Chester Conklin Movies

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

The Face on the Bar-Room Floor, Charlie Chaplin's 22nd Keystone comedy, was based on a well-known poem by Hugh Antoine D'Arcy, "The Face Upon the Floor." The film begins in a saloon where Charlie, a destitute Tramp, is bumming drinks. He offers to tell the story of his downfall to the other patrons, and the story goes into a long flashback sequence. The Tramp was once a successful artist. The audience sees him dressed in a tuxedo, at work in his studio, painting a portrait of his wife (Cecile Arnold). His next client is a portly man who is obviously well to do. When the wife comes into the studio, she and the client fall instantly in love. Later they run off together, leaving a note pinned to the nose of the portrait. Charlie returns to the studio and upon finding the note, flies into a rage, destroying the portrait. Time passes. Charlie is now a Tramp in a park. His former wife and her lover come into view with four children in tow and another in a baby carriage. She is berating her new man and doesn't notice Charlie, but her husband looks at him enviously. Charlie wipes his brow, looking relieved and strolls off. Back in the bar room, the flashback finished, Charlie is handed a piece of chalk. Now quite drunk, he attempts to draw his ex-wife's picture on the floor. He is ordered out of the bar by the other patrons, and a fight breaks out, ending with Charlie collapsing, unconscious on the face upon the floor. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide

Charlie Chaplin once said, "All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl." In this, his 11th film for Keystone and arguably his first original screenplay, his milieu is just that -- Westlake Park, where most of the Keystone park films were shot. The Tramp makes fun of a romantic couple (Minta Durfee and Edgar Kennedy) kissing on a bench then goes over to pester them and insinuate himself with the girl. Meanwhile another couple on another park bench (Chester Conklin and Vivian Edwards) argue because he has no ring to give her. To get the funds he needs for her ring, the fiancé steals a pocket watch from a sleeping man while his naughty girlfriend flirts with Charlie. Trouble erupts when the fiancé sees them together. In the ensuing shuffle, Charlie gets the watch. A merry chase follows, involving the suitor, the tramp and the ubiquitous park policeman. During one flight scene, Charlie raises his right leg and skids to a stop (the first time Chaplin used this signature gag). In the midst of all the chaos, Charlie proclaims his undying love for the girl. After many comic shenanigans, the policeman and the fiancé end up all wet, while lucky Charlie finds himself with a new watch and a new lady love. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide

Charlie Chaplin's 24th short for the Keystone company is a film about making films at Keystone. It is unusual in that we see Chaplin the actor, Charlie the Tramp, and Chaplin's second female impersonation in a film. The film opens outside the Keystone Studio where Chaplin, in street clothes, is talking to Mabel Normand and a reporter, who is writing on a pad. Charlie Murray emerges and grabs Chaplin by the ear and drags him inside -- it's time for work. Murray leaves Chaplin at the dressing room where Fatty Arbuckle is also preparing for work. Chaplin begins by brushing off his Tramp pants. Seated at a dressing table across from Arbuckle he hears Fatty open a beer bottle and tries to sneak a swig, but Fatty substitutes his hair tonic instead. Meanwhile, on the stage, Murray is rehearsing a melodramatic scene with two actors. Chaplin is now in costume as the Tramp. On the set, Charlie misses his entrance because he is flirting with two lovely actresses, and he messes up the scene. He is replaced by fellow actor Chester Conklin, but interferes with Chester's entrance and is chased out of the studios. The next day a "Beautiful Stranger" appears -- it's Charlie in drag, and his female impersonation is perfect. He immediately attracts the attentions of every male in the company, especially director Murray. Murray tries to make time with the stranger and hires her to act in films. He gives her the men's dressing room, amid the objections of all the actors. While Murray's back is turned, Charlie lets us in on the gag by winking at the camera and later takes a very unladylike drag on Murray's cigarette. Alone, Charlie removes his disguise, and resumes his Tramp outfit. When the director comes looking for his new actress, he finds Charlie and discovers his deception. He chases Charlie through the various film sets until Charlie jumps into what he thinks is a prop well. It turns out to be a real one, and the film closes as Murray and the actors mock Charlie as he struggles, sinking, at the bottom of the well. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide

In his eighth film for Keystone Charlie Chaplin, in frock coat and bushy mustache, is cast in the role of a melodramatic lover who attempts suicide over his lost love. The film is a farce, a parody of the overacted melodramas of the day. Mr. Dovey (Chaplin) is first seen on his knees proposing in the drawing room of his lady (Minta Durfee). The couple are overheard and mocked by the lady's maid, whose laughter causes Minta to eject her from the house. To get back at her boss, she arranges a hoax with the gardener. She feigns injury and her cries bring the departing Dovey to her aid. When Minta sees her maid flirting with Dovey, she rejects him in a jealous rage. Back at home the despondent Dovey drinks what he thinks is poison; only his highly amused butler knows it was just water. Waiting for the poison to take effect, Dovey has horrifying visions of his eternal damnation. Meanwhile, Minta has learned of her maid's deception and has sent the gardener to Dovey with a letter of apology. "It's too late. I've been poisoned," says Dovey and the gardener goes back to retrieve Minta to be at her dying man's side. Dovey now summons doctors to save him, drinking all the milk he can with evident distaste. When the physicians arrive, the butler lets them in on the joke and they play along too, jokingly examining him. Minta, having raced to her man's home, learns of the hoax and tells Dovey he's going to live. First relieved, then enraged, he attacks all the pranksters and finally embraces his lady, removing from his fingers a ball of hair he had pulled from his head and blowing it away. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide