Charles Chaplin Movies
The first great screen comedian, Charles Chaplin was also one of the most gifted directors in history, in addition to being a formidable talent as a writer and composer. The son of music hall performers from England, he began working on the stage at age five. He was a popular child dancer and got work on the London stage, eventually moving up to acting roles. It was while touring America in 1912 that Chaplin was spotted by Mack Sennett, the head of Keystone Studios, and he was signed to them a year later. After a disappointing, relatively non-descript debut, Chaplin began evolving the persona that would emerge as his most famous screen portrayal, The Little Tramp, and after his first 11 movies, Chaplin began to manifest a desire to direct. By his 13th film, he had shifted into the director's chair, and also emerged as a writer.Chaplin's 35 movies at Keystone established him as a major film comedian and afforded him the chance to adapt his stage routines to the screen. He next moved on to Essanay Studios, where he had virtually complete creative freedom, and The Little Tramp became an established big-screen star. In 1916, Chaplin went to Mutual, earning an astronomical 10,000 dollars per week under a contract that gave him absolute control of his films -- the Mutual titles, most notably The Immigrant and Easy Street, are still counted among the greatest comedies ever made. These modestly proportioned two-reelers were followed by Chaplin's move to First National Studios, where he made lengthier, more ambitious, but fewer films, including the comedy The Kid, which was the second highest grossing silent film after D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, and made an overnight sensation of his co-star, Jackie Coogan. By this time, Chaplin had become an international celebrity of a status that modern audiences can only imagine because he achieved his success through comedy. With three other screen giants, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and D.W. Griffith, he founded United Artists, the first modern production and distribution company, and achieved further renown as a director with A Woman of Paris two years later. In 1925, he made what is generally considered his magnum opus, The Gold Rush.
Chaplin's success continued into the sound era, although he resisted using sound until Modern Times in 1936. He had his first failure in 1940 with the anti-Hitler political satire The Great Dictator at about the same time that his personal life -- he had been involved in several awkward problems with various women, including a paternity suit filed against him by aspiring actress Joan Barry -- began to catch up with him. Chaplin's career during the immediate post-World War II period was marred by continuing problems, as his pacifism and alleged anti-American views led to investigations. He also made the black comedy Monsieur Verdoux, which failed at the box office. It was followed, however, by the best of his sound comedies, Limelight, which, because of his legal difficulties, didn't open in Los Angeles until two decades later -- when its score, written by Chaplin, received an Oscar. A King in New York, in 1957, and The Countess From Hong Kong, made nine years later, closed out his career on a lackluster note.
After D.W. Griffith, Chaplin was the most important filmmaker of the silent film era. Through his clear understanding of film and its capabilities, and his constant experimentation -- he frequently ran though hundreds of takes to get just the right shot and effect he wanted -- he set most of the rules for screen comedy that are still being followed, and his onscreen image remains one of the most familiar. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1915
Charlie Chaplin's ninth film for Essanay contains his third and last female impersonation. It begins, as so many of Chaplin's early films do, in a park. Edna Purviance is seated on a park bench with her parents (Charles Insley and Marta Golden). Mother has fallen asleep and is snoring loudly, much to Edna's disgust. Bored, Edna herself soon falls asleep and Father, spotting a fetching lady (Margie Reiger), chases after her. Charlie appears wandering through the park and, after Father departs to buy sodas, joins Margie and flirts with her. When Father returns, he is enraged and hits Charlie on the head with one of the soda bottles, escorting Margie away. A couple of dandies out for a stroll, Leo White and Billy Armstrong, sit down next to Charlie and when he's caught taking a sip out of one of their sodas, they fight. Leo runs away and Billy is knocked unconscious.
Meanwhile Father and Margie are playing hide-and-seek and Margie has taken the opportunity of a blindfolded Father to escape. Charlie comes upon him and leads him around by the neck with his cane until they reach the lake into which Charlie throws Father. Charlie wanders off to discover Edna and Mother, still asleep. Awakened, they become acquainted, inviting Charlie home for tea. Father meets Billy and invites him home for a drink. When they show up at home, Charlie is recognized and when a fight breaks out, Charlie runs upstairs to hide.
Hiding in Edna's room, he dons her dress and hat. Edna, finding Charlie in the hall, falls down laughing at Charlie's female impersonation, but suggests he shave his mustache and don a pair of her shoes. When this is done, the illusion is perfect. So perfect that both Father and Billy are totally fooled and flirt outrageously with Charlie, much to Edna's amusement and Mother's anger. Both men ask for a kiss and Charlie suggests that they kiss opposite cheeks at the count of three. Of course Charlie steps back at "three" and the men kiss each other. This starts another fracas during which Billy is ejected from the house. Still enamored, Father accidentally pulls off Charlie's dress, revealing his true identity. Edna intervenes and begs forgiveness for Charlie, but Father gives him the boot and he ends up on the sidewalk beside Billy, to whom he delivers a knockout slap as the film ends. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
Meanwhile Father and Margie are playing hide-and-seek and Margie has taken the opportunity of a blindfolded Father to escape. Charlie comes upon him and leads him around by the neck with his cane until they reach the lake into which Charlie throws Father. Charlie wanders off to discover Edna and Mother, still asleep. Awakened, they become acquainted, inviting Charlie home for tea. Father meets Billy and invites him home for a drink. When they show up at home, Charlie is recognized and when a fight breaks out, Charlie runs upstairs to hide.
