred J. Goulding, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
The movie is actually a two-reeler and a four-reeler put together to make a feature. The first part has Stan and Ollie, down and out, looking for work. They get hired for an evening as butler and maid, which requires Stan to put on a dress and wig. Naturally, everything goes horribly wrong.
Part II, twice as long as Part I, finds our heroes working as street sweepers, when they accidentally foil a bank robbery, which earns them a reward. Stan and Ollie feel like their lack of education has held them back, so they're offered a chance at an education. At Oxford. They're mercilessly teased by the snobby Oxford students, before they discover a surprise about Stan's past.
Peter Cushing made his film debut as one of the Oxford students who pull pranks on Stan and Ollie.
Tropes:
- Accidental Hero: A bank robber comes running out of a bank, and slips and falls on Stan's Banana Peel. Stan and Ollie are hailed as heroes. Downplayed in that the boys do take quick action to grab the robber before he can recover from his fall, holding him there and keeping him away from his gun until the police arrive.
- Banana Peel: How Stan and Ollie accidentally catch a bank robber. Stan tosses his banana peel aside, reasoning that he'll just have to pick it up in a minute anyway (the boys are working as street sweepers). They happen to be sitting outside a bank. A bank robber comes running out, and slips and falls on Stan's peel.
- Battle Discretion Shot: Stan (now as Lord Paddington) is only heard dealing with his attackers.
- Delayed Reaction: A student in a scary costume chases the boys around the maze, although it takes Stan a few seconds to notice how scary he looks.
- Disguised in Drag: Stan wears a dress and a silly wig in order to pretend to be a maid.
- Explosive Cigar: One of the student pranksters gives Ollie a cigar, which Ollie happily puffs until it explodes.
- Expressive Ears: When Stan is Lord Paddington, he wiggles his ears when he's angry. And if you see him do it you'd better run.
- Fake-Out Opening: The first shot has Stan and Ollie in the back seat of a fancy convertible, smoking cigars, at their ease. Have they come up in the world? No, they're hitching a ride.
- Fun with Homophones: When Stan and Ollie first show up at Oxford wearing Eton uniforms:Student: Pardon me, but haven't you come to the wrong college?
Ollie: Well this is Oxford, isn't it?
Student: Yes, but you're dressed for Eton.
Stan: Well that's swell, we haven't eaten since breakfast. - Genius Bruiser: In addition to his intelligence, Lord Paddington is also a talented athlete, whom his former manservant claims would "fight like a demon" when angered - a claim proven accurate when he easily turns the tables on an entire mob who break into his quarters intending to throw him (as Stan) and Ollie out the window.
- High-Class Glass:
- Mrs. Vandervere, the hostess at the fancy party where Stan and Ollie are working in Part I, uses a lorgnette (glasses on a stick), the female equivalent.
- Then Stan uses a standard high class glass when he becomes Lord Paddington.
- Identity Amnesia: Stan is revealed to actually be one "Lord Paddington", a brilliant and snobby university scholar who lost his memory (and most of his intelligence) and left campus when a window closed on his head. He temporarily becomes his alter ego in Chump when that same window drops on his head again, but the accident is naturally repeated once more just before the film's end, thereby returning Stan to his usual stupid self and maintaining the status quo.
- Jerkass: Stan as Lord Paddington is quite rude and insulting to poor Ollie. He addresses him as "Fatty" and tells the dean that Ollie is quite dimwitted.
- Literal-Minded:
- Mr. Vandervere points at the cocktails on a coffee table and says to Stan "Take these drinks!" So Stan drinks them.
- Then Mr. Vandervere tells Stan to serve the salad "undressed"—without dressing, of course. Stan then takes off his maid's dress and serves the salad in his long underwear, which causes Mr. Vandervere to chase both Stan and Ollie out of the place with a shotgun.
- Never My Fault: When the group of Oxford students that prank the boys are found out and expelled, they focus all their ire on Stan and Ollie for "snitching", even though it was their own action (sneaking into the dean's quarters to laugh at their prank) that got them caught, and Stan and Ollie didn't even intentionally rat them out.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Once the big prank is revealed, the Oxford dean directs his anger solely on the perpetrators, expelling them but giving no punishment to Stan and Ollie despite just moments before their having manhandled him, insulted him to his face and made a huge mess in his quarters, recognizing that the boys had simply been acting on misinformation.
- Re-Cut: This film was first released as a four-reel featurette and the first part was added to stretch the movie to feature length for exhibition in Europe. The six-reel version has become the standard edition.
- The Remake: The first part of the feature is a remake of the 1928 silent short From Soup to Nuts.
- Smart People Speak the Queen's English: Lord Paddington's accent is noticeably more posh and formal than Stan's.
- Spit Take: Mr. Vandervere when he sees that Stan interpreted an order to serve salad "undressed" as meaning he should come out from the kitchen wearing only his long underwear.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: When Stan becomes Lord Paddington, he makes Ollie his manservant, and aims a lot of jokes about his weight and his double chin at him. This leads to Ollie angrily leaving.
- We Want Our Idiot Back!: A window falls on Stan's head. It turns out Stan had a case of Identity Amnesia, as the blow to his head causes him to remember that he is Lord Paddington, the "greatest athlete and scholar the university (Oxford) ever had." Lord Paddington speaks with an upper-class RP accent, and is a super-genius. He is also mean, insulting and belittling Ollie while giving Ollie a job as his valet. At the end of the movie Lord Paddington gets whacked on the head by the window again, and turns back into dumb old Stan. Ollie is delighted and gives his friend a hug as the film ends.
- You Can't Miss It: One of the Oxford pranksters does this deliberately, giving Stan and Ollie nonsensical directions for getting through a hedge maze.Student: Now when you enter there, you go to the right, then to the left, then to the right again, and then to the right again. Then after you've been to the right, you keep going right until you come to a left turn again. Then, you go right again, until you find yourself left on the right side.
