Charlot patine

Chaplin was almost always amusing but it occurred to me while watching this story of a waiter who woos a girl at a skating rink that in his earlier films he was more often the perp than the vic.

This was released in 1916 and Chaplin is a rude waiter who humiliates guests and steals money. If a stranger happens to be bending over and fastening a lady's roller skate, Chaplin can't help giving him a swift kick in the pants when he passes by. There's nothing here about "the little people." If the tramp is little, it's because that's his most comfortable social niche.

Ten years later, in "The Gold Rush," Chaplin had introduced humanity into his character, an innocent who is more sinned against than sinning.

Ten years after "The Gold Rush", he was sending social messages about worker alienation. (That's what happens when your work permits you to take no pride in having done it well. Anyone up for McDonald's Chicken Nuggets?) But in movies like "Modern Times," the milieu is only a peg from which to hang gags that are more hilarious than ever. And movies about poverty in 1936 were hardly uncommon anyway.

The gags here are sometimes spectacular, and always speedy. The tramp could certainly skate well.

Chaplin is a waiter in a chaotic restaurant. After he work he visits a skating rink for roller skates where he meets a girl but upsets plenty of others. She invites him to a skating party later – but can he win her heart whilst avoiding others?

Based on a sketch this short required Chaplin to expand the set-up to cover the longer running time and it occasionally shows. The restaurant scene is good but the real meat is in the two skating scenes that are fast and well choreographed to be amusing and skilfully done.

Chaplin is good as the little tramp and is even better when called on physically in the skating scenes. He shows his talent in those scenes much more than the others, however the actual plot needed a little more of the relationship in the wings even if it is just a short film.

Fans, however, will enjoy it regardless.

THE RINK (Mutual Studios, 1916), written and directed by Charlie Chaplin, offers the legendary comedian an opportunity in playing something other than a tramp. In fact, though identified mostly as the little tramp, there are numerous times he'd assume other characters in the Charlie Chaplin tradition, but the little tramp is what stays in memory. This time, Charlie plays a waiter with a talent for skating at a rink or social function as well as serving up trouble at the restaurant where he works. On his off hours, he does sport is trademark attire of derby, cane and tramp clothes he keeps in the stove rather than a locker. For his eighth comedy short for the Mutual Studio (Lone Star Corporation in most title card introductions), Chaplin resumes the fine comic support of his staff players of Edna Purviance, James K. Kelley, Frank J. Coleman, Albert Austin, Lloyd Bacon, Charlotte Mineau, and his most frequent adversary of the Mutual days, the late, great Eric Campbell.

The slight plot provides many antics involving a waiter (Chaplin) in a local restaurant writing the bill for one of his customers, Mr. Stout (Eric Campbell), a businessman who's as much of a flirt with the women as his manly looking wife (Henry Bergman in drag) is with the men. At the nearby rink, Stout is seen skating with a young socialite (Edna Purviance), but their union is soon interrupted by the waiter taking a break from his job. As he skates at the rink with Edna, he offers his calling card which reads Sir Cecil Seltzer, C.O.D. Before returning to work, Cecil is invited to social function skating party at Edna's home. As Mr. Stout makes his entrance at Edna's party, he not only encounters his wife with an male escort, but trouble along the way with the rolling skating Cecil.

More in the Mack Sennett slapstick tradition than Chaplin's more familiar technique of his latter years, THE RINK is brisk and funny regardless of its limitation in character development and plot outcome. Best moments occur as waiter Charlie, a/k/a Cecil, unwittingly serving a live cat to one of his customers. Another is the Charlie and Eric encounter, especially at the skating party. Interestingly, however, in Chaplin's other comedy short, THE IMMIGRANT (1917), the tables are turned with Eric playing the waiter and Charlie the customer, to better results. Since good comedy material is often reused and improved upon, Chaplin would recreate his skating technique in his final silent feature length comedy of MODERN TIMES (1936), where he also assumes the job as a singing waiter at one point of the story.

Formerly presented on a frequent level on public broadcast television in the sixties and seventies or beyond, THE RINK did play part of educational television's THE SILENT YEARS (1975), hosted by Lillian Gish, as the second half to the 90 minute timeslot following the 52 minute comedy, PECK'S BAD BOY (1921) starring Jackie Coogan, Chaplin's discoverer and co-star to their classic union of THE KID (1921).

Scoring and length to THE RINK vary, depending on distributor controlling the rights to it. Some prints come with piano scoring: Blackhawk/ Republic Video dating back to the 1980s-90s acquired orchestration and sound effects from 1930s reissue for its VHS releases. Restored prints, from KINO VIDEO, consist of new orchestration and slower silent correction speed. Broadcast history for cable television of THE RINK consists of Arts and Entertainment (1980s)along with Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 13, 1999), as prime examples. Next Chaplin Mutual Comedy: EASY STREET (1917) with Charlie playing a policeman, but without the use of skates. (***)

The Rink, one of Chaplin's most charming early short comedies, starts out with the little tramp working as a waiter, and there is a hilarious short scene where a customer calls him over for his check, and Charlie comes over and writes up the bill based on the food that the guy has spilled all over himself. It seems to me that this was the film that inspired parts of Modern Times, especially the skating and the kitchen scenes. There are some wonderful uses of the IN and OUT doors leading to the kitchen, which do not seem repetitive even after I've seen Modern Times five or six times.

One of the most charming scenes in the whole movie is a short piece where Charlie goes behind the bar to mix someone a drink (shaken, not stirred…). It's one of the famous scenes from Chaplin's early career. When Charlie gets off work, he changes back into his famous outfit and heads out to the bus stop. While he is sitting on the bench next to a woman, he pulls off some truly vintage Chaplin behavior that is so spontaneous and so well acted that it makes me think of Chaplin just goofing off in real life. This is what I imagine he was really like a lot of the time.

With The Rink, it is easy to see that longer, and more genuine stories are slowly evolving in his early films. It is not a deep story by a long shot, and there is still plenty of high-action physical slapstick comedy, but there is much more here than at most of his previous films.

But most of all, the feature skit of the film is the skating scenes in the second half, which are outstanding. It's amazing to me how good Chaplin was on skates, and some of the skits he pulls off here (such as the bouncing up and down on the fat woman) are truly brilliant pieces of slapstick. I have to say that I wish I knew where exactly the film's closing shot was filmed, since it's an outdoor shot and I am always curious to know what parts of Los Angeles are being shown. Excellent show!

This film is laugh out loud funny. Who knew Charlie Chaplin was so graceful (and funny) on roller skates? This short film is watchable by all ages, and despite being close to 90 years old, it is still downright funny. Lookout for a character called Mrs. Stout played by a man in drag.