Charlie Chaplin (1951)

cc 38 lieves to be Chaplin, is caught by the irate husband. After further chase and a melee with the cops, Chaplin arrives at the newspaper office in time to scoop his rival. In "The Masquerader," the blundering actor is chased by the angry director and others around the studio and through various sets until he lands in a well. In the Chaplin-Keystones, there are also elements of burlesque. "The Property Man" provides amusing caricatures of vaudeville stereotypes — the sister song-anddance act, the strong-man turn, the old-fashioned melodramatic "sketch." In "The Masquerader," there is similar kidding of the movies. "The Face on the Bar-room Floor," though not entirely a success, richly travesties in places the bathos of that unmitigated tear-jerker. In "His Prehistoric Past," Charlie, as Weakchin, burlesques the current faddist interest in the stone age. Garbed in a tiger skin and a derby, he flirts with grass-skirted maidens and wields clubs. Most interesting in the Keystones are those tricks and stunts, not yet full-blown "gags," which were prophetic of the brilliant comedy touches to come later. In his very first film Chaplin, as the impoverished Englishman, begs money from Lehrman. Offered a coin, he refuses it as too small, but snatches it as Lehrman is returning it to his pocket. In the same film, applying for a newspaper job, Charlie keeps slapping the editor's knee. When the editor moves his knee, Charlie, missing it, pulls it back. Ordered out, he rises, and his cuff slides down his cane and is deftly retrieved. In "A Film Johnny," Charlie, swinging his cane, pops the director and lights his cigarette by firing a revolver at the tip. In the end, after a general soaking with a fire hose, he twists his ear and water jets out of his mouth. In "Twenty Minutes of Love," seeing a couple kissing on a park bench, Charlie embraces a tree. In "Caught in a Cabaret," where he impersonates a