Charlot cambia de oficio

Charlie Chaplin turns up for an interview at the "Lockstone" film studios (they've even got a water cooler!) - desperate for a job... He'll do anything, which is just as well because every task he his assigned by the director he manages to cock up. It's funny for about ten minutes, the timing and precision seems effortless but, despite the introduction of a few new foils for his humour (the leading lady, leading man and a poor old chippie just trying to get the sets built) it gets quite predictably repetitive pretty soon. There are only so many times you can get away with poking someone with a sword, or a stick; or hitting them on the head with a plank - before the performance becomes, well, routine. It shows off the acrobatic talents of the star well, too - but again, as with slapstick in general for me, has no subtlety to keep the humour crisp and fresh.

How appropriate that after leaving The Keystone Studios Charles Chaplin's first picture with the Essanay Studios was titled 'His New Job'. Although, new job in the new studio where Chaplin was allowed more creative freedom, this movie is nothing spectacular. The plot is quite loose and Chaplin uses all his old tricks he became known in the Keystone pictures. Chaplin's Tramp is still quite far from the loveable fella whom the world learned to admire. For me, the other silent comedy giant, Ben Turpin, managed to steal the whole show from Chaplin in this one. The fictional movie company in the movie was named Lockstone, an obvious jab at The Keystone. Not quite the riot fun like the poster promises neither it's very memorable but entertaining movie nonetheless. This movie is the first where Charles Chaplin starts to shine as a director.

Gloria Swanson also makes a screen appearance - the girl Chaplin is having a conversation with at the beginning of the movie.

This is one of 5 Chaplin that are on the first DVD of Chaplin's Essanay Comedies. In general, compared to volume 2, the shorts on volume 1 aren't as well-made--because the DVDs are arranged chronologically. Chaplin's skill as a film maker and actor appeared to improve through his stay with Essanay Studios.

This short is not particularly memorable in some ways, as there is a very strong reliance on slapstick and very little regard to the development of the plot--something that would change as he made more and more shorts that became more and more plot-driven.

Charlie gets a job working at Lodstone Studios in the short. He is a carpenter but is able to insinuate himself into the films by posing as an actor. The biggest positive of this film is that it gives some insight into the film making process at the time. Other than that, there's little of an great significance to this film.

Charlie Chaplin's first movie with Essanay (hence the title) casts him as a guy attempting to get a break in a movie, only to repeatedly make a mess of the production. There's plenty of funny gags, as is often the case in these relics of early cinema. The plot isn't the most complex, since Chaplin hadn't fully ironed out his style. A notable thing about the movie is that it features a young Gloria Swanson, years before her role as a certain big star amid small pictures.* It's not a great movie, but as far as I'm concerned, any Chaplin movie is a good one. You'll probably like "His New Job".

*Swanson later testified on behalf of John Lennon when he was trying to gain US citizenship.

Besides being pretty good in itself, "His New Job" is also interesting in that it is a clear improvement over the previous features that Charlie Chaplin had made when he was with Keystone Studies. While the Keystone features were not bad, and often contained some excellent material, overall they generally gave the appearance of having been thrown together quickly, which often left a lot of unrealized potential in some of their ideas and themes. And, while these Essanay features themselves were usually not quite as good as his later Mutual features, they did give Chaplin a chance to perform quite a few kinds of material, and most of them are well worth seeing.

In this one, Charlie's character is competing with some other hopefuls who are trying to break into the movies. Ben Turpin and Charlie have quite a few scenes together, and although their scenes are primarily knockabout slapstick, they do work well as a team. The action takes place in several settings, and on average it is fairly creative in its use of the settings and props. Most of the gags come off all right, and overall the feature works pretty well.