Hiding in Edna's room, he dons her dress and hat. Edna, finding Charlie in the hall, falls down laughing at Charlie's female impersonation, but suggests he shave his mustache and don a pair of her shoes. When this is done, the illusion is perfect. So perfect that both Father and Billy are totally fooled and flirt outrageously with Charlie, much to Edna's amusement and Mother's anger. Both men ask for a kiss and Charlie suggests that they kiss opposite cheeks at the count of three. Of course Charlie steps back at "three" and the men kiss each other. This starts another fracas during which Billy is ejected from the house. Still enamored, Father accidentally pulls off Charlie's dress, revealing his true identity. Edna intervenes and begs forgiveness for Charlie, but Father gives him the boot and he ends up on the sidewalk beside Billy, to whom he delivers a knockout slap as the film ends. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, (more)
- 1915
The Champion, Chaplin's third film for Essanay, is easily one of the funniest and is his most advanced film to date in plotting and characterization. We meet Charlie and his bulldog sharing a found hot dog, which the dog won't eat until it is salted. They pass a gymnasium advertising for sparring partners. Charlie finds a lucky horseshoe and after witnessing the condition of the previous sparring partners, he decides to employ it in his left boxing glove. He thereby kayos the club champ and becomes the new golden boy. He begins to train for the big championship fight against Champ, Bud Jamison. The beautiful daughter of the Gym owner, Edna Purviance gets his interest and seems taken with him. A shady character Leo White, a slimy betting tout, oozes into camp and tries to bribe Charlie into throwing the big fight, but while Charlie takes his money, he treats him with total contempt. On the day of the fight, Charlie says an emotional goodbye to his dog and enters the ring. In the audience are cowboy-star Bronco Billy Anderson, one of the founders of Essanay (whose initials, along with partner George K. Spoor's are the source of its name), and Ben Turpin as the vendor. The hilarious slapstick prizefight is pretty even at first, but by the fourth round Charlie's getting the worst of it. Seeing the trouble his master is in, the bulldog jumps into the ring and restrains the opponent by the seat of his pants while Charlie delivers a series of coup-de-grace punches. Charlie is hoisted on the shoulders of his cornermen as the new Champion. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1915
The title of Charlie Chaplin's fifth comedy for Essanay refers to the popular term for a Model T Ford, a jitney. Its theme of impersonation was one Chaplin had used before in Caught in a Cabaret and Her Friend the Bandit, and would use again in The Count and other films. Chaplin's girlfriend Edna Purviance is about to be forced by her father to wed the wealthy Count de Ha-Ha (Leo White), whom neither has met. Chaplin, dropping by for a visit, stands below her bedroom window whistling for her. She tosses him a note from the Count, announcing his visit and pleads to be rescued. Chaplin impersonates the Count and is welcomed by her mercenary father. He's given drinks and cigars and sits down to lunch with Purviance and her father. Chaplin performs a bit that he had done in one of the Karno sketches, that of carving a loaf of bread into a spiral and using it as an accordion. Although his table manners are decidedly not upper class, Chaplin pulls off the impersonation until the real Count arrives. The enraged father kicks Chaplin out of the house, then goes out for a spin with Purviance and the Count in the latter's car. They drive to a park where father hopes the Count can sweet-talk Purviance into marrying him. At first horrified by his intentions, she breaks out into gales of laughter at the sight of the tattered seat of his pants. Chaplin happens by and steals Purviance away, dispatching Count and father, along with a couple of cops. The fleeing couple steal the Count's jitney, and lead Count, father and cop, now following in a car they've taken, on a merry chase. The chase leads them to a pier, where in a clever stop-motion photography scene, the cars jockey about until Chaplin bumps the other car off the pier and into the water. A happy Chaplin and Purviance are about to kiss as the film fades out. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1915
Charlie Chaplin began his new job at Essanay Studios, who lured him away from Keystone with an offer of $1250 a week plus a bonus of $10,000, with a parody film on his former employer. It features two actresses at the beginning of their careers in minor roles -- Gloria Swanson and Agnes Ayres. Charlie applies for work at the Lockstone Motion Picture Company. Arriving at the office just after him is cross-eyed comedian Ben Turpin. Charlie is interviewed by the boss who uses a funnel and long tube as a hearing aid. Charlie uses the device with a cigarette in his mouth which gets lodged in the funnel. Charlie tries to dislodge it by pouring ink into the funnel and blowing but ends up with the ink on his own face. Hired as an assistant carpenter/prop man, he disrupts rehearsals and gets into trouble with the director. He is told to don an extra's military costume for the Russian melodrama being filmed, but he goes instead into the star's dressing room and steals his costume. Charlie is as inept as an actor as he is a carpenter, sitting on the train of the leading lady's gown, tearing it off as she walks up a staircase and blowing his nose in it as he overacts tearfully. (This scene contains one of the first dolly shots in Chaplin films). He later topples a large column which lands on top of him, and he is sat upon by Turpin, who, having replaced him as prop man is called to lift the column. Eventually, the star actor arrives, and, enraged at finding his costume missing, starts a melee on stage which ends with everyone but Charlie unconscious. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1915
