Charlie Chaplin Film by Film Thread

This one starts out with some promise but mostly peters out without a great payoff. Mack Swain "no selling" (to borrow a term from professional wrestling) Charlie's attack is probably the funniest thing in the film (I like Mabel's mocking imitation of Charlie as well), and we do get Charlie nearly skidding his way all the way out of frame, which is a nice touch. The scenes of Charlie getting bullied in the bar sit uneasily in the middle of the film - they're not funny, but they're not all that effective in creating sympathy for his character either. But they may have been a learning experience that Charlie would cash in in later films.

 

At this point Chaplin, in addition to becoming the writer and director of every film, Chaplin slowed down his pace a bit. From Feb 2 through June, Chaplin films were released almost weekly: 20 films in 21 weeks. And all of Chaplin's work on the feature Tillie had been completed too.

For the rest of his time at Keystone there was an average gap of a week and a half between films, with nearly three weeks elapsing after Mabel's Married Life before the next film.

This is likely connected to the fact that Chaplin now had to engage in preproduction writing and at least oversee set design and post production editing of the films in addition to turning up on camera. Also there were a higher proportion of longer films and he was always either the star or co-star (or for Tillie got second billing). So it's not like he suddenly decided to spend a lot of time on the beach between films.

But I am going to mark this occasion by slowing down the rate at which I am reviewing them. I want to hit Tillie right after its TCM airdate of June 6, as this HD version could be the best version yet seen if not simply sourced from the DVD.

With 15 films to cover in 35 days, if I take about two days for each 1 reel or shorter film and 3 days for the 2 reel films, that should put us right on target. So I will be back with my review of Laughing Gas on Saturday.

 

Laughing Gas (Film #21)
Shipped June 26, 1914
Released July 9, 1914
One reel 12:38
Scenario & Director: Chaplin
Producer: Mack Sennett

This is the first time Chaplin as writer and director has ventured in a new direction rather than trying for a refinement and new twist on a film he had made for others. Assistant in a Dental office who winds up subbing for his boss is a pretty natural setting for slapstick and Chaplin does a real fine job with it. He paces the film nicely by effectively breaking it up into three acts - one as an assistant, a second outside the office, and a third in which his boss is absent and he attends to patients himself. It's also fun that when it opens you think he is the dentist til you see him performing more menial duties

Interesting that as director Chaplin did nothing to rein in the broad gestured over acting of the dentist "Dr Pain" or his patient. Perhaps he thought the contrast showed his own character in better relief? Those Chaplin-free scenes are the worst part of the film. On Charlie's outing, the sequences with Ambrose are particularly fun as they always have a nice dynamic between them, even though we have seen his hat and cane tricks, kicks and brick throwing before. Of course this is the only time someone actually gets injured as the brick knocks a tooth loose, conveniently advancing the plot. Also fun seeing him fall down the stairs pulling the dress off the woman he is hitting on (who turns out to be the dentist's wife).

My favorite interaction in the film is at the start of "act 3" when Chaplin as acting dentist starts treating a young lady played by Helen Carruthers. I mention her name because she is probably the first character in any of these films not played by Chaplin who can actually act like a real person (or perhaps just the only one who tries), rather that making the sort of broad outlandish gestures that most silent actors would make while undergoing dental treatment (see the earlier scene between Dr. Pain and his patient). Charlie gets into a lot of fun antics with her in the dental chair, shining her shows, spinning it around and getting his leg up on her. would make while being treated in a dental chair by an incompetent who is spinning her chair and climbing on her, she makes the sorts of gestures a real person might make. There is also a warm rapport between her and Charlie's characters, sufficient to create a positive feeling about a scene in which he repeatedly uses his dental forceps to turn her nose towards him so he can plant a kiss on her. I looked Helen Carruthers up after being impressed by her here, and learned that she appears in a dozen Chaplin films, of which this is the fourth. Her parts were very minor in the first three. It will be interesting to see if any of her later appearances are of note.

This being a Keystone comedy, it of course ends in a fight (brief in this case), as Ambrose recognizes the acting dentist Charlie as the person who knocked his tooth out to begin with. I find the piano and violin score on the Flicker Alley edition a nice accompaniment to the film, particularly in the closing fight scene.

Print quality is a mixed bag, with quite a bit of footage coming from a very good (but apparently incomplete) print and other parts inserted from noticeably inferior materials, though not as bad as some we have seen. All in all, a promising start to Chaplin's "solo career".

