Charlot grande coquette

Cute meta Chaplin short in which he creates havoc on a movie set after first trying to swipe Roscoe Arbuckle's drink in the dressing room while changing into his Little Tramp costume. It's the usual Keystone formula of kicks and bricks, but enhanced immeasurably by Chaplin's physical dexterity and flawless sense of comic timing.

A little hard to follow at times. Feels like Chaplin aimed too high in some scenes, which ends up looking too chaotic with the limitations of the movie industry a century ago.

Nonetheless a nice little show. A bit more polished than Laughing Gas and probably above the average Keystone production.

I am not really sure whether I liked this Charlie Chaplin short or not. Compared to his more famous shorts from 1915 to 1918 this is not that good but since it is Chaplin I found myself smiling almost constantly.

Here he plays an actor who messes up several takes. He is fired but returns dressed up as a woman. He kind of seduces the movie's director who likes the woman.

The problem with this short is that the only real joke here is Chaplin dressed up as a woman. Of course that is fun to see, but we don't see the real Chaplin and I guess that it makes this Chaplin short a little disappointing.

Watched from an old VHS tape of 5 1914 shorts, the quality on this as with the others is rather poor and there are dropouts -- not from the tape, but from the film elements -- sometimes enough so that the action is hard to follow though less so in this case than most of the others. Not that it matters a whole lot, as this is for the most part like the other shorts very simple films with lots of knockabout action, broad humor, and very little else.

"The Masquerader" might be the best of the five, with the action taking place in a film studio and Charlie as an incompetent actor -- so an early example of the self-reflexive nature of film at work here -- only to return after being canned as a beautiful, dolled up actress. Chaplin's mimicry and makeup is really quite amazing here -- he had me fooled, anyway. The film also features Fatty Arbuckle as a rival actor who at one point gives Charlie gasoline to drink! His scene with Charlie, on opposite sides of a dressing-mirror in a dressing-room, is a classic of timing and facial expressions and has the feel of improvisation.

I've seen quite a few Chaplin shorts from early in his career and I've noticed that his early stuff (done for Keystone Studios) is pretty dreadful stuff. Unlike his wonderful full-length films from the 20s and 30s, the films from 1914-1915 are incredibly poorly made--having no script but only vague instructions from the director. In most cases, the films had almost no plot and degenerated to people punching and kicking each other.

This movie has a very thin plot. Charlie is either working at a movie set or he sneaks in--it's not sure which. And, he makes a mess of everything until he's thrown out,...only to return in drag! The director thinks Charlie's a hot tamale and begins making passes at him/her! Actually, I was shocked just how GOOD Chaplin looked as a girl! He probably could have passed as a woman in public.

FYI--this is the second film in which Chaplin appeared in drag. It also features Fatty Arbuckle in a cameo playing, I think, himself.