A Film Johnnie (1914)

Charlie attempts to meet his favorite movie actress at the Keystone Studio, but does not win friends there.

Director:

George Nichols

Writer:

Craig Hutchinson

Stars:

Charles Chaplin, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Peggy Pearce

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Charles Chaplin	...	The Film Johnnie
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle	...	Himself, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
Peggy Pearce	...	The Keystone Girl
Mabel Normand	...	Mabel
Ford Sterling	...	Himself

Storyline

Charlie goes to the movie and falls in love with a girl on the screen. He goes to Keystone Studios to find her. He disrupts the shooting of a film, and a fire breaks out. Charlie is blamed, gets squirted with a firehose, and is shoved by the female star.

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Plot Keywords:

firefighter | filming | public domain | hose | actor shares first name with character | 

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Genres:

Short | Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 March 1914 (USA)

Also Known As:

Charlie the Actor

Company Credits

Production Co:

Keystone Film Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

15 min 7 min (Ontario)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although some sources credit Mack Sennett with playing himself, the film director, the role is actually played by Edgar Kennedy.

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Goofs

Before Charlie Chaplin lights a cigarette with a prop pistol, the cigarette is already visibly lit - shown by the presence of smoke before Chaplin fires the pistol.

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Connections

References The Open Door (1913)

User Reviews

no plot, but better than most of his very early Keystone films

In 1914, Charlie Chaplin began making pictures. These were made for Mack Sennett (also known as "Keystone Studios") and were literally churned out in very rapid succession. The short comedies had very little structure and were completely ad libbed. As a result, the films, though popular in their day, were just awful by today's standards. Many of them bear a strong similarity to home movies featuring obnoxious relatives mugging for the camera. Many others show the characters wander in front of the camera and do pretty much nothing. And, regardless of the outcome, Keystone sent them straight to theaters. My assumption is that all movies at this time must have been pretty bad, as the Keystone films with Chaplin were very successful.

The Charlie Chaplin we know and love today only began to evolve later in Chaplin's career with Keystone. By 1915, he signed a new lucrative contract with Essenay Studios and the films improved dramatically with Chaplin as director. However, at times these films were still very rough and not especially memorable. No, Chaplin as the cute Little Tramp was still evolving. In 1916, when he switched to Mutual Studios, his films once again improved and he became the more recognizable nice guy--in many of the previous films he was just a jerk (either getting drunk a lot, beating up women, provoking fights with innocent people, etc.). The final evolution of his Little Tramp to classic status occurred in the 1920s as a result of his full-length films.

This short consists of Chaplin as the Little Tramp crashing a Hollywood set. You do get to see some of the behind the screen action, but not enough to make this film stand out too much from other early rotten Chaplin shorts. Interesting but no real plot or humor.