Charlie Chaplin (1951)

cc 36 got too involved, or the fun possibilities had been exhausted, violence would resolve the problem — a melee with the Keystone cops, a comic brawl, an explosion, a ducking in a lake, or the water-hose treatment. Many of the comedies are motivated around rivalry for a girl, with the fumbling Chester Conklin or the mammoth Mack Swain. Drunken flirtations recur among the episdoes, ending in hilarious altercations with enraged husbands. The backstage of movie studios and theatres furnish the background for three or four films, with Chaplin in the role of the blundering actor or "helper." In some Keystones Chaplin, playing a waiter or bandit, poses as a nobleman at ritzy gatherings, the final comic business hinging on his exposure. Two deal with the trials of married life. As was customary with Mack Sennett, several were located at races or other public events. Chaplin's famous stage "drunk act" was repeated in several of the films; it was the feature of "The Rounders," where he is teamed with Fatty Arbuckle. The influence of the Karno Pantomime acts, in many of these early Keystones, has already been noted. On the other hand, Chaplin hit on new ideas and situations from which germinated ideas used in his later, more finished, comedies. It seemed enough at that time to rely on the Chaplin mannerisms: the shuffling walk, the swinging and juggling and poking of the cane, the vertical raising of the derby, the wiggling of the mustache as smiles bared his prominent teeth, the one-footed hopping around corners, the resting of his foot on laps, etc. These sparked the brawls and falls, the slapstick, the stunts, the chases, the mix-ups, the burlesque, of the typical Keystone fare. The brawls often involved real roughhouse, with bricks and mallets, kicks and pin-sticking, and ducking into ponds. Chaplin was a master of acrobatic falls. He would