Charlie Chaplin’s final Essanay film is probably his most
controversial. Unlike the controversy his films created in the 1930s and 40s,
the controversy surrounding Triple
Trouble comes from its very existence. The two reel film was created in 1918;
two years after Chaplin left Essanay and was compiled by Chaplin regular Leo
White. White directed some sequences and took other scenes from Police as well as the ending from Work and some unused footage from the
never completed Life. The result is a
hodgepodge of half completed jokes, tired scenes and uneven continuity.
The plot (I think) involves Chaplin working in the house of
a scientist/Count (Leo White) as a janitor. Having got into his trademark trouble
and briefly bumping into a Maid (Edna Purviance) whose role is not expanded,
the janitor finds a bed for the night at a flophouse. While there a pickpocket
enters and starts stealing from the residents. The janitor attempts to stop him
and then for some reason runs away from the police. Later the janitor meets an
old friend who convinces the cleaner to help him to steal from his employers.
As you can probably gather from that brief plot description
the film makes no sense. One minute Chaplin will be in a scene then wont be
seen again for several minutes, turning up for a few seconds in a situation
obviously taken from another film. In one scene the thief is directed to the
house he needs to steal from but then later on needs the janitor to show him
where it is. Chaplin also runs away from the police at one stage despite having
done nothing wrong. The whole thing is a mess.
What annoyed me most is that the film takes some of the best
parts of other films and drops them in. My favourite scene in Police when Chaplin steals from a thief while
the thief is searching him for money is used here. All that was done to hide
the fact is a reversal of the frame so that Chaplin stands to the right here
rather that to the left as is Police. A
scene at the end of the film is lifted from Chaplin’s earlier Essanay Work. In that film it made perfect sense
and was incredibly funny. Here Chaplin wasn’t even in the room in the moments before
yet ends up under a load of rubble.
The story and jokes aren’t as sophisticated as in the likes
of Police, The BThe Bankank or A Night in the Show. There are very few
actual original gags at all although calling the family of the house Nutt made
me laugh as that meant that the janitor worked in the Nutt house. There is very
little humour in the Nutt house though and the long, drawn out scene in the
flophouse was dull and uninspiring. The set was easily recognisable from Police but the question of whether the
footage was taken from Police outtakes
or from Life remains unresolved. One
of the few saving graces is Wesley Ruggles’ cook’s facial hair. Chaplin’s
character actors were renowned for OTT fake facial hair but Ruggles takes it to
new heights here with massively over the top beard and moustache as well as the
largest and most pointy fake eyebrows I’ve ever seen. It’s incredible.
One nugget of interest comes in the overt use of anti German
language. The film was released when the USA
had finally entered the First World War and it appears that this film was set
in Germany
In the end it feels wrong to call Triple Trouble a Charlie Chaplin film, although he did include it
in the filmography for his own autobiography. (Which if you haven’t read, is an
excellent book and well worth picking up). The film created even more animosity
between Chaplin and the company and can comfortably be considered the worst of
their partnership.
3/10
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