Rating:
Content 7.5
Print 4

 

As an aside: I bought an 8mm copy of "Laughing Gas" in the early '60s, I think from Blackhawk. I had been exposed to Chaplin's Essanay films, which were shown - along with early cartoons - on weekend mornings on local TV in the mid-'50s. What got me was Chaplin's mischievous brashness in "Laughing Gas", as opposed to the more sympathetic tramp character he later became. And I didn't like it as much. Funny, because I thought the incompetence of the Keystone Kops was hilarious.

Chaplin's evolution would be a good lesson for contemporary film comedians.

 

I got a number of those 3 min 8mm reels of Chaplin that Blackhawk sold when I was getting into Chaplin as a kid too. The one I remember best was Lucky Horseshoe, excerpted from The Champion

 

This might be the rare Keystone that suffers from too much plot and time wasted on exposition. As soon as Charlie leaves the screen (as in the scenes in the dentist's home, and the scenes with the Dr. Pain and the unrevivable patient) the movie stops pretty much dead. That complaint aside, we can see Charlie continuing to come into his own. We've got lots of funny little bits filling his screen time - from taking a pulse in all the wrong places to skidding into frame. It is still a bit unnerving that our "hero" laughs after knocking out Ambrose's teeth with a brick, and comes on a bit strong in wooing his pretty "patient" (in 2016 terms, sexually harassing). Still his little kick to get the pretty patient into the office and keep the homely one in the waiting room is funny. Overall, a step forward.

 

My bigger issue with how plotted the film is is that it is actually a bit difficult to follow on first viewing.

I basically try not to apply 2016 ethics to 1914 films. These are I believe overall less violent / sexist / racist than was the norm for the time.

 

The Property Man (Film #22)
Shipped July 20, 1914
Released August 1, 1914
Two reels 24:00
Scenario & Director: Chaplin
Producer: Mack Sennett

Chaplin's first two reeler as a director is his most successful film of this length to date, but still has enough padding particularly in the second half that it would have made a better one reeler. It is great while he is struggling with props and prima donnas backstage. It becomes long winded after the show being put on starts, with too many shots of the acts in the show and the audience for it (with Sennett's over the top gestures).

It is interesting to see an early non-physical bit of humors in Charlie's interactions with other characters as he both flouts and selectively enforces a no smoking sign. My favorite part, which occupies about half of the screen time for the first ten minutes, involves the difficulties Charlie and an elderly co-worker have struggling to move and getting the old man trapped under a large trunk until the strong man comes to free him. Charlie is unsympathetic here, cartoonishly bullying the old man - when not in the receiving end of it from the strong man. Another nice bit comes when Charlie hids a jug of beer in his pants, spills it, and does a funny walk as if he is draining soaked pants with each step. Helen Carruthers again has a decent sized role, as the strong man's assistant, and has nice interactions with Charlie including mimicking his movement.

Once the show starts, there are still some nice moments as curtains fall on people and Charlie rolls folks off stage, and then goes off on folks with a fire hose. But the pace slows down for much of this segment until the final couple scenes. In a meta breaking the fourth wall moment, after Charlie drenches the case of on stage players, he turns the hose onto the onscreen audience.

The print quality is decent for most of the film but there are sprinkled shots through0ut that are as bad as we've seen so far. I like the piano on the Flicker Alley DVD edition as it effectively punctuates many on screen movements.

Rating
Content 6
Print 3

 

A couple more notes on the above.

1. It was based on the Mumming Birds sketch that Chaplin performed with the Karno troupe, though there he was a drunk, not a property man.

2. The difficulties moving a large heavy object clearly foreshadow the piano moving in His Musical Career, which was a major influence on Laurel & Hardy's the Music Box, made 18 years later.

 

Not a big fan of this one. Another Keystone that is a prototype for a far better later film ("Behind the Screen"). Charlie's interactions with his elderly "assistant" are the most interesting parts of the film, and they hover between being funny, being wildly absurd, and being a bit uncomfortable to see, even within the framework of cartoonish Keystone violence (and I say this as a card-carrying Three Stooges fan). It's funny watching Charlie rather dim-wittedly attempting to remove the trunk from on top of the old man by standing on it and pulling. It's absurd when Charlie sends the old man off to get the trunk by helpfully kicking him in the face to provide some inertia. Charlie's bullying of the old man (and standing over him flexing in triumph) after he himself was bullied by the strong man is probably more unintended psychosocial commentary than comedy.

I get the feeling that there are some subtle allusions to turn of the century variety performances that are lost on me. Am I correct in guessing that the "dramatic scene" is from "Uncle Tom's Cabin"? There are two "Our Gang" shorts (one silent, one sound) where they put on their own performance of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" - it must have been such a staple of local theater that the Keystone audience would have instantly recognized it, and that alone may have had some comic import that is lost to me in 2016.

