Charlot garde-malade

In 1914 Charlie Chaplin made no fewer than 36 silent comedy shorts. "The Good for Nothing", also known as "His New Profession", is one of them, released in late August just after the outbreak of World War I. Europe may have had more serious matters on its mind, but in America what mattered was slapstick.

Here Charlie is hired by a man to wheel his elderly, wheelchair-bound uncle around a seaside park. Dissatisfied with the amount he is being paid, however, he puts a beggar's sign and tin on the wheelchair while the old man is asleep. Further complications ensure, involving a real beggar and those two stock comic figures from Chaplin comedies, a pretty girl and a policeman. When the uncle's wheelchair rolls on to the pier we think we know what is coming. Or is it?

We are lucky that so many of Chaplin's films have survived, given that many films from the 1910s are now lost, although today some of them are of little more than historical interest. What strikes the modern viewer is how cruel some of them are. "The Good for Nothing" is not quite as bad in this respect as something like "In the Park", but even so it struck me as trying to get laughs at the expense of the elderly and disabled. The uncle is not treated as a human being in his own right, more like an item of property on whom virtually any indignity can be inflicted provided that it helps to get laughs.

Motion Picture News described the film as "a laugh throughout", which suggests that both audiences and critics in 1914 were more easily pleased than modern ones. This was, however, a period during which both Chaplin, and the cinema in general, were on an upward learning curve and needed to work out what worked and what didn't. And, although films like this one may seem a bit crude by modern standards, and indeed by the standards of any period alter than about 1930, the general consensus at the time seemed to be that they did work. They just don't make very interesting watching 100 years on.

I saw this Charlie Chaplin short under the title THE GOOD FOR NOTHING. It's very similar in tone to IN THE PARK, consisting of Chaplin and a few others goofing around in the great outdoors, although the setting this time around is a pier. I didn't like it as much as IN THE PARK, as the gag rate isn't as consistent, and much of the humour is lowbrow and repetitive.

Chaplin plays an idler who is tasked with looking after an invalid by fellow comedian Charley Chase. The guy is in a wheelchair so all manner of pain-focused gags arise from that situation. There are some very funny bits here, especially those involving the wheelchair being pushed around, although Chaplin doesn't seem quite on form and he has little of those character quirks I've seen elsewhere. Watch out for Fatty Arbuckle's cameo as the exasperated bartender.

I didn't know that Charlie Chaplin made so many films in 1914. So I struggled a lot to find this short film The Good For Nothing, mainly because I did not know that it was actually known as His New Profession. To be honest I found this short comedy quite violent, with all the comic fighting at the pier and in the bar. But then I have not seen another Chaplin short before, so I might have been not expecting it.

The gags are amusing, but can be a bit repetitive, like Charlie's cane keeps hitting the Uncle's cast. Also, because of this, I found the first time when Charlie falling over into the food on the pavement quite amusing, but the second time a little less amusing. But some jokes can be not completed for that extra unexpected humour. An example of this is when the Uncle, in his wheelchair, gets pushed along the pier, and, like you would expect, to fall into the sea, while in fact he stops at the edge for that bit of unexpected humour, a bit of a surprise to me when the gag was repeated for the second time. Chaplin's direction really made the extremely simple plot seem like 16 minutes of traditional slapstick, repetitive gags, unexpected humour and more comic fights than you could shake a cane at! I was surprised that Minta Durfee, whose potrayal of the Woman was satisfactory, had an ongoing film career until her death in 1975! While Chaplin, whose portrayal of Charlie was very good and very important to the flow of the film, career went on until 1967, 10 years before his actual death! I do have pity though for Fritz Schade, whose protrayal of the Uncle really made the character come alive, didn't make another film after 1917, and died in 1926, and the young age of 46. It's a shame because he would have had a tremendous career in comedy films, with a role like that! Personally I would not recommend this short as an introduction Chaplin's unique work, just because of all that fighting might not a common convention of his work. Overall, it was an all right short film.

Chas. Chaplain entertains the observer in this number with a lot of new eccentric comedy. The plot is only sufficient to hang a number of amusing antics on. Some of the situations are very funny and this will please admirers of slapstick fun. - The Moving Picture World, September 26, 1914

This 16 minute flick is no where near his very best or indeed his keystone best but the film from a historical points out why Chaplin and his tramp became the greatest success in popular entertainment up to that time. Chaplin quickly mastered the new medium and here he circumvents normal morals by playing to the popular crowd which at the time was very the poor, the working class and the exploited so the little tramps cruelty seemed then to be not just funny but clever in a way that simply does play to modern manners. Chaplin was still learning his trade when this short was put to celluloid way back in 1914 but even then he knew what cinema and entertainment was all about. Today 100 and more years on it is clear that Chaplin was not only an artist but a genius and a pioneer and innovator of deserved legendary status.