Charlot e Fatty al caffè

This short had Charlie Chaplin clad in an atypical tophat and cape though his antics were still the same. He played the drunken Mr. Full who came home to a very unhappy wife (Phyllis Allen). Across the hall another drunkard, Mr. Fuller (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle), came home to an equally unhappy wife (Minta Durfee). There was domestic violence abound (in slapstick fashion) as the two men faced their fates in the form of angry wives.

Chaplin is funniest to me as a sober tramp. I prefer his clumsy antics not be the result of imbibing. And if this short wasn't bad enough they threw in there a character in blackface for good measure.

There isn't much more to this silent short than people decking each other and acting drunk, but comedy pioneers Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle do it pretty creatively, and Phyllis Allen and Minta Durfree (Fatty's real-life wife) are pretty good themselves. You'll have to set aside the fact that domestic violence (in both directions) is part of the humor, and a brief appearance of a doorman in blackface, but these didn't stop me from enjoying it. There were a couple moments that made me chuckle, including one where Fatty quietly pulls a tablecloth over him in a crowded dining room as if he's going to bed while Charlie hams it up. It's silly material but the way they controlled their bodies and executed the physical humor was clever. Worth 13 minutes for sure.

It's fun to see Roscoe Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin together (plus a couple of brief appearances by Al St. John), although this movie as a whole is only mildly entertaining. Not that either of the stars disappoints, by any means, but the material limits them somewhat. It's also interesting, though, to see an earlier version of the extended, more carefully planned "drunk" acts that Chaplin did in features like "The Cure" and the excellent "One A.M."

The story is episodic, with the two stars as a couple of good-natured drunks who get into trouble with their wives and with plenty of others. Chaplin and Arbuckle could do that kind of material as well as anyone. Most of it is funny enough, although after a while it starts to run out of steam and seem a bit forced. There are a couple of good gags to go along with their drunk act, though other parts are fairly routine stuff. It's probably a little above average for its time, but it's not as imaginative as either Arbuckle's or Chaplin's best material.

Chas. Chapman and the Fat Boy appear in this as a couple of genial jags. The humor is not of an offensive sort, though few performers can avoid this in such scenes. The angry wives follow them and they take to a boat in the lake, which is swamped in an amusing manner. - The Moving Picture World, September 19, 1914

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 'The Rounders', still made very early on in his career where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for. 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. 'The Rounders' is a long way from a career high, but has a lot of nice things about it and is to me one of the better efforts in the 1914 Keystone batch.

'The Rounders' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and some other shorts in the same period. The episodic story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. Occasionally, things feel a little scrappy, occasionally repetitive and confused.

For someone who was still relatively new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'The Rounders' is not bad at all, pretty good actually.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable, with shades of his distinctive style here, and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. Fatty Arbuckle is also great and their chemistry carries 'The Rounders' to very entertaining effect.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'The Rounders' is still very amusing, cute and hard to dislike. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

To conclude, decent. 7/10 Bethany Cox