Charlie Chaplin Marathon (1914)

Includes:
The Rink
The Immigrant
Tillie’s Punctured Romance
The Vagabond

Menus: English • Spanish • Chinese • Japanese
Subtitles: Spanish • Chinese • Japanese

B&W
Silent
133 min.

A basis for comparison...

I'm a guy who loves his Charlie Chaplin flicks, but this is the first one I've seen without him directing it. Interestingly enough, while the film loses that sense of tragic artistry Chaplin had in his directorial projects, this film helps to illustrate another side of Chaplin that could largely be unnoticed without a basis of comparison: the works of Chaplin are pretty egocentric and usually involve Chaplin in most, if not all, of the action.

Here, however, is a film that involves three comic characters. Tillie is a wonderfully robust woman who, if she was around today, would describe herself as "comfortable with her body." One day a Stranger walks by (Chaplin) and, due to a little bad timing, gets hit in the face by a brick Tillie threw for her dog to fetch (Why exactly a dog would be playing fetch with a brick is probably one of those things to be ignored). As Tillie helps the Stanger up and tries to be hospitable to him, she, her father, and the Stranger begin a series of ego conflicts with largely humorous results.

However, the Stranger has his eyes on Tillie's father's money, so he uses Tillie to get the money by promising "love and the great city" to her. She robs her father, they elope, and they find themselves in the not-so-great city--where, also, Mabel, the girl the Stranger left behind, is waiting.

The story traces Tillie, Mabel, and the Stranger through trial and error (mostly error), as they all try to find love, riches, and happiness, with pretty amusing results.

Charlie Chaplin is a master of physical comedy, but in this movie he's no match for Marie Dressler, who can throw her body around with the same sort of fluid klutziness Chaplin can, only with an extra hundred pounds or so packed on. Mabel is a wonderful sort of anchor to them, as her battle with her desires versus integrity often keeps Mabel and the Stranger from tripping their way off into space.

The film also includes a rather surreal moment where Mabel and the Stranger watch a movie that is highly reflective of the situation they're in, and as a result, causes them to look further into themselves than they want to go. That scene is filmed nearly perfectly, almost shockingly psychological considering most of the rather light comedy the rest of the movie contains.

This movie isn't really what I'd call a classic, but it's certainly worth the watch for anybody interested. Since silent film isn't generally recognized by most modern audiences, it probably isn't something anyone but an enthusiast might watch. Still, I'm sure it has enough enjoyable moments for everyone who takes the time to sit down and watch it.

--PolarisDiB September 8, 2005

Historically---but not comically---significant Chaplin

This 1914 film is considered the first feature-lenth comedy ever made and, as such, is worth viewing just for that. The film on its merits, however, is less interesting. Sure, this is slapstick, but I personally found the Tillie character to be quite ridiculous; ridiulous, moreover, without being particularly amusing. She's made up to look like---and seemingly acts like---a guy in drag pledging a fraternity. Marie Dressler, then 45 years-old, playing such a supposedly youthful character as "Tillie", to boot, is less comical than it is distracting. If you are going to take the time to see this film, in other words, you ought be doing so simply to see a historically significant film. So, no, it's not a film you'll most likely want to own and watch again and again, unless you're simply enamored by anything and everything Chaplin has done. If you haven't seen anything by Chaplin don't start here! And if you are a discerning Chaplin fan you'd be better served (if you care to be amused) by sampling some of his much greater efforts. For the curious, I offer a brief synopsis of Tillie's Punctured Romance: "What's this he's got---one of Ringling's elephants?" So remarks Mabel Normand's character (so to speak, in this silent film) as she spies Chaplin's 'City Guy' arm in arm with "Built like a battleship" Tillie. Tillie has "got a bankroll as thick as herself", Chaplin's character later explains to Normand, his old partner in crime. Then once successful in lifting said cash from Tillie, Chaplin flees with Normand. Upon hearing of Tillie's apparent inheritance of 3 million dollars soon after, however, he returns to her and begs Tillie to marry him ASAP. They later whoop it up with many quests (with Normand working as hired help) at a celebratory party at Tillies's "new" home, until her uncle---thought dead---returns to claim it back, throwing them out into the street as he does so. A keystone-cops-like chase ensues all through town and seaside along a boardwalk and then ends with Normand and (a soaking wet) Tillie agreeing that Chaplin's favor is hardly worth pursuing anyway. Curtain. Cheers! October 17, 2004

Fantastic Restoration!

Quality prints of Chaplin's Keystones are so hard to find! This is one. Image Entertainment has done it again. The quality is crisp and clear. Highly recommend!

This review is for the Tillie's/Mabel DVD, NOT the Chaplin Marathon! May 6, 2003

Image Entertainment Release

Please ignore the reviews for this video that refer to it as a Laser Light release. THIS IS NOT A LASERLIGHT RELEASE. This DVD is remastered by Image Entertainment with a new score. The image quality is pretty good considering this is a film from 1914! Image Entertainment is the best out there when it comes to releasing silent films on DVD. Image Entertainment remasters all their silent films from the best available 35mm nitrate source and they create new scores for the films. Don't let the other reviews turn you off from experiencing this early silent film gem. February 17, 2003

Not as bad as expected

First of all, this review is for the Laserlight dvd "Charlie Chaplin Marathon", which has different content from other dvds that this review may appear on.

What we have is is three readily available Chaplin short films, and the feature "Tillie's Punctured Romance".

The three short films, "The Immigrant", "The Rink", and "The Vagabond", are three of Chaplin's best from the Mutual Films period, 1916-1917. In this edition, the films are presented in copies from the Blackhawk collection, with the 1930's era Van Buren soundtracks added on. The picture quality is surprisingly good for a budget dvd, the soundtracks are as horrible as they have always been, and the films are not as restored as the copies on the Image "Chaplin Mutual Films" collection. This makes the dvd not a bad starting place for the Chaplin novice.

However, the copy of "Tillie's Punctured Romance" is a horror, a very bad print, missing many shots and scenes, with a narrator droning endlessly on to try and make sense of this choppy film. It is an abomination, and it saddens me to think that people might be buying this instead of the Image dvd of the film. The Image dvd is fully restored, and looks and sounds a good as possible.

The verdict - this disc may pass for someone who isn't that interested in Chaplin, but it is not for the discerning fan. There are many discs to recommend instead of it. December 27, 2002

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