The Floorwalker

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.

From his post- Essanay period after leaving Keystone, 'The Floorwalker' is not one of his very best or even among the best of this particular 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 in the more than worthwhile 'The Floorwalker'.

'The Floorwalker' is 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 story is still a little flimsy, there are times where it struggles to sustain the short length, and could have had more variety and less more of the same repeition.

On the other hand, 'The Floorwalker' looks pretty good, not incredible but it was obvious that Chaplin was taking more time with his work (even when deadlines were still tight) and not churning out as many 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.

While not one of his funniest or original, 'The Floorwalker' is still very entertaining with some clever, entertaining and well-timed slapstick. It 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.

Summing up, worth a look though Chaplin did better. 7/10 Bethany Cox

A floorwalker, Lloyd Bacon, and manager, Eric Campbell, rob the safe of a department store. Before they can leave with their ill-gotten gains, the floorwalker knocks the manager out and steals his share. To evade detectives, the floorwalker induces a look-alike tramp, Charlie Chaplin, to trade places with him. When the detectives arrest the real floorwalker, Chaplin is left with a suitcase of money and one small problem: Eric wants the money and revenge.

"The Floorwalker" was the first of Chaplin's twelve two-reel films for the Mutual Company. These are perhaps the best series of two-reel silent comedies. Chaplin made great strides as film maker during this period, and laid the groundwork for his feature-length triumphs to come.

The difference between the Mutual films and his Essanay films of the previous year are obvious from the start. The technical quality of the film making in almost all categories increases, and, although there are some notable holdovers from Essanay, especially leading- lady Edna Purviance, the quality of his stock company at Mutual also improves. "The Floorwalker" gives us the debut of Eric Campbell, Chaplin's best heavy, and Albert Austin, another stalwart foil. Most importantly, the level of humor rises from the rough, knockabout slapstick of his earliest films.

"The Floorwalker" is more heavily-plotted than most of his earlier shorts. It uses Chaplin's common plot device of mistaken identity which he frequently employed from 1914's "Caught in a Cabaret" to 1940's "The Great Dictator." This device allowed his tramp "everyman" to get a taste of the lifestyle of the rich and stuffy. This time he doesn't reach as high - merely to the ranks of the employed. The gags are good, in particular Chaplin makes excellent use of an escalator, although the film isn't as funny as many that will soon follow. Still, "The Floorwalker" remains one of my favorite Mutuals, if only for the sentimental reason that it was the first full-length two- reeler I bought in Super 8mm when I was a kid.

Well worth a look, but not the best introduction to Chaplin.

So evidently the floorwalker is the guy that walks around the store making sure no one is shoplifting, which provides a wonderful situation for a little mixed identity. Chaplin plays an obnoxious browser, testing all of the products in the store and generally making a big mess without buying anything (this may be one of the few times in his career when he displayed a little understanding of the plight of the store owners dealing with pesky shoppers who don't buy anything). Soon, however, he is back to sticking up for the people. The floorwalker begins harassing Charlie while a real thief robs the place blind right behind him.

There are two new and interesting things in this film. One is the escalator, which I have a feeling is the first escalator ever to appear in a motion picture (if you know of an earlier one, I'd be curious to hear about it), and the other is a Chaplin look-a-like. He's much bigger than the diminutive Chaplin, of course, but it's the first time I've seen his double appear with him in one of his movies.

The escalator is well used here, as well. The humor surrounding it goes a long way, and Chaplin speed walking down it is one of the more memorable moments of his early career. Soon, the double, in his efforts to make off with a suitcase full of cash, pays Charlie to trade clothes with him (I am always suspicious of someone who wants me to wear their clothes out of a store), which Charlie foolishly accepts.

The set up for the physical comedy is unusually clever in this film. The real bad guy gets caught and Charlie is congratulated for helping to capture him, then later an oafish guard wakes up (he had fallen victim to that silent film curiosity where someone gets knocked out and then later wakes up as though well-rested from a deep sleep), and comes after Charlie, unaware of his new hero status. He gives Charlie a hilarious thrashing.

My favorite moment in the film is Charlie's brief farewell dance before he attempts to dive into that handbag. It reminds me of the prestidigitonious (something like that) scene in Sword in the Stone, one of my all time favorite animated films.

There is a great scene near the end where Charlie does a hilarious little dance. It's hard to pinpoint it, but there is something definitely charming about the way he dances. I feel like I've seen a thousand other people do the same thing, and yet it still looks totally unique when he does it. The ending of this film is a little abrupt, but this is probably some of his best physical comedy yet.