A Night at the Show is the most elaborate two-reeler directed by Charlie Chaplin during his 1915-1916 stay at Essanay studios. Based on "A Night in an English Music Hall," the Fred Karno-produced ensemble sketch which brought Chaplin to the U.S. in 1910, the film is set in a crowded theater, where a series of mediocre variety acts try to entertain the audience. Chaplin plays two roles: a slick-haired dandy in the orchestra seats, who flirts with the female performers at every possible opportunity, and "Mr. Rowdy," a walrus-mustached drunkard who heckles the actors from the balcony. The film comes to an abrupt end when Mr. Rowdy gets hold of a fire hose and douses everyone in sight. A Night at the Show is usually released on video in tandem with several other Essanay Chaplin films, notably The Bank and Shanghaied. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Chaplin, Fred Goodwins, (more)
- 1915
The Tramp, Charlie Chaplin's sixth film for Essanay, is generally considered his first masterpiece. It is the first of his films that blended pathos with comedy and contains subtle pantomime along with the knockabout slapstick. Charlie is truly a tramp in this film, wandering down a dusty country road carrying his bindle. He is knocked down by near misses from two passing autos and pulls a whisk broom from his pocket and dusts himself off. He sits by a tree to eat his lunch, but it is stolen by a hobo (Leo White). Despondent, Charlie salts some grass and eats it. We next meet a farm girl (Edna Purviance) and her father (Fred Goodwins), who gives her some cash and sends her on an errand. She stops on her way to count her money and is robbed by a sinister hobo (Leo White). Her cries bring Charlie, who rescues her from the hobo and two other tramp thieves. The girl brings Charlie home to the farm, where he is rewarded with a job as a farmhand. He is inept at the job, the source of several funny scenes with a fellow farmhand (Paddy McGuire). The three thieving hoboes show up and try to involve Charlie in a scheme to rob the farmer's money. Charlie foils their efforts by hitting them on their heads with a mallet as they reach the top of the ladder that he has set up at his bedroom window.
Farmer Fred, alerted by the noise, grabs his shotgun and chases off the crooks, but Charlie gets shot in the leg accidentally. This scene is played completely straight and is utterly convincing as Charlie passes out from the pain. Charlie is next seen recuperating from his injuries, lounging at an outdoor table with the farm girl and squirting seltzer into his drink. But his happiness is short-lived. Her boyfriend (Lloyd Bacon) arrives on the scene and Charlie, seeing that his love for her is unrequited, goes into the farmhouse and writes a note: "i thout your kindness was love but it ain't cause i seen him." He turns his back to the camera and picks up the girl's hat, kisses it, and walks outside. Bidding the two farewell, Charlie refuses the money offered by the boyfriend. The film closes with what would become Chaplin's classic ending -- Charlie walking sadly back along the road, but suddenly putting an optimistic little spring in his step as the camera irises in. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
Farmer Fred, alerted by the noise, grabs his shotgun and chases off the crooks, but Charlie gets shot in the leg accidentally. This scene is played completely straight and is utterly convincing as Charlie passes out from the pain. Charlie is next seen recuperating from his injuries, lounging at an outdoor table with the farm girl and squirting seltzer into his drink. But his happiness is short-lived. Her boyfriend (Lloyd Bacon) arrives on the scene and Charlie, seeing that his love for her is unrequited, goes into the farmhouse and writes a note: "i thout your kindness was love but it ain't cause i seen him." He turns his back to the camera and picks up the girl's hat, kisses it, and walks outside. Bidding the two farewell, Charlie refuses the money offered by the boyfriend. The film closes with what would become Chaplin's classic ending -- Charlie walking sadly back along the road, but suddenly putting an optimistic little spring in his step as the camera irises in. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, (more)
- 1915
In his second Essanay comedy Charlie Chaplin is teamed with cross-eyed comic Ben Turpin as two drunks on a spree. It is noteworthy as his first film with Edna Purviance, who was to be his love interest in films for the next eight years, and in real life for the next three. It combines elements from at least three Keystones, Mabel's Strange Predicament, The Rounders and Caught in the Rain, but uses a number of comic transpositions of the type that were to become Chaplin's hallmark. Charlie and Ben carouse to a saloon and a restaurant, incurring the wrath of a French boulevardier and a restaurant manager. Ejected from the restaurant, they return to their hotel room where they meet Edna, whose room is across the hall. Charlie flirts with Edna until her husband, the restaurant manager, returns and chases him away. Charlie and Ben then have a fight, and Charlie packs and leaves the hotel, checking into another one nearby. Edna and hubby decide they don't like the hotel either and move into Charlie's. Charlie undresses for bed in his room while Edna, across the hall, plays fetch with her dog. When she throws her slipper into the hallway, the dog takes it into Charlie's room and under his bed. Chasing the dog, Edna hides under Charlie's bed when he re-enters the room from the bathroom. He escorts her back to her room but is caught there by the irate husband. When hubby draws a pistol, Charlie escapes through the window but makes his way back into the hotel. He encounters Ben who has come looking for Charlie's share of the rent on their former room, and a fight ensues in which Charlie ends up floundering in the bathtub. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Chaplin, Ben Turpin, (more)
