Making a Living (1914)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Henry Lehrman

Writer:

Reed Heustis (writer)

Release Date:

2 February 1914 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Comedy

Plot:

An out-of-work swindler takes a job as a reporter. After witnessing a car go over cliff, he grabs a...

Plot Keywords:

Reporter | Keystone Kops | Public Domain

Cast

Charles Chaplin	...	Swindler
Virginia Kirtley	...	Daughter
Alice Davenport	...	Mother
Henry Lehrman	...	Reporter
Minta Durfee	...	Woman
Chester Conklin	...	Policeman / Bum

Also Known As:

A Busted Johnny
Doing His Best
Take My Picture (USA)
Troubles

Runtime:

15 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Company:

Keystone Film Company

Trivia:

First film appearance of Charles Chaplin, and one of the few in those early years in which he does not play the Tramp.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin (2003)

This middling Keystone comedy marks an auspicious debut

Silent comedy buffs seek out MAKING A LIVING for one reason only: to see 24 year-old Charlie Chaplin, fresh from stage success in England and America with the Karno comedy troupe, in his film debut. Neither Chaplin nor producer Mack Sennett recalled this first attempt with any fondness in later years, but it seems neither much worse nor much better than the average Keystone one-reeler of the period. One watches with interest, but MAKING A LIVING remains difficult to assess objectively; we're so conscious of it as a special milestone, as Chaplin's First Movie, that it isn't easy to sit back and enjoy the show on its own (admittedly modest) merits.

The first thing we notice is that the familiar costume hasn't been developed yet. In the very first shot, when Chaplin approaches his co-star (and director) Henry Lehrman to ask for a hand-out, it takes us a moment to adjust to his exotic appearance, for he wears a top hat, tan frock coat, and droopy mustache. As the film rolls along, we note some familiar expressions and mannerisms, but note too that Charlie's character is unsympathetic: he's a con man who double-crosses his benefactor, Lehrman, in order to secure a job as a reporter. Once he has the job Charlie steals Lehrman's camera and tries to pass off the latter's photos as his own work. At one point, during a battle between the two men, Chaplin holds Lehrman at bay with his walking stick, as he would do later with Eric Campbell in THE RINK (1916), but The Little Tramp seems worlds away.

Still, for a newcomer, Chaplin appears perfectly relaxed before the camera. Despite all the scuffling and running around that takes place here, both Chaplin and Lehrman-- who was no actor, really --give performances that are noticeably more restrained than the Keystone norm of the time. Towards the end, when Chester Conklin appears as a cop, his grotesque makeup and outsized reactions look strange in contrast to what the two leads have been doing. It's also interesting to note that Chaplin and Lehrman, who quickly developed an intense mutual antipathy off-camera, spend all their on screen time together as adversaries, both in this film and its immediate follow-up, KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE. In some symbolic way it seems that Chaplin was signaling, from the very outset, that he would not passively submit to direction from others...or at least not from Henry Lehrman, anyway. And it wouldn't be long after this, just a few months, before Chaplin would be directing his own work, and his brilliant career would be launched in earnest.