Chaplin’s third Essanay picture and he finally appears to
have found his feet with the new studio. Chaplin’s tramp, destitute and famished
spots a sign offering money to act as a sparring partner. He watches as three
men go in before him and return battered and bruised. Chaplin however has a
trick up his sleeve or rather in his glove; a lucky horseshoe, which he uses to
knock out his larger, more adept opponent. Spotting his potential a trainer
prepares the slight Chaplin for a big fight against the champion Bob Uppercut
(Bud Jamison) but Chaplin has other things on his mind, namely the trainer’s
daughter Edna Purviance.
I was so glad that this film was good. I was really
disappointed with Chaplin’s first two Essanay films His New Job and A Night Out.
This is a real return to form. The idea was actually taken from a Fred Karno
sketch that Chaplin performed before entering the movie industry. Perhaps one
of the reasons for the film’s success is that Chaplin knew what he was doing
before he went in rather than partially making it up as he went along.
Charlie Chaplin’s second film for Essanay saw him move
production to their Californian studios for the first time. Chaplin and Ben
Turpin are on a night out and end up getting very drunk. They go to a nice
restaurant where they cause trouble for a smartly dressed gentleman. The head
waiter arrives and throws the pair out but not before Chaplin has caught sight
of the waiter’s girlfriend Edna Purviance. Back at their hotel Chaplin and
Turpin bump into Purviance once more and again cause trouble for themselves and
get thrown out of their hotel. Onto another hotel and Chaplin alone this time
meets Purviance again, but will the waiter get in the way of his affections?
This film is a bit of a mess, though it isn’t easy to say to
what extent this is Chaplin’s fault and how much time is to blame. The version
I saw seems to have been made up of three or four different copies and as a
result it changes from black and white to sepia and back quite often. The
editing is also pretty poor, often cutting away in the middle of a gag. The
story also makes little sense and Turpin just disappeared altogether half way
through the film. Most of the gags are simple door in face or fist in face sort
of things which is a shame.
Chaplin’s first Essanay Picture was released in February
1915. Chaplin is at a film studio looking for a job. After several bits of
humorous business he is hired as an extra but after being a nuisance on set is
instead demoted to Carpenter’s Assistant. Through a mixture of wit and luck,
Chaplin regains his position in front of the camera and ends up accidentally
wearing the lead actor’s costume. All hell breaks loose when he arrives on set
to find Chaplin in his clothes and Chaplin again uses a mixture of wit, luck
and this time also violence to continue in his job and get revenge on several
characters who had wronged him.
The film marks not only Chaplin’s first film with Essanay
but also his first with fellow comic actor Ben Turpin. The two share a couple
of great scenes together, the first of which involves a fight to get through a
door and is excellent. It’s such a shame that the two actors couldn’t find a
way to work together because on screen at least, they made a great partnership.
Unfortunately a mixture of Turpin’s impatience with Chaplin’s methodical
methods and Chaplin’s jealousy of Turpin’s ability to get laughs, their
partnership went no further.
