This movie takes a look at the wonderful short films that Charlie Chaplin made for the Essanay Studio. The majority of the movie is made up of clips from these short films with narration over them. This narration was provided by Dave Anderson and was written by Samuel M. Sherman, who also produced this movie (he would go on to produce many cheaply made B horror movies and exploitation films). This narration gives some basic history of Chaplin's career, offers some critical insights and explains some of what is happening due to the movie not using the original intertitles. This narration works quite well, heavily because it lets Charlie Chaplin be the comedian and does not try to "enhance" Charlie's comedy by adding jokes, something that was all too common on showings of silent films in this era. Because of this it is never distracting or takes away from the action on screen. The history provided here is very basic and most of what is said is information that longtime Chaplin fans already know. However this information is wonderful for newcomers to hear and probably provided young movie audiences in the 1960's some important knowledge about this great comedian. The critical insight is very well put and intelligent but after so many decades of every moment of Charlie Chaplin's career being analyzed (some would say overanalyzed), there is little here that longtime Chaplin fans haven't heard before. I still do though enjoy hearing it in such an unpretentious tone.
The clips here are truly wonderful. Sometimes we see nearly a whole short film and sometimes only a clip. However all of it is wonderful. Featured here are the films, The Tramp (1915), The Bank (1915), The Champion (1915), His New Job (1915), A Night Out (1915), A Night in the Show (1915), In the Park (1915), A Woman (1915) and Police (1916). That is a truly wonderful selection and it shows how much Charlie's Essanay era is underrated. The films of this era may not be talked about as much as the later feature films (as well as Charlie's shorts for Mutual) but watching this movie reminded me how much fun these shorts are. I found myself laughing out loud though much of this film and was enjoying these clips so much that I was sad when the movie ended. True today when all of Chaplin's Essanay shorts are widely available seeing them here may not be as special today as when this movie first appeared in theaters, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a blast to watch clips from these classic comedies.
The opening of this film includes a crudely animated Charlie Chaplin over the credits, followed by a fairly lengthy introduction with narration over a series of generic images and clips of Hollywood. The narration is fine and can be fairly fun to listen to, but the images and clips feel random and don't really add much to the narration. They certainly don't compare to the wonderful short comedies which are to follow.
When so much Chaplin is easily available to anyone willing to seek it out, a film like this no longer feels necessary or essential to a Chaplin fan. However this is still a very fun watch today.
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