- Year :
- 1914
- Cast :
- Production :
- Keystone
- Description :
- Charlie, a café/dancehall waiter, impersonates a foreign dignitary at a garden party in amorous pursuit of a society debutante (Mabel Normand). His true identity is revealed when the society girl and a party of her friends go on a 'slumming' expedition at the café where Charlie waits tables. Exposed and spurned, Charlie’s chaotic comeuppance concludes the comedy. The scenario of this two-reel comedy, and perhaps some of the direction, was shared by Chaplin with Normand. This is one of the few Chaplin comedies that contains pie throwing; a favorite Keystone device. Chaplin would explore in greater depth the comedy’s thematic ideas—particularly class differences and the lowly person aspiring to a higher life—in many of his subsequent films. Situations and themes from this film would be reworked for The Count (1916), The Rink (1916), The Idle Class (1921), and Modern Times (1936) and Chaplin’s use of a canine companion resurfaces in The Champion (1915) and A Dog’s Life (1918). Finished and shipped: April 11, 1914 Released: April 27, 1914 Scenario: Mabel Normand/Charles Chaplin Producer: Mack Sennett Director: Mabel Normand Length: Two reels
- DVD & Blu-ray :