Cruel, Cruel Love

Cruel, Cruel Love (1914)

*** (out of 4)

Charles Chaplin short from the Keystone Studios has him playing a broken man who decides to kill himself after his girlfriend breaks up with him. Minutes after taking the poison he receives a letter from her saying she wants him back. This is an early Chaplin film so naturally he hadn't perfected his skill as a comedian but he turns in an interesting performance here. While the film isn't fall down hilarious it does offer up enough good scenes to make it worth viewing. One of the better scenes in the film has Chaplin seeing his future with suicide and going to Hell where two devil keep messes with him in the flames. Another nice sequence has Chaplin trying to fight the doctors trying to save him at the end of the film. Edgar Kennedy has a brief role as the butler.

For every decent movie Chaplin made in 1914 it seems like he made a dozen duds - and this is one of the duddiest of them all. Chaplin either hadn't developed the character of the little tramp when he made this short or he had decided to give him a break for a while. Here he plays something of a toff who, through a misunderstanding, finds himself jilted by his beloved so decides to commit suicide. Unnknown to him, his butler switches the poison he intends to take for water. Despite this, Chaplin's character goes through exaggerated death throes until the truth comes to light, whereupon he starts kicking everyone in sight. As with most of his early films, this is pretty primitive stuff - I don't think I laughed (or smiled) once...

This was Chaplin's ninth film at Keystone and the third of four Chaplin films directed by George Nichols. It is important to note that this film was lost for a long time and only about 9 of the original 16 minutes has been found.

We can guess that most of the lost footage starts at around 3 minutes and 30 seconds just before we see Chaplin taking poison. What we don't see is his decision to take poison, his relationship with his butler, played by Edgar Kennedy, and the butler substituting a harmless drink for the poison. We can easily guess that all this was the content of the missing scenes based on the acting and actions in later scenes.

This film seems like it should be associated with Chaplin's first film, "Making a Living" as he wears the Gray waistcoat and top hat from that film and Minta Durfee who is also the love interest from that film is the love interest here.

Eva Nelson does a funny bit as the maid. She hurts her ankle and Chaplin helps her. Durfee does not see her hurting her ankle. This causes Durfee to mistakingly believe that Chaplin was trying to seduce her. Nelson's film career just started a few weeks before in Chaplin's "Tango Tangled." She appeared in 10 Keystone films in 1914. She then did nine more short films in 1915 and 1916, including six with Chaplin impersonator Billie Ritchie. That is all of her short film career.

William Hauber does a nice job as a gardener who convinces Durfee that Chaplin hasn't betrayed her with her maid. He appeared in some 75 Keystone films from 1912 to 1916 and then worked in some 30 Larry Semon films over the next 10 years.

This film contains the first Chaplin "Dream sequence." He imagines himself going to hell after drinking the poison. "The Bank," "The Kid," "Sunnyside" "The Gold Rush" and "Modern Times" are some other Chaplin films with dream sequences.

Chaplin's performance in this film looks ridiculous rather than funny; however, that is probably due to the missing scenes. If we had those scenes, we could see Chaplin's transition from despair to hysteria. We can only hope that someday, some way, the missing scenes may be found.

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 'Cruel, Cruel Love'. 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. 'Cruel, Cruel Love' is a long way from a career high, although among the better very early Keystone comedies.

'Cruel, Cruel Love' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and a good deal of other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious, the humour only amusing and lacking freshness at times and parts a touch scrappy and occasionally convoluted.

For someone who was relatively new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'Cruel, Cruel Love' is not bad at all.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. His character is not one of his most likeable though

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'Cruel, Cruel Love' is mildly humorous, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

Overall, far from one of Chaplin's best but not bad at all. 6/10 Bethany Cox

'Cruel, Cruel Love' is one of the better efforts of Chaplin's early Keystone works. It seems to me that those films where Chaplin wasn't playing The Tramp were usually better from that period. The story is a classic romantic fable - after a little misunderstanding, the Lord's (Charles Chaplin) fiancee (Minta Durfee) calls off the engagement. Broken-hearted, the Lord is about to commit suicide. The Lady's gardener explains what caused the misunderstanding, and she rushes to help her loved one. The Lord's butler watches that mess and gets a nice bellyful of laughs.

Although the film is simple and offers very little inventiveness, it is still funny enough, and as a viewer, it is easy to care about the characters and the story. Gags and stunts were barely above the average of that era's slapstick. Chaplin managed to show his true genius as an actor - when his character was thinking he will die and hallucinated about hell - those facial expressions when he realized that all the world is over for him. Amazing.

I also started to pay the attention to the sets they used and noticed how the homes of the characters look very similar. It is because they used the same set, but with little redecoration, they made it look like another location.

'Cruel, Cruel Love' is more than barely watchable - it is enjoyable.