Run Time: 30 minutes. Studio: Keystone Studios. Directors: Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin. Writers: Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin. Main Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Alice Davenport, Chester Conklin, Edgar Kennedy. Cinematographer: Frank D. Williams.
Some of you reading this blog may be familiar with a story about what happened during the making of the Keystone comedy short Mabel at the Wheel. This short was directed by Mabel Normand (who also starred in it) and featured Charlie Chaplin as the villain. Chaplin wanted to improvise his own comedy bits but Mabel reminded him she was the director and not him. This lead to a fight. Eventaully Chaplin went to Mack Sennett (the studio boss) and told him about what was happening. Sennett's answer was that Chaplin had to do as the director stated whenever being directed by someone else, but as well as those films he would now be able to direct some of his own films. With this Charlie went and finished the film Mabel's way. What is rather interesting is this never caused any riff between Chaplin and Normand. They were friends off set and would work together on set. In fact one of the best films either of them made for the Keystone studios was one they co-directed and wrote.
Charlie Chaplin made 36 films (35 shorts and 1 feature) for Keystone Studios, all released in the year 1914. These films for the most part do not have a great reputation among Charlie Chaplin fans. This was because Charlie Chaplin's sense of humor was quite different than the studio's. The studio specialized in films with an extremely fast pace, little story and lots of slapstick. While he did not need to take as much time as say Harry Langdon, Chaplin's films were at their best when he was allowed more time to take than the studio often allowed him to. There was also the fact that many of the Keystone film offered no motivation for characters to engage in slapstick. The fact a person was leaning over was good enough reason to kick their rear end or stab it with a pitchfork. Charlie Chaplin was really one of the first film artists to add motivation for slapstick humor and was at his best when the humor was properly motivated. I personally have a soft spot for these Keystone shorts. While I admit quite a few of them are not anywhere up to par with his later work, they are fascinating to a film buff like me. It is incredible to get to see an artist evolve his art as you can see in these early films. You can see mistakes being made and Chaplin learning from them.
This film may have a simple story but there seems to be more focus on the story than there is in other Keystone shorts of this era. The Tramp (played by Charlie Chaplin) is a waiter at a not too high class café, where drinking and suggestive dancing are the norm. However the Tramp meets Mabel (played by Mabel Normand), a beautiful and sophisticated high class woman. The Tramp realizes that he doesn't stand a chance with this woman however he gets an idea. He disguises himself as a Greek Ambassador. With this disguise he is able to go to a fancy garden party, hosted by her family.
With this film having a greater emphasis on story it also features more intertitles than the average Keystone short. Despite this though there is no lack of typical Keystone slapstick, including brick throwing, mallet to head action, and so forth. However with this film having more of a story the slapstick feels more motivated than usual and is actually pretty funny. It is fascinating today to see ideas done here in this early short that would later be employed in the later much renowned feature film, City Lights. In that film the Tramp would pretend to be a millionaire to impress a blind girl. This type of façade is also employed as a major story point here. However the big difference is in how the ideas are treated. In City Lights it is played for both comedy and drama. However here it is played only for comedy. There is little pity or empathy for the tramp Caught in Cabaret will try to get out of the audience. While these are probably just coincidences, they are still fascinating to see here and show the Tramp as more fully developed character than he was in most Keystone films. This film is a pure delight. The humor is pretty funny and the story does keep you interested from the beginning to the end. The performances are of course great and Charlie and Mabel have all of their usual charm. Along with our two main stars also of interest to today's film enthusiast is an early appearance by the great character actor Edgar Kennedy as the café owner. Kennedy would later be known as the master of the slow burn and appeared in numerous Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang shorts as well as his own series of short subjects. Probably his most famous role today is as the street vendor who gets the worst from Harpo and Chico Marx in Duck Soup. Here he is not playing the kind of role he would later be known for and it is fun to see him in a different type of role. He may here however go unrecognized by people watching the film today as he looked much different.
Upon this film's release critics were very enthusiastic about how much they enjoyed the short. In a review in the New York Times Dramatic Mirror the reviewer wrote "...it is unwise to call this the funniest picture that has ever been produced but it comes mighty close to it". A reviewer in Bioscope wrote "Mr. Chaplin has a humor all his own, in which here he has the opportunity of indulging to the upmost, the result being amusing to the extreme". A reviewer for Moving Picture World was much more playful in his review stating "It caused so much laughter you couldn't hear what the actors was talking".
Resources UsedThe Films of Charlie Chaplin edited by Gerald D. Macdonald, Michael Conway and Mark Ricci
Keystone: The Life and Clowns of Mack Sennett by Simon Louvish
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0003758/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/412541/Caught-In-A-Cabaret/
No comments:
Post a Comment