Charlie Chaplin (1951)

Chaplin at Keystone 33 clothes. Chaplin himself once called Linder his teacher. A number of his comedies, such as "The Rink" and "Sunnyside," were similar in subject matter to Linder's. After Chaplin left Essanay, Linder was brought over from France to replace him, but did not quite "go over." A relapse from war injuries sent him back to France where he later committed suicide. Chaplin's costume personifies shabby gentility — the fallen aristocrat at grips with poverty. The cane is a symbol of attempted dignity, the pert mustache a sign of vanity. Although Chaplin used the same costume (with a few exceptions) for almost his entire career, or for about twenty-five years, it is interesting to note a slight evolution. The trousers become less baggy, the coat a little neater, and the mustache a little trimmer through the years. Although Charlie and Mabel Normand were at first at odds, especially when Mabel was given the directorial reins in some of the early comedies, eventually their frictions wore away and they became warm personal friends. They appeared as a team in several of the Keystones. In addition to her beauty and her vivacity, Mabel Normand was gifted with a natural instinct for pantomime. She invented little gestures and original business which she put over in an apparently spontaneous manner. A colorful personality, once described by Jim Tully as "vivid as summer lightning, beautiful as dawn, and as natural as both," her final years were clouded with tragedy. She had the misfortune to have been the lastknown person to have seen the murdered director, William D. Taylor. Chaplin remembered her with gratitude for her generosity and her geniality. Hers was the only dressing room equipped with a little stove. In the rainy season everyone gathered there with the informal camaraderie