Well, the beginning at the soda shop is a bit slow, although it does also contain my favorite gag: when Chase secretly gives the extra ice cream to the customer for laughing at his mother-in-law. It’s one of those blink and you’ll miss it moments that works so well because of how subtle it is. After that, the short stays pretty funny for the most part. Other highlights include Chase’s way of escaping from Bud Jamison (which feels like a Buster Keaton-type gag), when Chase and Bud Jamison are planning together while the sprinklers are on, and Chase annoying the criminal towards the end. There’s a lot of funny stuff throughout, and it is all based around an interesting idea. Also, as usual, Chase does a pretty fun musical number.
The only thing that I hate about it is the really rushed ending. It’s not just rushed; it makes no sense. First of all, Chase is clearly the one holding off the crook with his foot, so how come the officer just assumes that the mother-in-law caught him? Yes, she did have a huge hand in the capture, but there’s no way the officer would have known that. And while the officer did warn Chase about the possibility of getting a sentence for being a fake, it doesn’t make much sense why Bud Jamison is so happy to make Chase serve that sentence, especially since it was a way to get the criminal that did partially work (if Chase hadn’t been there to annoy him, then the guy probably wouldn’t have run into the mother-in-law).
So, overall, a pretty good short that just happens to be bookended by a slow start and a horrible ending.
8 out of 10
