Charlie Chaplin and Friends comedy shorts program
Special Features: Silent with live musical accompaniment by Andrew Simpson
Stage vaudevillian Charlie Chaplin signed his first movie contract with producer/director Mack Sennett's Keystone Studio in 1913. His earliest films, released in 1914, included the birth of Chaplin's iconic "Little Tramp" character, but also other, non-Tramp roles in support of Keystone's established stars like Mabel Normand and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.
MABEL'S MARRIED LIFE
At the park, a man put the moves on the Tramp's wife, Mabel. The Tramp tracks down the intruding man's wife, and a fight breaks out among the two couples. On the way home, Mabel buys a man-shaped punching bag while the Tramp goes to a bar. When he returns home, he drunkenly mistakes the punching bag for a male rival and tries to challenge it to a fistfight. Look for Mack Swain, Hank Mann and Alice Howell in supporting roles. DIR/PROD Mack Sennett; SCR Mabel Normand, Charles Chaplin. U.S., 1914, b&w, 14 min. NOT RATED
THE MASQUERADER (1914)
Chaplin plays a movie actor who bungles several scenes and is kicked out. He returns convincingly dressed as a woman and charms the director, but never makes it into the film. Also featuring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, with cameos by Mabel Normand, Charley Chase and Chester Conklin. DIR/SCR Charles Chaplin; PROD Mack Sennett. U.S., 1914, b&w, 12 min. NOT RATED
THE ROUNDERS (1914)
Chaplin and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle play two drunken revelers who fight with their wives then go out on the town to get even drunker. When their wives catch up to them at the bar, the men make their escape and flee in a rowboat. Look for Al St. John, Charley Chase and Edgar Kennedy in supporting roles. DIR/SCR Charles Chaplin; PROD Mack Sennett. U.S., 1914, b&w, 13 min. NOT RATED
DOUGH AND DYNAMITE
Chaplin and Chester Conklin work as waiters at a restaurant where the cooks go on strike. When the two are forced to work as bakers, the striking cooks put dynamite in the dough, with explosive results. Look for the young Charley Chase and Slim Summerville in supporting roles. DIR/SCR Charles Chaplin; SCR/PROD Mack Sennett. U.S., 1914, b&w, 28 min. NOT RATED
(Film notes adapted from Flicker Alley.)
Total program approx. 70 min.
No AFI Member passes accepted.
About Andrew Simpson
Andrew Earle Simpson is an acclaimed composer of opera, silent film, orchestral, chamber, choral, dance, and vocal music based in Washington, DC. His musical works make multi-faceted, intimate connections with literature, visual art, and film, reflecting his own interest in linking music with the wider world, an approach which he calls "humanistic music." One of America’s foremost silent film musicians, he has performed across the United States, Europe, and South America. In addition to composing and performing, Simpson is a professor and head of the division of Theory and Composition at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. andrewesimpson.com
Run Time: 70 Minutes
Opening Date: Friday, November 05, 2021
Genre: Silent comedy
