Charlie Chaplin Film by Film Thread

A Film Johnnie (Film #6)
Filmed Feb 1-6, 1914
Shipped Feb 11, 1914
Released March 2, 1914
One reel
Director: George Nichols
Writer: Craig Hutchinson
Producer: Mack Sennett
(Film Studio Comedy #1)

Remarkably, although shooting of this started the day before before Making a Living had even been released, Keystone were already impressed enough with Chaplin that they gave him his first starring role in this film (excluding the very brief and improvised Kid Auto Races), and brought in many of their bigger names like Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Ford Sterling and Henry Lehrman in clearly supporting roles. This also was a far more ambitious production than any of the earlier films Chaplin appeared in, involving 4 or 5 distinct set ups:

The film within a film the Tramp watches
The cinema in which the Tramp watched that film,
The exterior and
The interior of Keystone studio where he watched a film being made (and disrupts it) and
The house on fire that the Keystone crew goes off to film.

That said, the only portion of this film that 100% succeeds for me is Chaplin watching the film within the film. The range of emotions and reactions he displays here are wonderful as he becomes infatuated with the on screen heroine "The Keystone Girl" and really set the scene for what was to come later in his career. Interesting that his fascination with film and film making here is a bit of a continuation of his camera hogging in Kid Auto Races. The bit in the Keystone studio, where Charlie discovers a prop gun (humorously using it as a toothpick and cigarette lighter) and then uses it in an attempt to rescue the lead actress in the production being filmed from the villains in that production - basically by shooting it at everyone in sight - is nice to see particularly as an insight into what film studios looked like in 1914. And his cross-eyed reaction on seeing The Keystone Girl in the flesh is fun to see. But in making the point that Charlie is confused about the line between acting and reality, it also becomes fairly hard for the viewer of A Film Johnnie to follow. And the ending where the studio are alerted to a nearby fire and race off opportunistically to film as a great conclusion to the film they are making seems a bit tacked on - almost making one wonder if a similar happenstance sequence of events led to the inclusion of the fire in A Film Johnnie. One is also reminded a bit of Let It Be where they ponder whether to go up on the room to give the film a good conclusion before actually doing so.

This is Chaplin's first film with George Nichols directing, but it seems Chaplin did not care for him anymore than he cared for Lehrman. Chaplin described Nichols as having "but one gag, which was to take the comedian by the neck and bounce him from one scene to another. I tried to suggest subtler business, but he too would not listen. ‘We have no time, no time!’ he would cry. All he wanted was an imitation of Ford Sterling."

I give this the same rating as Between Showers as, despite being more ambitious, having higher high points, and providing the interesting glimpse behind the scenes, it is less consistently humorous and harder to follow.

Rating:
Content: 7/10
Print: 3/10

 

I am a fan of "Between Showers". In fact, this film makes me feel like Ford Sterling could easily have transitioned in making better films, given the opportunity. The physical comedy between Sterling and Chaplin has a wit to it, it's not just standard Keystone knock-a-bout without purpose. And Sterling's bow-legged jump when he is excited or about to run away is iconic in its own right. I just get a little tired of Sterling trying to provide exposition via his index finger (points to self "I", points to shabby umbrella "have a ragged umbrella, but he", points to Conklin, "has a new one", points to new umbrella, "which I", points to self, "will steal", points to umbrella and makes devious face).

Another step forward in the evolution of the tramp, even if he is simply introduced as "another masher".

 

This is another one of the early films that I really like, and one that gives us a some indication of what is to come. Charlie's reactions to "The Keystone Girl" both on film and in person are very funny, as is his eventually getting pushed around by her near the end of the film. It's entertaining to see Arbuckle and Sterling out of costume, with The Tramp joking about their peculiarities. Although this is still knock-around physical comedy for the most, there is a greater subtlety evident (and either it's the sharper print or the filming style, but we seem able to get much more out of Charlie's facial expressions).

 

Tango Tangles:
Shipped: Feb 7, 1914
Released: March 19, 1914
Directed, Produced & Scenario: Mack Sennett
One Reel 9:51

A likely largely improvised comedy created by Mack Sennett himself, starring Chaplin, Sterling & Arbuckle as a guest and two musicians at a dance who are all vying for the attention of the hat check girl. Notable as one of Chaplin's few performances without facial hair (also true of Ford Sterling here).