The Little Tramp is mistaken for an embezzling floorwalker. Charlie Chaplin's first film for Mutual, and the first ever to feature an escalator, which provides the comical maestro with plenty of funny material to mine. The lookalike actor who plays the crooked store employee with whom Chaplin exchanges identities is Lloyd Bacon, who would go on to direct almost 100 movies including 42nd Street and Footlight Parade. The Floorwalker is a decent enough entry on Chaplin's CV, but it would have benefited from being 10 minutes shorter - the middle section drags a little - and it ends rather abruptly, suggesting that the final scenes have been lost.

THE FLOORWALKER (Mutual/Lone Star Company, 1916), Written and Directed by Charlie Chaplin, stars The Little Tramp in his first of twelve comedy shorts for Mutual (1916-1917). Coming a long way in a short time since his screen debut in 1914, Chaplin, now on his own, taking charge of his script and comedy material that has become genuine classics. Though some of his finest work in both short and feature-length formats were ahead of him, THE FLOORWALKER marked the new beginning in Chaplin's creativity and comical genius that developed with each passing film. Aside from Edna Purviance, Chaplin's frequent co-star since 1915, THE FLOORWALKER also marked the first of eleven comedies to pair the pint-sized Chaplin with the giant-sized Eric Campbell, a classic combination. A winning pair responsible for Chaplin's finest moments in screen comedy and new phase for the development of his tramp character that was to start here.

Opening title: "The Big Store." The slight plot development introduces scenes involving a stern floorwalker (Lloyd Bacon) ordering his sales clerk (Albert Austin) about and a loyal secretary (Edna Purviance) working for her general manager (Eric Campbell). After Campbell reads some shocking news from a memo, he works on a diabolical plot of robbing the store safe along with his floorwalker. The floorwalker, however, turns against Campbell, knocking him unconscious only to take the full bag of money for himself. There's one setback, how to get out of the place without the store detectives watching. During a shoplifting spree from numerous bargain seekers, in comes a customer (Charlie Chaplin) causing trouble for the clerk and getting himself into mischief before going through a series of pratfalls up the down escalator. Evading store detectives, Charlie takes refuge in the manager's office where he comes face to face with his look-alike floorwalker thief. Wanting a job in the store, both men agree to switch clothes and identities, this leaving Charlie holding the bag and thief falling victim through a series of unforeseen circumstances.

While not as crude as some of Chaplin's earlier comedies for both Mack Sennett and the Essanay Company, there's still some use of behind kicking and facial slaps to go around. Surprisingly, however, THE FLOORWALKER doesn't make use the traditional love match between Chaplin and Purviance. In fact, they share no scenes together whatsoever. Purviance's presence is devoted mainly towards her bearded, evil- eyed employer, Campbell. With a mannequin, water fountain and elevator playing part of prop comedy material, the one that gets the most attention is the escalator. Chaplin's ballet dancing technique where he avoids a fight is Chaplin style that's seldom imitated, never duplicated. However, the mirror bit between Chaplin and Bacon is one duplicated and imitated by other comedians over the years, the best re-enactment coming from the Marx Brothers twosome, Groucho and Harpo, doing it their way in the masterful production of DUCK SOUP (Paramount, 1933).

Other than the gag material expected from Chaplin, THE FLOORWALKER makes good use with camera cutaways from one action to another. There's even a D.W. Griffith-type of extreme close-up reaction technique on the lady store detective (Charlotte Mineau) worth noting. Others seen in the cast include Bud Jamison, Leo White, James T. Kelly and Chaplin regular, Henry Bergman, doing a minor bit as an old man who blows his horn.

An enjoyable twenty minutes that might have developed into a featurette, THE FLOORWALKER is as good as it gets. Along with the other Chaplin Mutuals, THE FLOORWALKER did have plenty of exposure on both commercial and public television broadcasts in the sixties and seventies with prints from 1930s reissue accompanied by jazzy music score and sound effects, the same prints acquired by Blackhawk and Republic Home Video for its video distributions in the 1980s and 90s. Interestingly, rather than placing these Chaplin Mutual comedies in order for which they appeared, Republic released these twelve Chaplin shorts in out sequence mix, placing THE FLOORWALKER as the second movie in the third of its four volume VHS sets. In recent years, THE FLOORWALKER has turned up on cable television, namely Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 13, 1999) with new orchestral scoring and silent acu-speed prints from Kino Home Video. Next in store of the Chaplin Mutual comedies: THE FIREMAN (1916) (***)