 

Oooops! I fixed it - "Behind the Screen".

 

Interesting the elderly assistant started at Keystone as a Property Man before going on camera.

 

The Face on the Barroom Floor (Film #23)
Shipped July 20, 1914
Released August 10, 1914
One Reel 11:47
Scenario and Director: Chaplin
Producer: Mack Sennett

This film is more interesting than entertaining. It clearly shows Chaplin's growth as an actor and director, being not a standard Keystone "plot" but an adaptation of a poem by Hugh Antoine D'Arcy (presented in lengthy ponderous subtitles). Apart from 2-3 minutes of a framing device featuring the Tramp in a bar, it is basically a drama showing Charlie as a painter losing out on a girl to another man - a story framed as something he is telling to the folks in the bar who buy him a drink. It may have been funnier at the time as it is reportedly a parody of a couple other films that had been made of the poem, but having not seen those, that humor would be lost on me.

The first thing that gets even a momentary chuckle from me occurs 4 minutes into the film when he trips on a polar bear rug. Then 9 minutes in there is a bit of humor as he sees the man who beat him out for the girl getting henpecked by her as he leads a large brood of kids, giving Charlie a chance to show relief at having dodged that bullet. During the ending framing segment there are some elaborate drunken prat falls and a bar fight before passing out (one imagines he had to give Sennett something recognizable as comedy), but it is too little too late.

So it is interesting for devotees to see Charlie doing something radically different, and developing his ability to act and direct in a dramatic fashion would be key later in his career. For those reasons I wont call this film a misstep. But nor can I recommend it on its own merits. At least Charlie is still fun to watch moving around on screen.

Rating
Content: 3/10
Print: 4/10

 

Researching the next film in line, I found out that one of the few remaining celluloid copies of Recreation is owned by Ray S's co-author Doug Sulpy. Small world.

 

I've been travelling so I'll have to chime in on "Face on the Barroom Floor" tomorrow. Since you mentioned Doug, the first time I saw a "restored" version (the reissue prints badly jumble the order of the film and cut out intertitles that provide context) of "Face" it was one that Doug had created (this was long before the Keystone restorations were done). The two of us did consider doing a Chaplin Keystones book together briefly after the first DDSI, but we were not convinced that a market would exist, but we are both big fans of CC.

 

Recreation (Film #24)
Shipped July 21, 1914
Released August 10, 1914
Split reel 6:22
Scenario and Director: Chaplin
Producer: Mack Sennett
(park comedy #6)


As Chaplin was slowing the pace of releases since he started directing, he tried to live up to the expected schedule by making this one split reel quickie in a single afternoon at his favorite location (25% of his films so far start in the park). There isn't much new here, just a park comedy boiled down to its bare essence of flirting, fighting, cops, a bench and a lake. No stolen object this time. Humorous bits include Charlie falling off a railing back on to the bridge when he is going to jump, feigning examining a brick when a cop sees him winding up, using his cane to hook a cop's leg and send him sprawling, and the woman (likely Helen Carruthers) using a similar move on Charlie with her leg.

This film is one case in which I would avoid the Flicker Alley Chaplin at Keystone version. The image quality is so bad, including framing that regularly misses the character's heads, that it is impossible to enjoy the film - until the last minute or so when it is suddenly the best quality of any of the films so far. Remembering this is why I had given a print quality 1.5 to Cruel Cruel Love and Caught in the Rain - I was leaving "1' for this one. But due to better prints of Recreation having surfaced, I am revising my print quality rating for the former 1.5s down to 1s.

However, this - along with "A Thief Catcher" - is one of two Chaplin films that just came out on BluRay on the Flicker Alley Mack Sennett vol. 1 collection of 50 shorts. I learned that this new release was an improved version - so I went poking around on YouTube to see if I could find anything better, and I found the one linked above.

I don't know how this version compares to the new BR one (it would be interesting to hear if anybody has seen that one - or Doug's print), but it is a quantum leap over the DVD version I have, to the extent that watching it that way is the first time I have been able to enjoy the film. Seeing heads and expressions is key. This version actually runs about a minute shorter than the DVD version, but I think that is mostly due to a faster running speed and shorter titles.