The first 2/3 of this film does basically nothing for me other than the novelty factor of Charlie looking dapper. Sterling does a funny job of pretending to play trumpet.

Then the film takes off with 2.5 minutes of fight scenes between Chaplin and Sterling that I think represents some of the finest physical comedy of Chaplin's career, and a perfect pairing (unfortunately the last time they worked together). It is dance as much as anything else. It was watching this scene that the parallel between the styles of Ford Sterling and Michael Richards' Kramer first occurred to me (the resemblance is greater with no facial hair), and I only later extrapolated it back to Between Showers.

So 1/3 of the film would get a 9 on content, but overall for this film I can't go higher than:

Rating:
Content 5/10
Print 3/10

 

Amd that was Film #7

 

This is going to be a loooooooooooooooooooooong thread!

 

There are some worthwhile funny bits scattered through this film. I like Charlie's interaction with the coat check girl, and the two women that he apparently THINKS are the coat check girls. The gag with Arbuckle choosing to throw a HUMAN when he gets angry is surprising and funny, and as you mention, there's plenty of well choreographed physical comedy.

 

His Favorite Pastime (film # 8)
Shipped Feb. 19, 1914
Released March 6, 1914
One reel 12:11
Scenario: Craig Hutchinson
Director: George Nichols
Producer: Mack Sennett

Rather than plowing new ground, this is kind of a reprise of the getting drunk and then following a girl act from Mabel's Strange Predicament - perhaps no accident since that was n theaters when this was being filmed and may well have been meeting with success. However, this film is more directionless without the plotted Predicament of Mabel. The focus if now pretty continuously on Charlie, including some real nice bits battling with a swinging bathroom door, falling over a railing, and creasing his bowler with his cane. But Charlie is not a sympathetic character here - just a rude drunk picking fights (but not interesting ones like in Tango Tangles) and putting a lit cigarette in a person's palm in place of a tip Fatty Arbuckle is in the opening scene trying to steal Charlie's beer.

Content wise I would say this is below average for the Keystone shorts. Add in that it is worse quality than the available prints for any of the preceding films, and that the digital restoration of the print is pixelated at times, and you have a film for only completests to watch.

Rating:
Content 3/10
Print 2/10

 

Ambitious and interesting thread. I would highly recommend tracking down the documentary "Unknown Chaplin" for anyone interested in a good deep dive into this genius' less seen work.

 

Cruel Cruel Love (film # 9)
Shipped March 5, 1914
Released March 26, 1914
One reel 9:23
Scenario: Craig Hutchinson
Director: George Nichols
Producer: Mack Sennett

Charlie is back in a better fitting version of his Making A Living get up, making for 4th of his first 9 films in which he does not use his Tramp outfit.

This film is definitely an experiment that is unlike any of Chaplin's other shorts. It is a comic melodrama in which Chaplin plays a well to do person who tries to commit suicide when his fiancee wants to break up with him due to a misunderstanding. He accidentally drinks water rather than poison, but the butler (and doctors at the butler's behest) fail to let him in on this fact, leading to Charlie spending most of the film chewing the scenery acting like he is dying - while the butler (Edgar Kennedy) laughs behind his back. This really lacks the subtlety that Chaplin usually exhibits and is much more in the broad pantomime style of other Keystone comedians. Somehow it's 9 minute length feels like almost a two reeler due to how little of interest is happening - and how repetitive it is cutting back and forth between Charlie acting like he is dying and the butler laughing. A brief smirk is evoked when he daydreams about being in hell getting poked by devils.

I have read that this is supposed to is nome respects be a parody of the works of DW Griffith, which were certainly very well known at the time. Perhaps familiarity with such works would make this more amusing. But, together with the very low print quality (who knew it snowed that much in Hollywood), this is another that is for completists only.

Rating:
Content 2/10
Print 1.5/10

 

Not too much to recommend this film, apart from the bits that you mentioned (particularly the swinging door routine). It's interesting to see the brief "preview" of "One A.M." as he tries (and fails) to climb the stairs. I'm still not sure what the socialite lady sees in Charlie when he comes up to her car and starts making eyes at her. She's into shabbily (and weirdly) dressed obnoxious drunks?

