Naughty Boy - 1927

Country: United States

Director: Charles Lamont

Writer: Charles Lamont

Stars: Lupino Lane, Wallace Lupino and Kathryn McGuire

Release Date: 17 April 1927 (USA)

Production Co: Lupino Lane Comedy Corporation

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Comedy | Short

This is a real corker. It starts off with a terrific routine with an erratic elevator. Lane's character, Johnny Jones, upon sight falls in love with Mary Craig (played by Kathryn McGuire who appears in a number of Lane comedies). The man who hopes to marry her is Henry Sharp played by Wallace Lupino; the title card introducing this character says" Henry Sharp – so mean he would steal a dead fly from a blind spider." Johnny agrees to do his father a favor by posing as his little boy of about 10 years old. The father had told the wealthy widow he hopes to marry that he was only 30 years old. Because of Lane's small stature this is more believable than most comedy routines that have an adult playing a child. The widow has a daughter who is, of course, Mary Craig, the girl Johnny previously met on the elevator and fell in love with. One of the best routines is when Johnny, thinking he has given sleeping pills to the suitor in fact drinks the concoction himself and falls asleep. Different people carry him upstairs (including the widow); he falls down the stairs and is carried back up again. And so it goes.