Charlot et le parapluie

The ten minute short film Between Showers is best seen, perhaps, as a historical document. More than ninety years old, it serves as a reminder that movies has both changed and not changed since that time. This is obviously a silent, which calls for a visual kind of humour. The plot is thus fairly straight forward and serves as an excuse for the characters to fall on their butts and fight in an overly theatrical manner, judged by today's standards anyway. However, it is interesting to see Chaplin's crude and early attempts at what he and others (Jackie Chan to name one of our contemporaries) would later perfect – well timed physical humour. No doubt intended as entertainment for the moment, Between Showers lacks the social commentary of the 22 years younger masterpiece Modern Times, but it contains a seed, albeit small, of the breathtaking acrobatics displayed therein.

Of historical interest.

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.

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".

Although Chaplin still had many kinks to work out of his Little Tramp character by the time he made this, his fourth movie, Between Showers nonetheless shows tremendous improvement over his first attempts at developing a screen persona. In the first, Making a Living, he played a rich villain. In Kid Races at Venice and Mabel's Strange Predicament, the Tramp made his debut, but was portrayed as a rather mean-spirited, and in the Mabel Normand film, almost lecherous, jerk.

But Between Showers, for the first time, presents the Little Tramp as a somewhat noble, almost heroic character, who comes to the aid of a damsel in distress (here portrayed by an Edna Purviance prototype). He still has rough edges, but Chaplin was starting to flesh out the character.

The plot of Between Showers is an illustration of how delightfully simple and high concept early silent comedies could be. A man steals an umbrella -- that's pretty much the plot, with a little (attempted) romance tossed in for good measure. It's a fun little film, and fascinating to watch from the perspective of observing how Chaplin is slowly crafting his most famous character.