The New Janitor

When I first saw this short, a long time ago, I knew the star comedian only from excerpts in silent comedy compilations. If I'm not mistaken The New Janitor was the very first Chaplin film I watched from beginning to end; in any case it was definitely the first of Chaplin's Keystone comedies I'd ever seen. (Permit me a moment of nostalgia: the format for that first viewing was 8mm, a silent print created by the Blackhawk Corporation of Davenport, Iowa, projected on a wall in my home.) And I was surprised at how good it was, because the one thing I kept hearing about Chaplin's Keystones was that his early screen persona was cruel or at least amoral, while the films themselves were slapdash, violent, crude in every sense of the word, and usually lacking any coherent plot or sympathetic characters. As I explored the rest of Chaplin's output from his first year in the movies I found a few shorts—though not the majority—which conform to that stereotype, but this most certainly isn't one of them. The New Janitor tells a concise story, with elements of surprise and suspense. Characters are clearly delineated: we learn just what we need to know about each person on screen in a matter of moments. And Charlie, who of course plays the title role, is a very sympathetic figure indeed, although he doesn't forget to make us laugh.

Our story is set in an office building. Janitor Charlie must shuffle up many flights of stairs all day long, because he's repeatedly shut out of the elevator by its mean-spirited operator (Al St. John). This running gag, by the way, not only makes Charlie a sympathetic figure from the opening scene, but also contributes to the suspense of the finale. At any rate, we soon figure out the relationships in the office hierarchy. There's the boss (Jess Dandy), an attractive young secretary (Peggy Page), and a manager (John T. Dillon) who turns out to be a rotter with gambling debts. The plot hinges around the manager's attempt to rob the company safe in order to pay off an impatient creditor. But the secretary walks in on the manager in mid-crime, and finds herself endangered. She manages to summon Charlie, but he, unaware of what is unfolding, must slowly shuffle up those stairs to answer the summons. Once he arrives, he instantly and almost casually acts in a brave and heroic manner, knocks the gun from the villain's hand, and rescues the girl. In the ensuing confusion both the boss and then the police assume that Charlie is the culprit, but, much to our relief, the secretary comes to his defense and his heroism is recognized.

This is a very enjoyable short! Chaplin the budding filmmaker really made a great leap forward with The New Janitor. The story is melodramatic but the actors play it straight, and, even a century after the film was made, the plot still draws us in. Interestingly—and atypically—Chaplin is off-screen for a couple of minutes during the middle portion of this short, and if you walked in at that point you might think this film was a drama made at Vitagraph or Thanhouser, but the action commands our attention even when the star is absent. And of course, there are a number of amusing gags along the way, as Charlie juggles a wastebasket, blocks his own entry through a doorway with a horizontally-held broom, deftly "flip kicks" a cigarette through the air, etc. There's even a brief moment of thrill comedy when Charlie nearly falls out a window. And when, at one juncture, the new janitor is fired for ineptitude, we feel for him. Significantly where his character is concerned, he no longer works for the company when the secretary summons him to help, but he answers the call anyway. This is not at all the villainous figure Chaplin played in some of the other Keystones. He's a comic hero, the Charlie Chaplin the world remembers, and in its modest way The New Janitor is one of his first great short comedies.

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.

He did do better than 'The New Janitor', still made relatively early on in his career, generally a period where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for (though he is definitely more settled feeling here). Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'The New Janitor' has a lot of nice things about it and is to me one of the best efforts in the 1914 Keystone batch.

'The New Janitor' is one of his funniest and most charming efforts from this period. Sure the production values not as audacious. Appreciated the busier and more complex story than before, though occasionally it was a bit hard to follow. 'The New Janitor' for early Chaplin is very good and it showed that Chaplin was starting to settle.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable, with more shades than before of his distinctive style here, and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. There is more sympathy and emotion than before.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'The New Janitor' is still very funny, cute and hard to dislike. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

In conclusion, very good for early Chaplin. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Charlot is the school janitor. His troubles range from lifting the basket that drops its contents on the ground to the overthrow of a bucket of water on the director. When the manager is stealing from the safe he is stopped by the secretary, who he silences and lands by force. Charlot arrives and saves her. The police arrive, who initially thinks that Charlot is the culprit. After slapstick and rolling, Charlot is free and receives a reward. Charlot begins to take on the role of man in the cylinder, mustache and long shoes that avenges the oppressed with his strategies and architectures comic.

I've seen quite a few Chaplin shorts from early in his career and I've noticed that his early stuff (done for Keystone Studios) is pretty dreadful stuff. Unlike his wonderful full-length films from the 20s and 30s, the films from 1914-1915 are incredibly poorly made--having no script but only vague instructions from the director. In most cases, the films had almost no plot and degenerated to people punching and kicking each other.

However, unlike MOST Keystone comedies, this short actually has a pretty well-defined plot. Charlie is a janitor and gets fired when he accidentally dumps a pail of water on the boss' head. Later, an employee with gambling debts tries to steal from the company safe but is caught by a female employee. The cad attacks the lady and Charlie springs to the rescue.

Unfortunately, despite having more plot, this film isn't all that funny. Still, compared with MOST early Chaplin films, this is worth watching.

By the way, the bellboy appears to be Al St. John--a perennial extra in silent comedies and Fatty Arbuckle's nephew.

A ripping good comedy number, with Chas. Chapman playing the part of the Janitor. He interpolates a lot of his inimitable funny business and the plot is better than usual. It contains a mixture of suspense and humor. A very good offering. - The Moving Picture World, September 26, 1914