Charlot garçon de café

'Caught in a Cabaret' is directed and written by Mabel Normand but she allows Chaplin to shine. She is the leading lady, but this movie is purely Chaplin's show. I don't know how much creative control Chaplin had over his stunts or in this film overall but his performance was great. He didn't play simple troublemaker still, his character was quite a swindler.

Charlie works as a waiter in the cheap Cabaret. In his lunch break, he saves Mabel from the mugger who has already chased off her boyfriend (Harry McCoy). Charlie presents himself as a high society man (Prime Minister of Greenland, or Greek Ambassador - I've seen two versions). Mabel invites him to her party. Charlie goes back to work, and after finishing his shift, he goes to the party. In there he gets trunk and makes somewhat of a fool of himself. Mabel's bitter boyfriend leads Mabel and the party company at Charlie's workplace where his true identity is revealed.

The plot is very coherent. Many of the jokes and gags are reused but they work well. The film doesn't offer many surprises or belly laughs but it is funny and entertaining. Besides quite a well-developed plot (well, compared to some other Keystone comedies from that era) the movie is not very memorable.

I recently had the pleasure of finding two DVDs of Charlie Chaplin shorts in one of those "Dollar Stores". And this film was just one of many gems in the set.

Written and directed by Mabel Normand, the film showcases her talent in both fields. But, of course, the spotlight shines on Chaplin. In the guise of his well known Little Tramp character Charlie plays a waiter who takes an hour off for lunch and ends up rescuing Mabel from a masher.

She invites him to lunch with her, and a comical case of mistaken identity leads to a slapstick free-for-all when Mabel and her high-class entourage wind up dining at the same Cabaret where Charlie works as a waiter.

A classic example of Keystone wackiness ! Watch for Roscoe Arbuckle's wife, Minta Durfee, in a supporting role as a wild socialite !

It's rather chaotic (at least in the form in which it has survived), but "Caught in a Cabaret" includes some good material. It is also interesting to see some of the plot themes (identity mix-ups, interplay between different classes) that Chaplin would use in more refined ways in his later comedies. Finally, having Mabel Normand in the cast is always a plus.

While a good portion of the film is just simple knockabout slapstick, it also has an interesting setup, with Charlie working as a waiter but also trying to pass himself off as someone else so that he can move into high society. The complications that follow may not be unexpected, but they are amusing enough. Both Chaplin and other silent comedians soon learned to get much more out of this kind of premise, but this one is not bad, and it makes pretty good use of the two stars. There is more than enough to make it worth seeing for any fan of silent comedies.

Caught in a Cabaret (1914)

*** (out of 4)

Chaplin is mistaken as a Greek Ambassador and must keep a girl's family from finding out. This one here is a real riot with some wonderfully funny fight scenes but the real highlights are the title cards, which feature some very funny one-liners. Also of note is that this storyline would play a big part in future Chaplin films.

A Busy Day (1914)

** (out of 4)

Chaplin plays a woman(!) who gets tired of her husbands and decides to fight with him in public. This here really doesn't have a single funny moment but it's still interesting to see Chaplin playing a woman.

Fatal Mallet, The (1914)

*** (out of 4)

Chaplin, along with two other guys, fights for the affection of a woman. Instead of using their fist the guys instead throw bricks at one another. This is a very funny film that has some outrageous violence that makes for a good time.

Knockout, The (1914)

*** (out of 4)

To show off his braveness, Fatty Arbuckle challenged a professional boxer to a fight. Fatty is funny as usually and like the above film, this one here gets the laughs from violence ranging from punches to items being thrown. Chaplin has a small but funny cameo as the referee.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

He did do better than 'Caught in a Cabaret', still made very early on in his career where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'Caught in a Cabaret' is a long way from a career high, but has a lot of nice things about it and is to me one of the better efforts in the 1914 Keystone batch and one of his better collaborations with Mabel Normand.

'Caught in a Cabaret' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and some other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. Occasionally, things feel a little scrappy and confused.

For someone who was still relatively new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'Caught in a Cabaret' is not bad at all.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'Caught in a Cabaret' is humorous, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

Overall, far from one of Chaplin's best but pretty good and perhaps one of his better efforts from the early Keystone period. 7/10 Bethany Cox