By Ping, For Ping
That time I promised to review every Charlie Chaplin movie over a year and then bailed after like 2 weeks.
Release Date:April 4, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:George Nichols Also Starring:Minta DurfeeEdgar KennedyGordon Griffith Tramp:Yes Worth Watching?Maybe not Whenever we went to new rooms, Charlie would ask the landlady, “Have you got a dark room, ma?” Edith Scales, theatre costume mistress and Chaplin’s touring guardian in youth, quoted in Empire News, 1903
Release Date:March 26, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:George Nichols Also Starring:Minta DurfeeChester ConklinEva Nelson Tramp:No Worth Watching?Not really I showed [A Woman of the Sea] exactly once at one theater … and that was the end of that. The film was promptly returned to Mr Chaplin’s vaults and no one has ever seen it again. Josef von […]
Release Date:March 16, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:George Nichols Also Starring:Roscoe ArbucklePeggy Pearce Tramp:Yes Worth Watching?No The moment we met we ignited; it was mutual, and my heart sang. How romantic were those morning’s turning up fro work with the anticipation of seeing her each day. Chaplin, My Autobiography
Release Date:March 9, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:Mack Sennett Also Starring:Roscoe ArbuckleFord SterlingMinta Durfee Tramp:I don’t think so Worth Watching?Nope Keystone comedies directed by Sennett are perhaps the best examples of the studio’s true vision. Tango Tangles is particularly boorish and violent, while the characters are merely one-dimensional caricatures. Oddly enough, this is precisely the brilliance behind […]
Release Date:March 2, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:George Nichols Also Starring:Virginia KirtleyPeggy PearceRoscoe ArbuckleMabel NormandFord Sterling Tramp:Yes Worth Watching?Maybe! My character was different and unfamiliar to the American, and even unfamiliar to myself. But with the clothes on I felt he was a reality, a living person. In fact he ignited all sorts of crazy ideas that […]
Release Date:February 28, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:Henry Lehrmann Also Starring:Ford SterlingChester ConklinEmma CliftonEdward Nolan Tramp:Yes Worth Watching?Eh… The films are successful agitations, successful explorations of elaborate visual possibilities; if laughter once accompanied them, it has to have been the laughter of breathlessness. Walter Kerr, The SIlent Clowns
Release Date:February 19, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:Ford Sterling Also Starring:Ford SterlingMack SwainEdgar Kennedy Tramp:No Worth Watching?No I went from set to set watching the companies at work. They all seemed to be imitating Ford Sterling. This worried me, because his style did not suit me. Chaplin, My Autobiography
Release Date:February 9, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:Mabel Normand Also Starring:Mabel NormandFrank D. WilliamsChester ConklinAlice Davenport Tramp:YES! Worth Watching?Sure I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage […]
Release Date:February 7, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:Henry Lehrman Also Starring:Henry LehrmanFrank D. Williams Tramp:YES! Worth Watching?As a historical novelty He is elbowing his way into immortality. … And he is doing it by calling attention to the camera as camera. He would do this throughout his career, using the instrument as a means of establishing a […]
Release Date:February 12, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:Henry Lehrman Also Starring:Henry LehrmanChester ConklinMinta DurfeeVirginia Kirtley Tramp:No Worth Watching?As a historical novelty Had I seen a Keystone comedy? asked Mr Kessel. Of course, I had seen several, but I did not tell him that I thought they were a crude mélange of rough and rumble. Chaplin, My Autobiography