Charlot et le parapluie

In this comedy short we see a man steal an umbrella from a police officer. After a big shower the man who stole the umbrella wants to help a woman cross the street without getting her feet wet. While he is looking for things she can walk on, Charles Chaplin enters the film. He also wants to help the woman. While Chaplin is looking for useful things as well the woman is carried across the street by a police officer. Chaplin and the man who stole the umbrella have a fight.

With some of the usual Chaplin moments 'Between Showers' is entertaining enough to watch, but it misses the magic of Chaplin's later work. We see some little things from his famous tramp, one moment when he is walking away with the umbrella in particular, but it is not enough to really recommend this short. There are many better Chaplin shorts, but if you like his work you probably enjoy this one as well.

Chaplin's fourth short, appearing less than a month after his debut, is good fun. A rival tramp steals an umbrella from a policeman, then sets about seducing a woman with it. Charlie also has his eye on the femme, and soon a battle for both the brolly and the girl ensues. Even though it's so early in his career, Chaplin has most of the Little Tramp mannerisms and tics down pat in this effort (except for the pathos, which would come later), and it's fascinating to see the beginnings of the expressions and gags which he'd be exploring for the rest of his life. Not as polished or imaginative as his later films, but a very early gem.

Chaplin is groomed like the tramp and he looks like the tramp but he could be anybody in this disjointed tale about three mashers, a puddle, and an umbrella.

The editing is poor enough to lose the plot from time to time, if there is a plot that extends beyond the individual slapstick-filled scenes.

The film has a certain slight charm as an historical curiosity. Here it is -- 1914 in Los Angeles, and what looks like Echo Park might have looked in 1914 Los Angeles.

A dog wanders innocently in and out of a scene but nobody cares. The pratfalls are backward somersaults. It's all very casual and lacks poetry.

Charlie Chaplin had only starred in a few movies and had just debuted the Tramp when he appeared in Henry Lehrman's "Between Showers". The plot involves a stolen umbrella, but is mainly an excuse for a bunch of physical humor. Cinema was still in its relative infancy, and the absence of sound meant that people had to do a lot of the acting with their faces. Despite the simple plot, it's a fun 15 minutes. It's ironic seeing a city block in LA surrounded by water, now that California's running out of water.

Anyway, pretty fun. Chester Conklin (the policeman) later played the technician in "Modern Times".

Let's be honest, Charles Chaplin's earlier films with The Keystone Studios weren't usually very good. This is the case with this one. Most part, the problem lied in the production - they made these movies extremely quick, and the artistic outcome wasn't very important, only the profit (like with today's major studios). At that time Chaplin was just the hired hand (although appreciated one) and lacked any artistic control.

In this one, Chaplin shares the screen with another big star of the time, Ford Sterling. These two fight over the attention of the woman (and over the umbrella). Although, Ford Sterling's character seems to fight more with the woman, than with the other man. I guess I didn't find the blatant beating of the woman that funny (oh, the modern 'soft' man).

The film had some moments that proved to grow into something, but I guess the rushed production prevented the development of more elaborate gags. The film itself is not very memorable but it gives us a good comparison between young Charles Chaplin and an already established star. When you pay attention to the styles of these two comedians then it is clear why the world still remembers and hails on as the greatest of all times while the other is totally forgotten (besides by the small subculture of silent comedy aficionados). Chaplin's star started to shine almost immediately.