Chase Me Charlie

There's no question about it, as soon as Chaplin parted company with Mack Sennett and the Keystone Film Company, he defined himself as a silent comedian as well as the silent comedy genre up until this stage in his career. Harold Lloyd had not found his screen identity as yet, so Chaplin was the man of the moment.

Chase Me Charlie began as a result of a lost lawsuit between Charles Chaplin and the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. When the company issued a new Chaplin film that Chaplin never actually made, he took legal action. Essanay used footage Chaplin never released from a non completed film, filmed new sequences with many of the same actors who appear with Chaplin in older footage and titled the collection "Triple Trouble". Two years earlier, the studio tampered with another Chaplin film, a spoof of the opera Carmen, by adding two additional reels of material featuring Ben Turpin.

Since the courts ruled in favor of the company, stating that they and not Chaplin owned the material outright, they did one more release without Chaplin's consent. This compilation film was the result. Fourteen years later it was re released, this time with music and narration. The score was written by Elias Breeskin and the narration was spoken by Teddy Bergman who later changed his name to Alan Reed and would gain fame as the original voice of Fred Flintstone. His gift for mimicry adds to the film but not necessarily for the good. It is made up of cheap jokes and takes away from the Chaplin footage. He actually tells Charlie to do things as if he is in control. Maybe it was funny in 1932 but it is disruptive today. This was Reed's first participation in a theatrical release.

In 1966, producer Sam Sherman re released the film with the Breeskin score, replaced the 1932 comic narration, added a prologue about Hollywood then and now and retitled the film, "Chaplin's Art Of Comedy".

Which version is best is up to the viewer yet it's interesting to see the two narrated versions in comparison. Three decades apart, the spoken audio belongs to its own place in time. It would be just as fascinating to see another release with a contemporary track to put it in a current perspective.

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.

1918's 'Chase Me Charlie' is made up of several short films from Chaplin's Essanay period. It shows a noticeable step up in quality though from his Keystone period, where he was still evolving and in the infancy of his long career, from 1914, The Essanay period is something of Chaplin's adolescence period where his style had been found and starting to settle. Something that can be seen here in this uneven but worthwhile compilation where some short films are better than others and it all feels a bit episodic.

Some of the short films are not one of his all-time funniest or most memorable, other efforts also have more pathos and a balance of that and the comedy. The stories can be a little flimsy, a few struggle to sustain the short length, and could have had more variety and less more of the same repeition.

On the other hand, 'Chase Me Charlie' looks pretty good, not incredible but it was obvious that Chaplin was taking more time with his work and not churning out countless shorts in the same year of very variable success like he did with Keystone. Appreciate the importance of his Keystone period and there is some good stuff he did there, but the more mature and careful quality seen here and later on is obvious.

Most of the short films featured may lack originality and they vary in effectiveness of humour, but all are generally still very entertaining with some clever, entertaining and well-timed slapstick. The top 3, all three being among Chaplin's best early efforts, are 'The Tramp', 'The Bank' and 'The Champion', while the weakest are still worthwhile. 'Chase Me Charlie' as an overall whole moves quickly and there is no dullness in sight.

Chaplin directs more than competently, if not quite cinematic genius standard yet. He also, as usual, gives an amusing and expressive performance and at clear ease with the physicality of the role. The supporting cast acquit themselves well in all the short films featured.

In summation, worth watching if not to watch over and over. 7/10 Bethany Cox