Making a Living (February, 1914)
A strange short, but it is Chaplin's first starring role,
and occasionally funny.
Chaplin is a poor man, dressed to the nines with a long
mustache, trying to obtain an engagement with a wealthy woman. He only does so through stealing a ring from
his rival (Henry Lehrman, who also directed the short), and after fighting,
Chaplin comes out the victor. But he
still has another obstacle before he can be wed-- getting a job. So he battles with his rival over getting a
reporter's job at the local paper.
The strange part of the film is the editing. Clearly, there are portions of this film left
out. It drops us in the middle of the
story without context (which isn't so bad), there are cards for what we can
tell from the context, but no cards for scenes that would be useful to have
them. It feels as if part of the story
was cut out, it just feels perfunctory.
It turns out, the director admits that he purposely made cuts to Chaplin's
role because he disliked Chaplin and wanted him to fail. So, rivals both in front of and behind the
camera. Unfortunately, this did little
to improve Lehman's role, either.
Despite this, Chaplin still shines. Somehow, although his rival is the hard
working, upright one, we root for Chaplin because the rival is more of a buffoon,
and Chaplin is just more likable, although deceptive. But this film isn't very funny, except for a
couple scenes, and is sometimes confusing. What is clear that it isn't the
fault of the performers, all of whom did well, but the director/editor.
This film shows up under many names, including Doing His
Best or Busted Johnny.
3/5
Kid Auto Races at Venice (February, 1914)
It is 101 years since the Tramp first made his appearance in
this film. From this time, the Tramp has
been an icon, at times center in the world stage. Hitler probably borrowed his mustache style
from the Tramp, being a huge fan, which Chaplin used to great effect in The
Great Dictator, at the other end of the Tramp's career. Yet the Tramp's beginnings were small, an
inside joke between two people, with him doing nothing more than mugging for
the camera.
The plot is simple.
The Tramp is doing his best to get in front of the camera, posing, and
Henry Lehrman, the director of the film, is doing his best to keep him out of
it. By itself, the film is kinda
dull. But the meta-meaning of the story
is what really brings entertainment to it.
Just as background, the races were a "kids"
version of the Vanderbilt Cup, an auto race of some importance in 1914 Santa Monica,
CA. The children's version were mostly soap box races, using a ramp to give
speed. A few motorized cars were also
used in a separate race.
As we saw in the last film, Making a Living, Lehman didn't
care for Chaplin and tried to edit the better part of the star's role out of
the film. So here is a throwaway film,
six and a half minutes (the "longer" version is simply the film twice
in a row, as above), of Chaplin trying to force himself in front of the camera
and Lehrman pushing him out of it. To
me, it is funny to think of them coming up with this film as the only one the
two of them could agree upon. It is also
funny to think of the filming, where Lehrman is directing himself as a
director, doing the same thing in front of the camera, beside a camera, which
is also capturing Chaplin.
Unfortunately, I can't imagine it being too entertaining for
the audiences watching it for the first time in 1914. This film isn't given great applause, and
certainly Chaplin's performance is relatively poor. It isn't even the first time the Tramp was
filmed, because the movie Mabel's Strange Predicament, which also stars the
Tramp, was filmed first. This short was
released first, though, so it is given first credit.
4/5, just as an inside joke.
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