The Masquerader

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 Masquerader', still made very early on in his career where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for. 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 Masquerader' is a long way from a career high, but has a lot of nice things about it and is to me one of the better efforts in the 1914 Keystone batch.

'The Masquerader' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and some other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. Occasionally, things feel a little scrappy and confused.

For someone who was still relatively new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'The Masquerador' is not bad at all, pretty good actually.

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

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'The Masquerader' is still very amusing and hard to dislike. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short. It is Chaplin's second endeavour in drag, 'A Busy Day' being the previous one, and the far more successful one.

Overall, far from one of Chaplin's best but pretty good and perhaps one of his better efforts from the early Keystone period. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is an interesting little short comedy that, while rather uneven, is generally amusing. It's mostly remembered for Chaplin disguising himself as a woman, in an attempt to get into a movie studio. The idea of a man masquerading as a woman, or vice versa, was relatively common in the old silent comedies - this is one of the more believable efforts, as Charlie's disguise is credible enough to make that part of the movie work all right. But that's not necessarily the best or even the most interesting part of the film.

The setting in a movie studio is interesting in itself, offering a chance for some good-natured self-parody, and they got reasonable mileage out of the idea. Perhaps the best-crafted scene occurs very early on, when Chaplin and 'Fatty' Arbuckle have a battle of wits in the dressing room. It's no coincidence that it is the one scene in the picture in which Chaplin performs with another highly talented comedian, as the smooth timing and careful movement make it stand out from the more disjointed, frantic pace of most of the rest of the movie. But even as a whole, the movie works all right, despite its lack of refinement. It's hardly one of Chaplin's top efforts, but still entertaining and worth seeing.

Watched from an old VHS tape of 5 1914 shorts, the quality on this as with the others is rather poor and there are dropouts -- not from the tape, but from the film elements -- sometimes enough so that the action is hard to follow though less so in this case than most of the others. Not that it matters a whole lot, as this is for the most part like the other shorts very simple films with lots of knockabout action, broad humor, and very little else.

"The Masquerader" might be the best of the five, with the action taking place in a film studio and Charlie as an incompetent actor -- so an early example of the self-reflexive nature of film at work here -- only to return after being canned as a beautiful, dolled up actress. Chaplin's mimicry and makeup is really quite amazing here -- he had me fooled, anyway. The film also features Fatty Arbuckle as a rival actor who at one point gives Charlie gasoline to drink! His scene with Charlie, on opposite sides of a dressing-mirror in a dressing-room, is a classic of timing and facial expressions and has the feel of improvisation.

Cute meta Chaplin short in which he creates havoc on a movie set after first trying to swipe Roscoe Arbuckle's drink in the dressing room while changing into his Little Tramp costume. It's the usual Keystone formula of kicks and bricks, but enhanced immeasurably by Chaplin's physical dexterity and flawless sense of comic timing.

A little hard to follow at times. Feels like Chaplin aimed too high in some scenes, which ends up looking too chaotic with the limitations of the movie industry a century ago.

Nonetheless a nice little show. A bit more polished than Laughing Gas and probably above the average Keystone production.