Charlot est content de lui

The cinema has been with us for so long it's now possible to watch films that are well over a hundred years old. 'Kid Auto Races at Venice' is one of those titles that are central to film history but like scores of others I've never got round to actually watching it until on a whim I just looked it up on YouTube.

A full century after it was dashed off in a morning it still looks as fresh as a daisy and remains a subject of awe that Chaplin's creation burst on the screen fully formed; and serves as a refreshing reminder of what a nasty piece of work he was before his creator developed aspirations to play Pagliacci.

Kid Auto Races at Venice is far from Chaplin's best moment on film, but it might be his most important. In an early combination of the reality short subjects that dominated early cinema, and fictional comedy, this short piece features Chaplin as a tramp who annoys several camera crews at a car race.

As the first appearance of Chaplin's Tramp character, this film's place in movie history is secure. As a comedy, it's mildly amusing. Obviously ad libbed, it has an amateurish quality that holds up surprisingly well. It also provides a few thrills as Chaplin is nearly hit by the vehicles several times -- I doubt any of the near-misses were scripted!

There is no denying that this short film is not an example of Chaplin's best work on film, but every serious Chaplin fan, or cinema historian, needs to see it at least once.

Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)

** (out of 4)

This is a historically important film but it's not a very good one. For the first time we see Charles Chaplin in his Tramp outfit as he causes trouble at a race. There really aren't any laughs in the film but again, it remains interesting because we see Chaplin working out his routine.

Even though the film isn't that good it's still historically important for Chaplin.

Various public domain companies have released the film but for the best quality you should track down the Image release.

In 1914 Charlie Chaplin debuted with the Mack Sennett shorts for Keystone. These shorts were made in rapid succession and while some are great, some are ok (like this one) and some are bad. Despite the results they were all released in theaters. These early shorts are pretty much like home videos (like the ones played on AMERICA'S FUNNIEST VIDEOS) with people that do stupid things and in the end they have pratfalls. His tramp character (that debuted here) was still evolving as he switched to Essenay studios a year later. He stopped this evolution process with his full-length movies in the 1920s.

In this short, as I said in the summary, there isn't much plot. The Keystone crew went on a kid auto race and they told Chaplin to just wander around and coming in and out of the track. The only thing that happens beside this is that he is sometimes punched by few adults for getting in the track. The only thing for which this short is important is because we have a first shot of Chaplin's most famous character.

Kid Auto Races in Venice is historical in that it marks Charlie Chaplin's first appearance as The Tramp. In this short film, The Tramp is a spectator in a soap box derby race that is being filmed. Throughout the short, Charlie keeps getting in front of the camera and getting pushed off by either the cameraman or other spectators. In addition, he almost gets knocked off by some of the kid racers! Obviously not much to mention of the plot of this six minute short but for some reason I was constantly amused by Chaplin's constant wandering in and out of the path of where the race cars were going as well as the cameraman's attempts to get him out of the way. Worth a look for film history buffs and the easily amused.