Charlie Chaplin Film by Film Thread. Pt. 3: Mutual

I finally ordered the BFI Mutual set, so looking forward to diving in and catching up here.

 

Four months. Are we ready to move on? I'm not getting any younger!

 

Will try to get back to it. Recording a cd of my original music evenings and weekends now so little free time though December.

 

You ready yet?
PS, Hows the recording coming?

 

Took longer than anticipated. Just prepared detailed notes on things for my producer (Lon Van Eaton) to change from his first mixes and awaiting the remixes. Also working on cover photo and graphic design and may record a couple tracks with another producer.

Sorry for the delays here but hope to get back at it soon .

 

Oooh now you really have my interest!

 

The Pawnbroker (Film #58)
Two reels 26:42
Released October 2nd, 1916

Sorry for the break, but I am back refreshed. This film is the best one yet for me. Not strong on plot, but I don't turn to these films for their plots. It is an endless stream of well timed inventive bits with as many gags tucked into most minutes of this film as made it into a reel from Keystone. There are too many to recount, but I love the pulling himself up a curb by his pants in the opening seconds, the extended fight/dance/ladder sequence with his co-assistant John Rand is classic, and a dough fight recalling Dough and Dynamite. Also notable interactions with feather duster (ending in fan), kitchen rollers, and musical instruments (and/or ladles). Edna is striking in her brief appearances for how much of a real person she comes across as, compared to the stiff stock characters that surround them. Charlie hits the pathos note a couple points midstream (e.g., miming his large family when fired) , timed well so as to add dimension without creating a lull. And the clock dissection deserves its acclaim. Brings to mind for me some later Monty Python customer service bits.

Though the film flows together real well as a whole, it can be viewed as two halves- with the first half attempt to pack in updated versions of Chaplin's greatest Keystone hits culminating in a dough fight, and the second half moving to more "close up" material based on facial expressions (and clock springs).

Rating:
Content: 9.5 /10;
Print 8/10

 

I mistitled the above film. It is actually The Pawnshop. Oops.

 

Charlie is an awful employee. All of the bits with the ladder and pawn sign balls are classic slapstick, stolen repeatedly for decades.

 

Behind the Screen (Film #59)
Two reels 25:23
Released November 13, 1916

This is another "reprise of greatest hits" film. The fourth in a film studio - and even more reminiscent of the one he mande set behind the scenes in a Vaudeville theater, "The Property Man". The slight long bearded cameraman Charlie gets into it here is very reminiscent of someone he similarly gives a hard time in The Property Man, as is the level of physical violence. A bunch of other props also recall earlier films - the piano, the armor head, the bear rug - but he takes each of these things and does something new and inventive with them. Shampooing the bear rug instead of just falling on it and getting scared of it. Charlie also visually invokes our other senses - the pungent smell of raw onions and the clatter of drumming on pie pans (well synched in the Carl Davis score). Other "reprises" are the striking workers who blow up the plant and the cross-dressing in a film studio.

The most stand out quality of this film to me is the dancelike quality of Charlie's movements. In reprised bits like the struggle with a large object (here a giant prop column) they are now much more clearly choreographed and gracefully executed. This is one of the most "large scale" physical of Chaplin's later shorts, which shows this off to great effect. A rare happy ending has Charlie kissing Edna.

So this isn't a ground breaking film, but it shows his evolution within familiar millieus and is a delight to watch.

Rating:
Content: 8/10;
Print 7/10

 

Should of course have mentioned the lever driven trap door as well. Quite a few of the films in this era revolve around some large piece of comic equipment like an escalator or Murphy bed being worked methodically for all its potential, and the trap door is the new gizmo for this one.

 

Responded, thanks for the poke. And actually gave The Rink a view last night too

 

The Rink (Film #60)
Two reels 25:54
Released December 4, 1916

Without question the Chaplin film I have seen the most as when in 2nd grade or so in the early 70s, shortly after catching the theatrical Rerelease of a Modern Times, I got an 8mm print of this (though it likely contained no more than 3/4 of what is out on Blue Ray) that I had my dad project countless times and would even watch on an 8mm film editing station my dad had that I could load up myself and hand crank.

Really almost two disconnected films - the waiter in the restaurant plot that occupy poues the first half could have been a stand alone single realer, highlighted by in through the out door collisions, fun with food, and a unique drink mixing team. It was pretty standard Chaplin fare for the time and is fairly funny, though it traverses well trodden ground.

The second half, revolving around Chaplin using his top notch skating skills to save Edna from Eric Cambpell's advances, is a tour de force of movement that really shows off Charlie's ability on skates, and contains some clever fight footage where Charlie makes several unique uses of his cane. But this half is overall less funny z AMD most interesting to watch for how it shows Chaplin's range and technique.

