Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2026 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Snooky the Chimpanzee (1920-1921)

Contents: A Tray Full of Trouble (1920), Just in Time (1921) and Snooky’s Fresh Heir (1921).

Most of us are aware of the short comedies that helped fill out theatre programs during the 1920s, but few have seen the travelogues and novelty films that augmented those bills of fare.

From the years 1920 through 1924, a chimpanzee named Snooky starred in a series of short comedies produced by C.L. Chester Productions, Incorporated. Often poking fun at the hackneyed plotlines of other comedies and occasionally at their own, the Snooky comedies featured the surprisingly entertaining chimp in a series of human situations. Snooky often was cast as rescuer, pulling together his resources to keep children from harm. And, as only could happen in a silent film, Snooky interacts with those around him, speaking through intertitles.

Not much else is known about the Chester Comedies series of Snooky films. A handful of titles are known, and there may still exist some information about the films’ production in contemporary trade journals and fan magazines. Perhaps this release will spur some investigation into this and other novelty films series.

— Carl Bennett

This unique DVD-R collection of Snooky the Chimp shorts that have been mastered from vintage Kodascope 16mm reduction prints presents good greyscale ranges and image detail. The video transfers for this DVD-R edition have been considerably improved over Grapevine product released in previous years, rendering visual quality that does not approach that of commercial home video producers but is still an improvement.

The print of A Tray Full of Troubles (1920) appears to be missing some bridging footage or is the product of rough editing, but is mostly complete and easy to follow. All prints feature the original main titles and intertitles.

The films are presented with soundtracks compiled from public domain MIDI files processed on a digital piano. Check your sanity after listening to the whole collection.

For our comparative reviews of some of the individual films in this collection, see our Snooky’s Fresh Heir on home video page.

For now, this is our recommended home video edition of these films for a unique perspective of novelty comedies from the 1920s and for its (for a public-domain company) higher-than-usual visual quality.

This review was updated in 2025.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .

Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.