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the classic Mutual comedies 75
tempts to sweep it up. He tries straightening it, then does a tight-rope walk on it with all the teetering and panic of making one's way across a chasm.
Deservedly the most famous passage in "The Pawnshop" is the alarm-clock scene. The ailing timepiece is brought in. Charlie puts a stethoscope to it, taps it like a doctor examining a lung, raps it as if testing porcelain, snaps his thumb on the bell, starts drilling with an auger, opens it with a can-opener, takes a significant sniff at its insides; then, with the telephone mouthpiece in his eye like a jeweler's magnifying glass, he examines it, oils it, uses dental forceps for some necessary extraction, taps it with a plumber's hammer, listens for noises, then pulls out the spring, measures it like ribbon, snips off lengths with a plier, then empties the remaining contents on the counter, where he stops the worm-like wriggling of the springs by squirts of oil. Finally sweeping the debris into the puzzled customer's hat, he solemnly shakes his head. (The scene is photographed in two long takes of several hundred feet each, separated by a two-foot flash of the customer's face.)
The final robbery scene is practically a ballet. As the thief backs out with the jewels, Charlie steps out of a trunk with a rolling pin, fells the robber, bows circusfashion, embraces the girl, and delivers a back kick at his rival — all in one continuous movement.
"Behind the Screen," not as well known as some other Mutuals, is an amusing satire on Keystone slapstick. The setting is a movie studio. The comedy department rehearses "a new idea" — which turns out to be pie-throwing — at which one of the actors quits in disgust over "this highbrow stuff." Much of its comic business repeats the older "Property Man," but in reverse. Charlie is David, the stage hand Goliath's assistant. He does all the heavy work, while the loafing Goliath takes all the credit.