- 1914
In Charlie Chaplin's 21st Keystone film, Chaplin is the prop man and general factotum at a vaudeville house. The artists arrive backstage as Chaplin swigs beer from a pitcher, refusing to share with his elderly, hunchbacked assistant, whom he mistreats throughout. The headliners are the Goo-Goo Sisters, with whom Chaplin flirts outrageously, while hiding his beer in his roomy pants, only to be undone when he bends to pick up one of the ladies' purses. Garlico the Strong Man and his assistant arrive, and Chaplin must struggle to load in his heavy props trunk and the trunks of the other acts. He shifts his burden to his assistant, making him carry the heavy trunk on his back, while Chaplin carries a hat box. After an argument over dressing rooms, the show begins before a rowdy audience which includes Keystone boss Mack Sennett in his "Rube" character. Chaplin messes up the acts, going onstage, dropping scenery backdrops at the wrong time and fighting with his assistant all the while. When the strong man's assistant is accidentally knocked out during the fighting, Chaplin takes her place, disrupting Garlico's act by ripping a piece of cloth behind his back as he lifts each weight, making him think that it's his costume that has ripped. When the infuriated Garlico attacks Chaplin, a melee breaks out which ends with Chaplin grabbing a fire hose and soaking actors, scenery and audience alike, anticipating similar gags in the subsequent films, A Night in the Show and A King in New York. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Chaplin, Josef Swickard, (more)
- 1914
Although better known as Charlie Chaplin's 17th appearance in a Keystone comedy, The Knockout is really a Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle film. The big event in Fatty's town is a prizefight in which champ Cyclone Flynn will meet all comers. Fatty is tricked into accepting the fight by two hobos who are making book on the fight. Through a note ostensibly from Flynn, they offer Fatty a split if he throws the fight, but Fatty, thinking one of the hobos is Flynn, refuses. The real Flynn arrives and dispatches the impostors. The match proceeds with heavy betting going on and Fatty's girlfriend dressed as a boy in order to gain entrance to the arena. Charlie is the referee who is constantly being knocked down by the fighters because he keeps getting in between them. Angered by losing after a short count, Fatty grabs two six-guns from a gambler at ringside and begins firing in all directions. Cyclone takes to his heels and a classic rooftop Keystone chase ensues, with the Keystone Kops in pursuit of Fatty, in pursuit of Cyclone. When the Kops lasso Fatty, he drags six of them along the ground by the rope until he leaps off a pier taking them all with him. With everyone treading water, the Kops surround Fatty as the film ends. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Minta Durfee, (more)
- 1914
Charlie Chaplin's 25th Keystone comedy is a park farce on the same order as many of his earlier shorts. It opens with a famous shot of Charlie sitting on a park bench, reading Police Gazette, the National Enquirer of its time. A couple nearby are unhappy; the boy, Charles Parrot (later known as Charley Chase), has to take care of his gouty, wheelchair-bound uncle, preventing him from going off with his girlfriend, Gene Marsh. He gets an idea -- find someone to push uncle around for the day. He finds Charlie, of course, but not before his girlfriend encounters the Tramp. She accidentally drops her purse in front of him and he retrieves it and tries to flirt. When Charlie agrees to push Uncle around, the Nephew finds his girlfriend and they go off for a stroll. Wheeling Uncle past a saloon, Charlie asks for an advance for a drink but the Uncle refuses. Charlie pushes Uncle to a nearby pier where another invalid in a wheelchair with a tin cup and a "Help A Cripple" sign has fallen asleep. Charlie deftly puts the sign and cup on Uncle, who is also dozing. The first contribution is enough to send Charlie off to the saloon for a drink. Meanwhile the couple arrives at the pier and finds the sleeping Uncle in this embarrassing position. Gene laughingly teases her beau as they again escape. Another charitable soul comes by and drops a coin in the cup which awakens the cripple who takes back his sign and cup and strikes Uncle on his gouty foot with his cane. Charlie arrives quite tipsy and wheels Uncle further along the pier, amusing him with his Police Gazette. The couple has meanwhile had a fight, and the girl arrives on the pier and sits down next to Charlie. He begins flirting again, and when Uncle tries to interfere, Charlie pushes him right to the end of the pier. Nephew arrives and is enraged to see Charlie and Gene together. A scrap begins also involving a couple of Kops, one of whom shoos the boyfriend away before being pushed off the pier. The other Kop pinches Uncle as a troublemaker, leaving Charlie and Gene to walk off together. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Chaplin, Charley Chase, (more)