Rating (based on version at Charlie Chaplin in RECREATION (1914) » ).
Content 3/10 (Flicker Alley version = 2)
Print 3/10 (Flicker Alley version = 1)

 

This is just a weird film. Certainly there's some 1914 context here that a modern audience (me included) doesn't get. But if the film is meant to parody or satirize the poem, or similar films based on poems, it sure doesn't try all that hard to be funny. There's a lot of exposition here (and lots of intertitles!) for a one reel "farce comedy". The punchline at the end is very good, just not quite worth the wait.

 

Thanks for the link to the "new" print - it is indeed miles ahead of the one on the Chapin Keystones box. Still, even with the better print, there's just not much of a FILM here. This has the feel of leftover pieces from other "park" comedies. Still, it is a funny notion that the Tramp can be "talked out" of suicide just by having a pretty girl walk by and give him the eye for a couple of seconds. He made worse .

 

Ive been following along so far. I'm a big Chaplin fan but I really get into his films starting after the Keystone days (Kid Auto Races is great though, I've seen that a few times). I can't wait for you to get into discussing the Essanay and Mutual shorts!

 

The Masquerader (Film #25)
Shipped August 12, 1914
Released August 27, 1914
One reel 12:21
Scenario and Director: Chaplin
Producer: Mack Sennett
(Film studio comedy #2; Drag comedy #2)

This is a refreshingly distinct film, starting with Charlie basically as himself, arriving at the Keystone studio before applying his Tramp makeup and getting into costume (though already suffering the director pulling him by the ear). He shares a dressing room with Fatty Arbuckle and, while trying to steal sips from Fatty's beer, is made to drink hair product and gets swatted, then retaliates with foot odor. Once in costume, he misses his cue because he's too busy chatting up some girls, doing a magic trick with one of their stuffed animals. When he does go "on camera", he engages in some silly fighting (including a tickle) that does not meet the director's satisfaction, and is kicked off the production in two stages (first being replaced by Chester Conklin, who Charlie restrains to get another go at the scene, then being kicked out of the studio entirely). A couple nice bits in the chase involve him climbing through a set window, then appearing still on the same level because it's just a set; and the director chasing him onto the set of a different film. He also affects sadness for one of the first times on screen, at losing his job.

Act 2: Chaplin comes back disguised as an attractive girl. Unlike the shrew he portrayed in a Busy Day, here he acts the part quite well and convincingly - though the on screen actresses look a bit less convinced than the on screen actors. This segment largely features the lady warding off the director's advances. While it is fun to see Charlie adopt this part so fluidly and feminize his movements, the funny aspects of this segment come largely where he lets little bits of his old self show through - stealing a puff on a cigarette when nobody's looking, doing a hop / skid turn in a long dress, and making an angry fist. The drag segment lasts about 3 minutes before Charlie gets back into Tramp gear, the director figures out he was the girl, and a chase with bricks ensues with Charlie landing at the bottom of a well.

This is not as much nonstop comedy as some of the Keystones - but it is nicely paced with plenty of chuckles, highlights a lot of sides of Chaplin, and tells a coherent story. An improvement from his first behind the film studio comedy A Film Johnny (6 months and 19 films ago).

Rating:
Content 7.5/10
Print: 3/10

 

This film is like a little glimpse into the future. It has the pacing, wit, and quality of an Essanay or even a Mutual. It has a number of gags that take some time to set up, but have longer and more sustained pay offs (like the bit with Roscoe and the beer). Surely audiences were thrilled to see Chaplin's transformation into the Tramp, and rooted for him while he made a fool of the lecherous director. For my money, probably the best Keystone to date.

 

The print on the "Mack Sennett" blu-ray is mostly from my 16mm print which I suspect Paul upgraded in spots with the excerpts from "Recreation" seen on the "Charlie Chaplin Comedy Theater" version of "His Trysting Places." The version on YouTube lifts material from the Sennett blu-ray, and appends the better quality end of the film from the Keystone DVD.

Hi, Ray!

 

Awesome - so it sounds like apart from the resolution issues of YouTube (which pale in comparison to the other defects of such prints) the version up there is the best that can be viewed. Thanks for contributing and hope you stick around the thread.

 

Hi Doug. Thanks for sharing the info ... and the print!

 

Just checking in. I have been lurking and absorbing the conversation between Ray and Rfreeman. I have little to add on the Keystones. The novelty factor these had at the time of their release is not there for me. The slapstick is often mean and spiteful, and Sennett's frenetic chases are tiresome after a while. I guess you can see too many of these things. The plots are obvious and were aimed at the lowest common denominator. Really lowbrow. Thats why Charlie was such a breath of fresh air. You saw the beginnings of pathos here, not just physical slapstick and pratfalls.

So yeah I'm still with you. Waiting for the end of the Keystones.