His Prehistoric Past

As many films as Charlie Chaplin made, some of them were bound to be below his usual standard. "His Prehistoric Past" is a short comedy that is not very funny, nor does it contain the touches of humanity that Chaplin's best films have.

The idea here is that Charlie joins a caveman tribe. The humor is supposed to come from the cavemen's clubs, the caveman king having a harem, and so forth, but none of it is very entertaining.

Anything that Chaplin did probably holds some interest to his fans, but almost any of his other films is much better than this one.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

Everybody has to have at least one misfire in their careers, even the best directors and actors have not so good films or films they regret. From his early still evolving period before he properly found his stride and fairly fresh from his vaudeville background, like 'His Favourite Pastime', 'A Busy Day' and 'The Property Man', 'His Prehistoric Past' shows that Chaplin is not immune from this. It is a lesser effort of his, and notable only really for being his last production for Keystone.

By all means 'His Prehistoric Past' has a few good points. While a little primitive and not exactly audacious, the production values are far from cheap.

There are also a few amusing moments, a little zest on occasions and Charlie does his best with the uninspired material he has and doesn't go through the motions like he did in 'A Busy Man'.

Where 'His Prehistoric Past' falls down is that mostly it's not particularly funny. The timing feels limp and there is very little, if any, freshness or originality. There is an over-reliance on slap-stick and it is very broad and very repetitive. There is not much charm here and there is not much to be emotionally invested by. The story is flimsy, so much so things feel over-stretched, there are not many Chaplin short films where a short length feels very dull but 'His Prehistoric Past' is one of them.

Charlie does his best certainly and looks engaged, but not much more than that due to his material being pretty uninspired. The cast are not much to write home about.

In conclusion, an early career misfire. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Anyway, it doesn't make you laugh, it's just a small nonsense or, if you want, a filming exercise for the masterpieces that were to follow. Film made 107 years ago!

This is an early Chaplin short. Almost all of his earliest films from 1914-1915 were plot less and pretty incoherent. However, considering the generally poor quality of films of the time, they were adored by the public. It was only a few years later that Chaplin's films began to be great works of art--with real scripts, higher production values and some coherence.

This film is one of Chaplin's earliest. And, considering how early it was made, it's surprising how much plot there actually is. Charlie is a caveman in a land where there are 1000 women for every man. He defeats the leader of the tribe and becomes king. Later, when the old king returns and bonks Charlie on the head, he awakens in the present as a cop is hitting him over the head with a club. Apparently it was all a silly dream.

The film had a few cute moments, but only a few. Not a terrible film when compared to the fare of the day, but pretty skipable despite having a VERY unusual plot.

His Prehistoric Past was one of Chaplin's earliest movies and easily one of his least funny. It is without the social messages that his later films (even the short silent-films) contained, and is also without any truly funny scenes. Chaplin neither directed nor produced this movie, and it is doubtful that even he found it at any point funny.

Charlie Chaplin left to his own creative devices was a genius - plain and simple. HPH is not his project, however, and consequently is a very poor example of a Chaplin flick.

Do yourself a favor, rent a different Chaplin film (almost any will make your sides hurt from laughing and brain giddy from greater social awareness), but don't waste your time or money on His Prehistoric Past.