- 1914
This typical Keystone slapstick comedy was Charlie Chaplin's first appearance on film. An Englishman (Chaplin) cons a newspaper reporter (Henry Lehrman) out of some money. The Englishman flirts with a young woman who later turns out to be the reporter's girlfriend, and the reporter and the Englishman fight. Later, the Englishman talks his way into a job at the same newspaper where the reporter works. When the reporter takes some photos of an automobile accident as it happens, the reporter and the Keystone Kops help the driver, and the Englishman steals the photos. He rushes them back to the paper, and they are immediately put in the latest edition. The newspaperman catches up with him, and they begin fighting in the street, and the film ends as a streetcar cowcatcher sweeps them up. Chaplin is barely recognizable in this film, sporting a monocle, a top hat, and a walrus moustache. While this costume had been used in his stage appearances, he quickly realized that it was not appropriate for a film comedian. He would devise his famous costume of the tramp in his next film Mabel's Strange Predicament. Chaplin was unhappy when he saw the finished film because many of the gags that he had performed had been cut out by Lehrman, the director. However, this is typical of Mack Sennett's Keystone comedies, where there is a lot of running around and fighting, and not a lot of funny gags. ~ Bruce Calvert, All Movie Guide
- 1914
In Charlie Chaplin's fifth Keystone comedy we get a look inside the famous laugh factory. Charlie is a movie fan and we first see him creating havoc at a theatre where he gets too involved with the action on the screen and the beautiful actress in the film. Ejected from the theatre, he proceeds to Keystone itself where he mooches money from Roscoe Arbuckle as he arrives at work. Charlie sneaks into the studio and disrupts the filming, much to the chagrin of the director. He mistakes a scene where the starlet is being manhandled for reality and comes to her rescue. Firing a prop pistol in all directions, he clears the stages before leaving. Meanwhile, a Keystone scout sees a building on fire in a nearby street and telephones the studio. In a parody of Mack Sennett's propensity to use public events and disasters as backdrops for his films, the cast and crew rush off to do some location filming at the fire. Charlie shows up and again disrupts the filming, causing the director to take after him brandishing a club. The firemen arrive and seeing the struggle between the director and his assistants who are trying to restrain him, turn the hoses on the fighting men. Charlie again tries his luck with the beautiful actress and receives a good shaking in response, followed by a soaking by the fire squad. In a classic Chaplin move, he twists his ear as water squirts from his mouth. When the beautiful actress laughs at his condition, a water-logged Charlie gives up on his movie fanaticism. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1914
In Charles Chaplin's seventh film for the Keystone Company, the Little Fellow's favorite pastime is drinking and chasing women. The film opens in a saloon where Charlie is partaking of a free lunch and teasing a down-on-his-luck Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle who is trying to bum a drink. We see an early Chaplin "transposition" gag when Charlie tries to light a sausage, thinking it's a cigar. After leaving the bar, Charlie accosts beautiful but married Peggy Pierce (with whom Chaplin was involved romantically at the time) as she and her maid wait for her husband to return to their taxi. After being shooed away by the husband, Charlie returns to the saloon and gets into fights with various patrons. In the men's washroom after Charlie polishes his shoes with a towel, he hands the towel to a man who has soap in his eyes, causing him to blacken his face. Exiting the bar again, he follows the maid's taxi home and gets into a melee with the maid, the maid's employer and her employer's irate husband, who, with the aid of his household servants, ejects Charlie from their home. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1914
Charlie Chaplin's musical career is as a piano mover for a music store in this, his 31st comedy for Keystone. The film was a direct inspiration for Laurel and Hardy's 1932 short, The Music Box. His Little Fellow is not a tramp but a hard-working laborer. Charlie is first seen applying for his job, being examined, muscles and even teeth, by Mack Swain. In the showroom, we see Mr. Rich (Fritz Schade) deciding to buy a piano from salesman Charley Chase, and a few moments later, Mr. Poor being threatened that his piano will be repossessed if he can't make his payments. Mack and Charlie are sent to deliver the one piano and pick up the other, for which, of course, they will mix up the addresses. As they take the piano outside, Mack pulls Charlie along the showroom floor, as Charlie smiles to the camera, expressing his delight in a free ride. They load the piano onto the horse-drawn wagon. At one point the slope is so severe that when Mack leans to the back of the wagon, the donkey is lifted right off the ground. Arriving at Mr. Poor's house the residents are delighted that they seem to be receiving a free piano, as Charlie carries the piano on his back and must be straightened out by boss Mack. Next, the movers proceed to Mr. Rich's house and proceed to take his piano, over the objections of Mrs. Rich Cecile Arnold. Mr. Rich arrives as Charlie and Mack get the piano out to the sidewalk. A kick to Mack's backside sends Charlie, Mack, and the piano skidding down a steep hill, and to Mr. Rich's horror, into Echo Lake in Westlake Park where Charlie plays some last notes before they begin to sink. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1914
