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.