 

Yeah, I thought about mentioning 1 AM (one of my fav Chaplin shorts) in my write up but it slipped my mind. 1 AM has as its entire premise a drunk having difficulty navigating inanimate objects, so the swinging door bit is also a bit of a forerunner to that.

Peggy Pearce, who played the socialite lady in Pastime was Charlie's first Hollywood relationship. I believe he was 24 and she was 18, so he already had a thing for younger women.

 

She was also "The Keystone Girl" in "A Film Johnnie", so we know how Charlie felt about her.

 

I've always assumed that parts of this print are lost, hence the short running time. That being said, I don't know that those bits could make the film any funnier. This isn't a particularly funny premise to begin with (A situation where someone willing takes what he/she THINKS is poison is not exactly the makings of a laugh riot, despite what the butler thinks), and it mostly beats the one joke to death. Surely this is one of the films that made Chaplin start thinking how much he'd prefer to write his own scenarios and direct his own films.

 

The Star Boarder (film #10)
Shipped March 19 1914
Released April 4, 1914
One reel 11:37
Director: George Nichols
Scenario: Craig Hutchinson
Producer: Mack Sennett

This film has a significant evolution in The Tramp character, as this is the first time he is truly likeable. He flirts with his married landlady throughout the first half of the film, but she is clearly doting on him and he is discrete. Nonetheless, her husband (Edgar Kennedy) gets increasingly annoyed, particularly when a kid who has been taking photos of some of the more suggestive appearing scenes between Charlie and his landlady, decides to display these photos to other characters (including the husband) in a "magic lantern" (slide) show. .

The best physical bits are Charlie's first attempts at playing tennis, a post slide show fight between Charlie (now drunk) and the husband, and Charlie getting tangled in a large vertically suspended bed sheet. But this film is the first Keystone that is more notable for plot and character development than for physical comedy.

While most critics treat this change as a wholly positive development, I remain unconvinced at this point. The problem is that the plot and character development, while getting better, still aren't that gripping. So I go for more of the physical antics being better at this point. Either way, it is nice to see The Tramp doing a bit better and becoming a sympathetic character.

Overall it is a nice return to form after several less successful shorts. Between this and A Film Johnnie, George Nichols started and ended his 4 film run directing Chaplin on high notes.

Rating:
Content 7/10
Print 4/10

 

Tennis became a favorite activity of Chaplin's for the rest of his life after first trying it in the above film.

 

The film has a plot and one consistent premise for the whole reel, but .... it's a comedy that's rarely funny. It seems like 11 minutes of set up for 1 minute of pay off. The son with the camera harks back to the butler from "Cruel Cruel Love" - everything is so overwhelming funny for him that he can't control his hearty laughter (maybe the director's idea was that the audience would laugh too when they saw this - sort of a 1914 version of a laugh track?) I don't see this one as a watershed film necessarily. It just presents the Tramp as a bit less of a reprehensible creature (a tiny bit).

 

Yeah, I was getting at that point too. An evolution and perhaps better as a film but not better as a comedy. That's why my rating didn't go any higher from what I gave a few others. But I kept it at the same level as the best of the earlier Keystones, as not everything has to be a slapstick riot and it is nice to see them trying a more character driven film. I was a bit torn and could have gone lower but not higher.

 

Love Chaplin (and Keaton). Unfortunately I only own the titles that have been issued by Criterion.

 

Mabel at the Wheel (film #11)
Shipped March 31, 1914
Released April 18, 1914
One reel 23:18
Director: Mabel Normand
Scenario: Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett
Producer: Mack Sennett

This is the most disappointing film to me so far. I approached it with high expectations as the first two reeler Chaplin appears in. But this film is so padded out with dull and useless material, it would likely not have been a rousing success from my POV even if it had been trimmed by 50%. A huge amount of time is wasted showing shots of people driving cars, both on streets and on a race track. Perhaps seeing cars driving was enough of a novelty in 1914 that folks found it entertaining, but silent fixed camera images of old fashioned race cars are about as interesting to modern eyes as staring at a still photo of an old fashioned race car. I tend to pin the failings of this film on the 20 year old star and director Mabel Normand, who was likely less an experienced director than someone who leveraged her star power and status as Mack Sennett's girlfriend to insist on directing her own films (something Chaplin also later managed to do, but he was up to the task).