Charlie Chaplin's 18th film for Keystone was likely co-written and co-directed by co-star Mabel Normand. It was shot entirely on location at an automobile racetrack during a racing event. Mabel plays a hot dog vendor who sneaks in to the track by bribing the cop who guards the gate. As soon as she sets up shop she's accosted by various male customers who give her a hard time by refusing to pay, or returning a hot dog when she has no change. Chaplin isn't dressed in his usual Tramp outfit, but as a race track tout in a frock coat with a flower in his lapel. He is clearly broke -- he sneaks into the stadium by beating up a cop and crashing past a ticket taker and, finding one of Mabel's hot dogs on the ground, first tries to light it from the stub of his cigar, and then eats it hungrily. Charlie rescues Mabel from a particularly aggressive customer but then steals her tray and tries to sell the hot dogs himself. The other racetrack fans give him a hard time as well, jostling him about and knocking off his hat. Meanwhile, Mabel has fetched a cop who the agile Chaplin bests in a fight. Defeated, Mabel bursts into tears and Charlie, touched by her emotions, decides he feels sorry for her and walks off with her arm in arm, presumably to protect her from further harassment. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1914
Tango Tangles is an impromptu Keystone comedy which exploited the current "tango craze." A tango contest and exhibition prompted Mack Sennett to send a crew out to a local dance hall where some of the film was shot. Charlie Chaplin appears in a tuxedo, sans the famous Tramp makeup and costume, as a drunk who flirts with the hat-check girl, and he gets into fights with Ford Sterling and Roscoe Arbuckle, both musicians at the dance hall who are also enamored with her. Although slight in plot, the film is interesting because the three principal Keystone actors appear without comic makeup and because the audience can observe the mirthful reactions of the real dancers in the hall to the comic fight between Chaplin and Sterling. Also of interest is the blending of location and studio footage, noticeable due to differences in lighting and set. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Chaplin, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, (more)
- 1914
In his 26th Keystone comedy Charlie Chaplin pairs off with fellow Keystone star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Chaplin and Arbuckle are both drunks and are both married to domineering wives. Chaplin, dressed in top hat and evening clothes, arrives drunk to his hotel and is confronted by wife Phyllis Allen who berates and manhandles him. Arbuckle arrives a few moments later and, in an adjacent room, meets a similar fate with his wife, Minta Durfee, his real life spouse. The noise of their fight makes Allen send Chaplin over to see what's going on. Durfee begins to attack Chaplin, and Allen intervenes on his behalf. With the ladies locked in battle, the men, realizing that they are lodge brothers, steal money from their wives' purses and escape to a nearby cafe. At the cafe they cause a commotion, both eventually bunking down to sleep on the cafe floor. By now the wives have discovered that they've been robbed and have banded together to look for Chaplin and Arbuckle. They arrive at the cafe but the boys escape and stagger to a park. Just before the wives and the outraged cafe patrons can catch them, they take a rowboat from a couple at the park and row out to the middle of the lake, where they lay down to sleep. Unfortunately, the boat has a leak and both men go down with the ship. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1914
Mabel Normand wrote, directed and starred in Charlie Chaplin's 10th film for Keystone. After disagreements with the directors of his previous films, Sennett assigned him to Normand, but Chaplin was chomping at the bit to direct his own films so for this film at least, the Chaplin/Normand relationship was not any better. It is another Keystone that takes advantage of a public event, an auto race, for background. Chaplin plays the motorcycle-riding villain of the film, dressed in frock coat and top hat (similar to his costume in his first film, Making a Living). Mabel's boyfriend, Harry McCoy, is a racecar driver who comes to Mabel's house to take her to the racetrack, but they argue because Harry won't let Mabel drive. Charlie comes along on his bike and offers Mabel a ride, which she accepts to make Harry jealous. When the cycle hits a bump, Mabel is thrown off and lands in a puddle, unnoticed by Charlie who goes on talking. Harry comes to her aid, they reconcile, and he lets her drive the racecar. Charlie, having noticed Mabel's absence, finds them together and tries to win her back, but is rejected. He decides to ruin Harry's chances of winning the race, beginning with puncturing one of the tires on his car. Later Charlie and his henchmen kidnap Harry and tie him up in a shed, forcing Mabel to drive in the race. Determined to stop Mabel from winning, Charlie and his men soak the track with water and throw bombs at the car, but Mabel's driving skills prevail and she wins the race, much to the chagrin of Charlie who, in a fit of rage, blows himself and his henchmen up with their last remaining bomb. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, (more)
