Live Wires and Love Sparks

Billie Ritchie is a blast in this early silent comedy. He shows great acrobatic skills and able to take a pratfall with the best of them. It is also notable that we get to see a VERY young and fit Eugene Palette. He is the one chasing Billie with that mysterious envelope. Which turns out to be full of cash. The usual marital complications are also fun to watch. His kids especially the two with the thick black eyebrows are a scream. The film isn't a world beater. But it's a pleasant way to pass a few minutes of time. Whether Chaplin copied him or vice versa. It doesn't affect the entertainment value of this film. Give the film a try. I think you'll like it.

There is all kinds of activity in this Billie Ritchie short comedy, with characters racing around for almost the entire running time, but most of it is just not that funny. Ritchie apparently once claimed that Charlie Chaplin got some of his material from Ritchie, but even if that is so, Ritchie certainly did not have the range of comic talents that Chaplin possessed.

The whole story has Ritchie's character, a telephone company worker, being pursued by everyone from a jealous husband to his own angry wife. While it has lots of energy, most of it just does not have much of a sense of timing, and although there are a handful of decent gags, most of it relies on routine slapstick ideas. There is a decent finale that shows some creativity, and it makes up just a little for the routine nature of most of the rest of the movie.

Billy Ritchie was known for dressing as "the Little Tramp" at about the same time Chaplin began doing this in 1914. Both argued that they invented the character. Chaplin did do it first on film, but Ritchie proclaimed that he had done it first on stage--before the popularity of silent comedy shorts. Whoever was the actual originator, both played essentially the same character on film and look very similar. In fact, this short looks almost exactly like the average Chaplin short of the 1914-1915 era. This is before Chaplin really fully developed the character--before he injected him with more likability and charm. Instead, the Little Tramp was more a goofy guy who did occasionally nasty things to others. And, as a result of the unlikability, few people today would be terribly impressed with either comedian! My advice is don't watch the Ritchie incarnation or the Chaplin ones made really early in his career. The 1916-1920 period of time showed vast improvements in the characterization and helped to give Chaplin more lasting appeal.