Charlie appears here not as a Tramp but in an outfit along the lines of his appearance in Making a Living and Cruel Cruel Love (but add in a bifurcated goatee that suggests horns on his chin). He is basically what would later become known as a cartoon style over the top villain character (think Dastardly Dan), and is probably less sympathetic here than in any other film. He spends a lot of time early on sticking pins into the other characters and their automobiles to inflict pain and flat tires. Then he kidnaps Mabel's boyfriend to keep him out of the race (result: Mabel takes the wheel instead) and tries various pranks designed to sabotage the race and make Mabel crash. Reportedly Chaplin was directed to try to imitate FOrd Sterling in his acting in this film, a task that he masters with lots of overbroad gestures and little of his own more characteristic subtlety.

So what is there to like here? Chaplin riding his motorcycle with Mabel sharing the seat with him is pretty funny, particularly after she falls off into a puddle and he remains oblivious thinking she is still there until he manages to turn around while riding to note her absence. Mack Sennett makes his first significant appearance in a Chaplin film as a spectator at the race and gets into some funny interactions with Chester Conklin (who I believe is playing Mabel's dad here). But there is not much development in the interactions between them, and the third of the film that consists of going back and forth between 5 seconds of Conklin/Sennett intereaction and 20 seconds of watching Mabel drive does not really sustain interest. There may be some other funny bits that I am failing to note. If so, it is because I find it hard to really pay continuous attention to a 23 minute film that is this dull.

Chaplin also had serious issues with this film and being subject to the direction of a woman 5 years younger than him who refused to take his input on his few comedic scenes. He actually walked out of filming one day in protest and was nearly fired as a result of his disputes (this was the third director he failed to get along with). But apparently just in the nick of time Sennett was contacted by his distributors requesting more Chaplin product as they were the biggest box office draws that Keystone had produced. So his Keystone career was saved by the public response (at least as Chaplin tells it in his autobiography).

One positive result of having it out with Sennett in this regard is that Chaplin would soon be afforded the opportunity to begin directing many of his own films. In fact he started working on one of these right away (writing and co-directing his first one) with the result that it was completed before Mabel at the Wheel (though released a couple days later).

Rating:
Content 2/10
Print 5/10

 

Welcome aboard. We will get to the Criterion releases eventually. If you want to participate before then without buying the Flicker Alley Keystone discs, there are at least versions of all the keystones (albeit subpar ones, which is why I am not linking them to my write ups) available on YouTube. I would love to become more familiar with Keaton as well. But having taken this 80 film project on, I think I will have to hold off until I complete this before delving into any one else from the silent film era.

Maybe you would like to do a Keaton series to introduce folks to his films after mine runs its course?

 

I am not that knowledgeable, unfortunately. I am just a fan of the old classics (Chaplin, Keaton, Stooges).

 

Knowledge isn't really needed. Opinions, reactions and discussions are all good

 

Two whole reels and not a laugh in sight! Chaplin's extensive talents are essentially wasted in this film (any number of actors could have filled his role), and I agree - the Ford Sterling "influence" is clear. I don't know if the film was dull in 1914, but it sure is dull in 2016. It looks like they simply hadn't figured out yet how to shoot action sequences (the car race) in such a way to propel the plot forward. We rarely know which car is which, and we only know who is ahead in the race because of an intertitle. I swear that some of the race sequences and shots of Mabel in the car are repeated in the film, but I'm not going back to check any time soon. It also looks like we get shots of the cars on an actual race way, and those shots are intercut with Chaplin and his gang trying to sabotage Mabel - and those scenes look they were filmed on a suburban street (where did the stands go? where are the rest of the cars?) Mabel and Charlie would have some good moments on screen together shortly, but not this time out - this film is a stinker.

 

Mabel at the Wheel description should have noted up top that it was two reels, not one. Oops.