This Keystone comedy, Charlie Chaplin's 33rd, is the first feature-length comedy ever made and contributed to making Chaplin and his co-star Marie Dressler major stars. Chaplin plays a con artist (not the Tramp) who talks Tillie, an innocent country lass, into taking her father's savings and running off to the city with him. Once there, he re-establishes his affair with the beautiful Mabel Normand, abandoning Tillie, who must begin working at a restaurant, while Charlie and Mabel spend her father's money for new clothes. Meanwhile, Tillie's millionaire uncle is reported to have died in a mountain-climbing accident. When the opportunistic Charlie learns that Tillie has just inherited three million dollars, he immediately rushes over to propose. She joyfully accepts, but is suspicious when she learns of her inheritance. Later, at a wedding gala at Tillie's new mansion where Normand has begun working as a maid, Charlie sneaks off for a little tete-a-tete with the latter. Trouble erupts when Dressler catches them smooching. Suddenly all the slapstick craziness for which director Mack Sennett is famous erupts as Tillie grabs a pistol and begins chasing Charlie and Mabel, firing randomly. Just as the wayward Charlie is to be strangled to death, the "late" uncle suddenly appears and ejects all the celebrants. Charlie and Mabel, chased by Tillie, race out of the ruined mansion to a pier where they are followed by the ubiquitous Keystone Kops whom the uncle has summoned. Tillie ends up in the drink, and when rescued after numerous attempts, she rejects Charlie while consoling Mabel, saying, "He ain't no good to neither of us," as the Kops drag Charlie away. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Dressler, Charles Chaplin, (more)
- 1914
Charlie Chaplin's 12th film for the Keystone company was also his directorial debut, receiving co-directing credit with co-star, Mabel Normand. Chaplin plays a waiter in a seedy cabaret who is always in trouble with his boss, Edgar Kennedy, and at odds with another waiter, Chester Conklin. While walking his dachshund in a park during his lunch break, he rescues rich-girl Mabel from the clutches of a thief who has chased away her boyfriend, Harry McCoy. Charlie introduces himself as O.T. Axle, Ambassador from Greece, (the first of Chaplin's "impersonation" roles) and is brought home to meet her parents and receive their thanks, much to the chagrin of Mabel's boyfriend. He receives an invitation to return later for a garden party. The suspicious boyfriend follows Charlie back to work and discovers the truth. Back at work Charlie deals with a bullying customer, Mack Swain, by serving him a drink and knocking him out with a large mallet when Swain tilts his head back to drink. Later, at the garden party, Charlie misbehaves, getting drunk, flirting with Mabel and singing loudly along with the band. The boyfriend, watching from a distance is now determined to expose him. When Charlie takes his leave to return to work, Harry suggests that the party go slumming to the very cabaret at which Charlie works. When the upper-class guests arrive, they are treated like royalty by the workers and other patrons. When Charlie discovers them at his table he hides the apron he's wearing and sits down next to Mabel, pretending that he's another guest. When the boss scolds him for sitting down on the job, Charlie is exposed as a lowly waiter, much to the shock of Mabel and her father. A melee then ensues between Charlie and his pistol-wielding Boss, whom Charlie knocks out while Mabel hides under a table. Charlie protests his love for Mabel, but she responds with a final knockout blow. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1914
In his 19th film for Keystone, Charlie Chaplin plays a somewhat more sympathetic role as the husband of comedienne Mabel Normand. As so many of his Keystone comedies do, it begins in a park where Mack Swain, dressed in a sporty outfit and carrying a tennis racquet, leaves his wife seated on a bench and goes off to a neighboring saloon. Charlie and Mabel are seated on a nearby bench arguing about the state of Charlie's worn out shoes. Charlie goes off for a drink in the saloon, passing Mack on the way in, who returns to the park and begins to flirt with Mabel. She is first bemused by his attentions but then is outraged when Charlie returns and is unable to rescue her. In fact he isn't even able to get Mack's attention despite increasingly hard kicks to Mack's posterior, anticipating Charlie's confrontation with the bully in Easy Street. Mack eventually flings Charlie's top hat off in the direction of the bench where Mack's wife is seated. While Charlie retrieves the hat, Mack takes Mabel over to the lake shore where, despite her protestations and calls for Charlie to help her, he persists in mashing her. Mack's wife hears the commotion and, with Charlie, she confronts Mack and Mabel, accusing Mabel of flirting with Mack. Charlie, angry with Mabel, sends her home. Mabel, angry with Charlie for his weakness in not defending her, buys a prizefighter's dummy, which is dressed just like Mack, from a sporting goods store. Meanwhile, Charlie has returned to the saloon where he is harassed by the other patrons including Mack. Finally, Charlie is drunk enough to defend himself which he does by felling all four patrons with one well-placed kick. The dummy is delivered to Charlie and Mabel's apartment, and when Charlie comes home, he drunkenly believes the dummy to be Mack. He is intimidated by the dummy and tries to pacify it, offering it a drink. Whenever he pushes it, it rebounds and knocks him to the floor. Finally, Mabel enters from the bedroom and shows her soused husband that he's been afraid of a dummy. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1914
