Five days ago I got a little
giddy with excitement over the one hundredth anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s
debut screen appearance. Today, February 7th 2014 marks another
centenary; the anniversary of the first screen appearance of Chaplin’s defining
character, the little fellow, his tramp. Released on this day a century ago, Kid Auto Races at Venice was Chaplin’s
second film to be released but wasn’t the first film for which he had donned
his famous costume. Shot a few days earlier but released two days later, Mabel’s Strange Predicament is
technically the tramp’s first film. In that film though, the tramp is very much
an also ran, part of a small cast of characters who cause a ruckus in a hotel.
Here Chaplin stands alone, as he did through much of his film career.
Just eleven minutes long, though
the version I own is seven, filming took place during a soap box derby race in Venice Beach, California.
Chaplin plays a bystander, nestled in amongst the sizable crowd who stand
respectfully at the side of the track. When the tramp notices a camera filming
the event he becomes infatuated with it, making numerous attempts to get in
front of it and generally cause a bit of trouble. This isn’t appreciated by the
director who bats the tramp away. Here in his debut film, the tramp is very
much that. He’s a mischievous vagrant with no better place to be. His cruel
streak isn’t really evident but neither is the kindness of his later feature
films. He’s a character whose personality is very much still being formed. He’s
not bad and not really mean, he’s just annoying. The tramp remained an
annoyance for many of his early appearances, taking some time to develop into
the more sincere and sympathetic character he would later become.
