The TrampThe Tramp,
Charlie Chaplin's sixth film for Essanay, is generally considered his first masterpiece. It is the first of his films that blended pathos with comedy and contains subtle pantomime along with the knockabout slapstick.
Charlie is truly a tramp in this film, wandering down a dusty country road carrying his bindle. He is knocked down by near misses from two passing autos and pulls a whisk broom from his pocket and dusts himself off. He sits by a tree to eat his lunch, but it is stolen by a hobo (
Leo White). Despondent,
Charlie salts some grass and eats it. We next meet a farm girl (
Edna Purviance) and her father (
Fred Goodwins), who gives her some cash and sends her on an errand. She stops on her way to count her money and is robbed by a sinister hobo (
Leo White). Her cries bring
Charlie, who rescues her from the hobo and two other tramp thieves. The girl brings
Charlie home to the farm, where he is rewarded with a job as a farmhand. He is inept at the job, the source of several funny scenes with a fellow farmhand (
Paddy McGuire). The three thieving hoboes show up and try to involve
Charlie in a scheme to rob the farmer's money.
Charlie foils their efforts by hitting them on their heads with a mallet as they reach the top of the ladder that he has set up at his bedroom window.
Farmer Fred, alerted by the noise, grabs his shotgun and chases off the crooks, but
Charlie gets shot in the leg accidentally. This scene is played completely straight and is utterly convincing as
Charlie passes out from the pain.
Charlie is next seen recuperating from his injuries, lounging at an outdoor table with the farm girl and squirting seltzer into his drink. But his happiness is short-lived. Her boyfriend (
Lloyd Bacon) arrives on the scene and
Charlie, seeing that his love for her is unrequited, goes into the farmhouse and writes a note: "i thout your kindness was love but it ain't cause i seen him." He turns his back to the camera and picks up the girl's hat, kisses it, and walks outside. Bidding the two farewell,
Charlie refuses the money offered by the boyfriend. The film closes with what would become
Chaplin's classic ending --
Charlie walking sadly back along the road, but suddenly putting an optimistic little spring in his step as the camera irises in. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
By the SeaCharlie Chaplin's last one-reeler (with the exception of The Bond), is an impromptu film shot on the beach at Crystal Pier in Los Angeles, his first film shot there since leaving Keystone. It is superior to similarly made Keystone's in that the timing and gag ideas are much better realized. The film opens with couple
Billy Armstrong and
Margie Reiger at the beach on a windy day.
Margie goes off, telling
Billy to stay put.
Charlie comes walking down a seaside street eating a banana and, after tossing the peel away, he slips on it. He encounters
Billy when both men's hats, attached to them by elastic, get blown off and entangled. This causes a fight between them in which
Charlie gets
Billy in a headlock and knocks him unconscious, but fleas from
Billy's head jump onto
Charlie's arms, at which point
Charlie performs a precursor of the flea circus routine that is featured in Limelight and the never released The Professor.
Just then
Edna Purviance passes by and
Charlie flirts with her. She is amused by his antics despite herself. She goes off and sits down by her boyfriend,
Bud Jamison, who has been waiting for her on a nearby bench.
Charlie and
Billy make up, and
Billy offers to buy them refreshments at a nearby ice cream stand operated by
Snub Pollard. They again begin to fight as
Billy refuses to pay. During the fight
Bud gets hit by flying ice cream and joins the fray. The fight is broken up by a cop, who drags
Billy off. Escaping,
Charlie sits down next to Edna, bouncing her up and down by sitting down heavily. He's chased off by the returning
Bud and joins
Margie (who has been looking for
Billy) on another bench until all the others arrive, whereupon
Charlie tips over the bench and makes his getaway. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
WorkWork,
Charlie Chaplin's eighth film for Essanay casts Charlie as a wallpaper-hanger's assistant who must pull the wagon containing the boss (
Charles Insley) and all his gear through the city streets and up some imposing hills (created by using tilted camera angles). Charlie is little more than a beast of burden and must do all the work when they arrive at a wealthy couple's (
Billy Armstrong and
Marta Golden) home. The woman of the house suspects the workers of being dishonest when she catches Charlie admiring a small statue, and she locks up her valuables in a safe. This prompts Charlie to "lock up" his and his boss's watches and cash by pinning them into his pants pocket. Charlie proves to be an inept decorator, making a huge mess and causing his boss to get a bucket of wallpaper paste over his head. He befriends
Edna Purviance, the maid, and in a rather intimate scene, tells her his story and his hopes for the future. The wife's lover,
Leo White arrives, but when he sees that the husband is still home, he pretends to be a workman. The husband is wise to the dodge and attacks his wife's lover, eventually pulling out a revolver and chasing him around the house. A stray bullet hits the gas stove which explodes, partially burying everyone. In the famous last scene, Charlie emerges from the inverted oven door, exhales some smoke, and, sizing up the situation, smiles into the camera. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
A WomanCharlie Chaplin's ninth film for Essanay contains his third and last female impersonation. It begins, as so many of Chaplin's early films do, in a park.
