Charlie Chaplin (1951)

cc 48 sanay series, Chaplin introduced other elements — pathos, satire, comic transpositions, genuine gags, surprise twists, fantasy and irony. Some of the earlier Essanays continue on the Keystone track: "A Night Out" — adventures of a pair of drunks — is an expansion of "Caught in the Rain" and "The Rounders"; "In the Park" — a flirtatious tramp in a chase by a policeman — is virtually a remake of "Twenty Minutes of Love" and other "park" pictures (see Index); "The Champion" — a ring story — is similar to "The Knockout" in much of its business, though the approach has been subtilized: "The Jitney Elopement" — a chase film featuring the Ford car, a favorite target of contemporary humor; "By the Sea" — beach brawls and flirtations; "Work" — paperhangers messing up a house; 'A Woman" — a new female impersonation; and "Shanghaied" — comic roughhouse on shipboard. All are in the Keystone slapstick and knockabout tradition. "A Night in the Show" goes back even further to Chaplin's old Karno vaudeville skit, "A Night in an English Music-Hall." Yet in his very first 1915 film, "His New Job," Chaplin introduced satire. The Keystones had frequently burlesqued contemporary fashions and morals. "His New Job" was real satire. The movies themselves and the making of stars were mercilessly kidded. Ham actors, aspiring actresses, producers, directors, and prop men all came in for jibes. The film opens with Charlie getting a prop man's job at the Lockstone Studio. Chance wins Charlie an actor's part. Appearing as a romantic military hero, he is weighed down by the huge fur shako on his head and quite submerged in his comic-opera uniform. Blundering through a farewell with the statuesque leading lady, he gets into trouble with a swaying column. Then, driving the director frantic, he unwittingly kneels on the actress' long train and pulls off her skirt as she marches