If I had to pick a time to mark the end of the first slapstick half of Chaplin's career and the beginning of the more sophisticated half with social commentary, the dividing line would come right after this film - one of his last almost purely physical comedies. With this, the last and 8th film of 1916, he had made 60 films in 3 years. After this his pace slowed considerably, as he created only 4 films in 1917.

Rating:
Content 7/10
Print 8/10

 

Gonna take a little time to do a write up of Easy Street, but my initial reaction after 1 viewing is:

In the first 60 films we have on many occasions seen "a great film for 1914/1915/1916"

With "Easy Street" we have, for the first time, "a great film" - as great in 2019 as it was in 1917.

 

Easy Street (Film #61)
Two reels 27:11
Released January 22, 1917

This is his big leap forward as a film maker. A satisfying narrative arc, a developed character and gestural comedy. The opening "finding salvation" scene is beautifully lit, with a natural looking halo effect giving Edna an angelic glow that inspires Charlie to turn honest. Great examples of the gestural Comedy are seen in Charlie's reactions to a baby he believes is wetting him and then, after leaving the mission, decides whether to apply for a police job.

Outfitted in Keystone Kop garb, Charlie is assigned to police "Easy Street" - where he is followed menacingly by a bully who had violently taken out a succession of past policemen. Eric Campbell's "Goliath" nickname is never better exemplified than when Charlie's "David" is trying to police him here. Eric is completely impervious to Charlie's billy club, but Charlie prevails by knocking him unconscious with gas from a streetlamp that Eric broke. There is a very cartoon/dance quality to this whole scene - I could imagine Bugs Bunny in a cop suit playing it with Foghorn Leghorn - showing what Loony Toons owes to Chaplin. When the other cops arrive to haul Eric to jail, Charlie is sitting on Eric, so all presume he won a physical battle and are accordingly awed/terrified of him.

When the bully comes to in the police station, he immediately breaks out of custody and returns to Easy Street where he starts battering his woman - contrastingly cut with scenes of Charlie's helping a poor woman with food (that he steals) to feed her 10 kids (feeding them like chicken). Ultimately the two characters get into a great comic fight/chase scene, with Charlie prevailing this time by dropping a stove on his head from a 2nd story window. Victory does not last long, however, as some local ruffians toss Charlie into a cellar. He has the luck to fall on a needle of cocaine, which endows him with super strength and bravado, enabling him to heroically rescue Edna from a man attempting to assault her in the cellar. We flash forward to a final scene with the neighborhood cleaned up, the residents all respectable, a new mission at the end of the block and Charlie and Edna attending the church as a couple.

OK - typing that all out- it sounds like a lot of loosely connected things to cram together into a two reel film - and they are stitched together in improbable manners. But words don't capture the flow with which Charlie inhabits the character and endows him with humanity that increases through these developments. The laughs are regular, the opening uplifting, the humor subtle, the movement graceful, and the ending satisfying. This is a top notch two reel film and his best yet to kick off 1917.

Rating:
Content 10/10
Print 7/10

 

bump

 

Re: Easy Street, I always enjoyed how the action is mostly located in that small block of buildings. Along with the physical gags, it reads almost like an early Fleischer cartoon. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a Popeye short that echoes this. Great piece and a fave Chaplin of mine! Although the seedy bit in the cellar creeps me out, even now.

 

Somebody if my favorite bits if these Mutual (and Essanay) shirts that never seemed to make it to the features was the Tramp's spontaneous abuse of others outside the context of the plot (i.e. not revenge, or an attempt to get away, or belittle someone also vying for Edna's affection).

An example would be the ladder sequence of the Pawnshop, or giddy moments where he prances along and whacks the first person he sees with something.

These bits of business aren't like the cruel and crude examples from Keystone and they're miles away from the refined Tramp of the features (okay, maybe when he loses his marbles in Modern Times) but really show the childlike qualities of the Tramp during this period.

They're also seriously funny because, as they are not plot related, come off completely unexpected, which is comedy 101 for getting laughs.

 

Addictive thread.

Charlie bump.

 

bump

 

Folks might be interested in the annual Chaplin Days events held by the Nile Essanay Film Museum. This year it's all on-line and it started today! I'm enjoying a fun presentation right now about Chaplin's cultural popularity with early footage of impersonators, kids contest, comics, etc. Imagine, they even had cardboard cutouts of Charlie in the trenches of WWI.

Friday links are all here:

https://nilesfilmmuseum.org/?tv=5855431578091520

 

Saturday's events include a talk by David Robinson will be talking about his book, Charlie Chaplin: His Life and Art, Saturday 10AM PST:

https://nilesfilmmuseum.org/?tv=5868086053306368