Edna Purviance is seated on a park bench with her parents (
Charles Insley and
Marta Golden). Mother has fallen asleep and is snoring loudly, much to Edna's disgust. Bored, Edna herself soon falls asleep and Father, spotting a fetching lady (
Margie Reiger), chases after her. Charlie appears wandering through the park and, after Father departs to buy sodas, joins Margie and flirts with her. When Father returns, he is enraged and hits Charlie on the head with one of the soda bottles, escorting Margie away. A couple of dandies out for a stroll,
Leo White and Billy Armstrong, sit down next to Charlie and when he's caught taking a sip out of one of their sodas, they fight. Leo runs away and Billy is knocked unconscious.
Meanwhile Father and Margie are playing hide-and-seek and Margie has taken the opportunity of a blindfolded Father to escape. Charlie comes upon him and leads him around by the neck with his cane until they reach the lake into which Charlie throws Father. Charlie wanders off to discover Edna and Mother, still asleep. Awakened, they become acquainted, inviting Charlie home for tea. Father meets Billy and invites him home for a drink. When they show up at home, Charlie is recognized and when a fight breaks out, Charlie runs upstairs to hide.
Hiding in Edna's room, he dons her dress and hat. Edna, finding Charlie in the hall, falls down laughing at Charlie's female impersonation, but suggests he shave his mustache and don a pair of her shoes. When this is done, the illusion is perfect. So perfect that both Father and Billy are totally fooled and flirt outrageously with Charlie, much to Edna's amusement and Mother's anger. Both men ask for a kiss and Charlie suggests that they kiss opposite cheeks at the count of three. Of course Charlie steps back at "three" and the men kiss each other. This starts another fracas during which Billy is ejected from the house. Still enamored, Father accidentally pulls off Charlie's dress, revealing his true identity. Edna intervenes and begs forgiveness for Charlie, but Father gives him the boot and he ends up on the sidewalk beside Billy, to whom he delivers a knockout slap as the film ends. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
The BankCharlie Chaplin's 10th Essanay film marks a further development for him in story construction, gag development and the use of pathos along with physical comedy.
Chaplin enters the bank importantly, strolls down a staircase and opens a large safe. He emerges carrying a mop and bucket and dons his janitor's uniform. He wanders into the lobby/reception area and accidentally puts his soaking mop into the top hat of a bond salesman, (
Lawrence A. Bowes) who's waiting for the arrival of the Bank President. Hitting the salesman and a bank worker (
Leo White) with the wet mop, he's chased away to the back office where he finds fellow janitor
Billy Armstrong with whom a series of minor battles occur.
Edna Purviance, a stenographer, arrives at work with a birthday present, a tie, for a cashier whose name is also Charles,
Carl Stockdale. She types a note: "To Charles with love from Edna."
Chaplin finds the note and tie and assumes they're for him, and it's clear he loves
Purviance. He brings her a bouquet of flowers and leaves a note "To Edna with love, Charlie." The bank president arrives and rejects the bond salesman's pitch and the angry salesman vows revenge. As the salesman stands dazed,
Chaplin, told to mail a letter, indicates that he doesn't look well, takes his pulse and tells him to stick out his tongue, on which
Chaplin moistens the postage stamp. The Cashier comes in to thank
Purviance for the tie and tells her that it wasn't he who left the flowers, but Charlie the Janitor. Angry,
Purviance calls
Chaplin a fool and, unaware that he's watching through the door, throws the flowers into a trash basket. Crushed,
Chaplin retrieves the flowers, goes back downstairs to the vault and sits down to rest.
Shortly afterward, the bond salesman along with four seedy crooks enter the bank. Two of them go upstairs and see the president,
Purviance and the Cashier counting money. When
Purviance and Charles head downstairs to the vault, they hold up the president. The other three intercept Charles and
Purviance downstairs. At the first opportunity, Charles pushes
Purviance over and runs away, but he's held at gunpoint by one of the crooks as the other tussles with the president. Meanwhile her screams have awakened
Chaplin and he rescues her, kicking three of the crooks into the safe and locking it as
Purviance collapses. Carrying her over one shoulder, he climbs the stairs and rescues the cashier by disarming the crook. He then takes care of the other thief, rescuing the president. When the police have the robbers in custody,
Chaplin is congratulated by the president. He wanders into the office and takes the flowers out of his coat.
Purviance enters and picks up the flowers, smiling, and the look of love and hope on
Chaplin's face is truly angelic. They embrace, but just then the camera crossfades -- it was all a dream, and
Chaplin awakens in the vault kissing a mop. As the picture fades, he wanders off screen holding the flowers. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