Charlie Chaplin's 13th film for Keystone marked his first solo effort as writer and director. It follows the well-trodden path of the classic Keystone park/hotel farces with a few twists added in. The film opens in Westlake Park where a couple (Mack Swain and Alice Davenport) are seated on a bench. When hubby gets up to buy refreshments at a nearby stand, we first see the Tramp by a drinking fountain as he flirts with Alice. Mack returns and chases Charlie off, fighting with Alice all the while, and the arguing couple return to their hotel, while The Tramp goes off to a saloon. Later arriving at the hotel, where it turns out, they are all guests, Charlie wreaks a bit of havoc in the lobby, flirting with the ladies and upsetting the desk clerk. His acrobatic efforts to mount the stairs in his inebriated condition anticipates his classic short One A.M. When he finally makes it upstairs, he enters the wrong room, interrupting the now reconciled Mack and Alice. Mack, jealous again, ejects the interloper from the room and Charlie returns to his own room across the hall where he comically prepares for bed. Meanwhile Mack has gone out for a drink, and his sleepwalking wife now enters Charlie's room, sits on his bed waking him up, and begins searching his pants for money. Just as Charlie wakes her up and is about to escort her back to her room, Mack appears in the hall. Panicked, Alice pushes Charlie, still in his pajamas, out the window and onto the balcony, in the middle of a drenching deluge. The suspicious Mack again takes up the fight with his wife. Spotting Charlie on the balcony, a Keystone Kop on the sidewalk below assumes he's a burglar and begins firing his pistol, forcing Charlie to burst back into the room. A melee ensues in which the cops are scared away, Mack collapses in Charlie's room, and Charlie and Alice pass out on the hallway floor. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1914
In his 32nd film for Keystone, Charlie Chaplin is a married man, an unusual state for his film character. His wife, played by Mabel Normand, complains that they have no money for new shoes for her or food for their baby. They have a fight and Charlie leaves, promising to bring a present home for their son. Meanwhile another couple in a hotel room are rather lovey, as the wife (Phyllis Allen) helps hubby Ambrose (Mack Swain) prepare to go out. On his way out, a young lady who has just completed a love letter asks Ambrose to mail it for her. He puts the letter in his coat pocket. Charlie goes to a drug store and buys a bottle for the baby, which he puts in his coat pocket. He proceeds to a diner where, coincidentally, Ambrose has gone for lunch. The pair get into a funny food fight at the lunch counter, and switch coats accidentally. When Charlie arrives home Mabel finds the note in his pocket and flies into a rage, eventually breaking an ironing board over his head. Charlie escapes to a nearby park where Ambrose has met his wife who consoles him over the beating he has just taken from Charlie. Calmed down, Mack goes to a nearby refreshment stand. Mabel has by now caught up with Charlie and is delivering quite a beating, which delights Mack. Meanwhile, Phyllis has found the baby bottle in "his" coat pocket and when he returns to their bench she berates him for his infidelity. When Mabel shows Charlie the note she has found, he examines the coat and the mystery is solved. The two men exchange coats, but when Charlie returns the love note to Mack, Phyllis attacks him with her umbrella. But Charlie, Mabel and their baby are reunited in a picture of connubial bliss. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
- 1914
Charlie Chaplin's 29th comedy for Keystone was one of his most popular, grossing $130,000 in its initial year of release. It was shot before, but released after Those Love Pangs, and was originally conceived as an early sequence of the latter, showing Charlie and Chester Conklin at work in a combination cafe/bakery. The sequence was so good Mack Sennett suggested that Chaplin expand it. Waiter Charlie has his mind on a waitress as he clears one patron's plate onto the food of another. He mans the bakery counter and is taken with a female customer, especially her hip movements which he imitates. He gets into fights with fellow-waiter Chester and disrupts work in the bakery below. The bakers strike for higher wages and Charlie and Chester are impressed into service as bakers at which both are inept. The striking bakers plot revenge as one of them buys a loaf of bread and inserts a stick of dynamite into it. They send a little girl to return it as undercooked, and the owner's wife brings it downstairs to have it baked further. She observes Charlie's method of bagel making - whipping a roll of dough around his wrist forming a ring and rolling it off over his hand. Meanwhile the owner (Fritz Schade) has been noticing that the waitresses have dough on their derrieres, indicating they've been socializing with Charlie in the bakery. When his wife returns from downstairs, the owner likewise sees dough on her behind, put there by Charlie, and he flies into a rage. He goes down to the bakery and berates Charlie, slaps him around and chases him upstairs to the restaurant and down again. In self defense Charlie flings dough and flour bags at Fritz and Chester. Just then the oven explodes, covering Chester and Fritz with debris and burying Charlie under a huge lump of dough from which he emerges, eyes first, as the film ends. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
