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:

fake gun | prop gun | props | movie studio | film in film | 

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Genres:

Short | Comedy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 March 1914 (USA)

Also Known As:

Charlie the Actor

Filming Locations:

Bryson Apartments, 2701 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, California, USA

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

Charlie Chaplin's 5th film released. March 02 1914.

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Goofs

Members of the audience behind Charlie Chaplin change - for example, Minta Durfee is sitting behind Chaplin in some shots, but a different actress is seated behind him in others.

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Alternate Versions

1930s reissue version, entitled Film Johnny, (released on DVD) omits the opening sequence in the movie theater.

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Connections

References The Alternative (1913)

User Reviews

Charlie visits the Keystone lot in this scrappy little comedy

According to some of the central figures involved, including Charlie Chaplin and producer Mack Sennett, Chaplin's first weeks making movies at the Keystone Studio were not pleasant ones. No one knew what to make of this temperamental young Englishman, while Chaplin, for his part, was bewildered by film technique and didn't get along with his colleagues. Though it may seem hard to believe now, there were serious doubts all around that Chaplin could make good in the movies.

Viewed in this light Chaplin's fifth comedy, A Film Johnnie, a fairly amusing short in its own right, takes on some additional historical weight as something of an inside joke, an indirect comment on Chaplin's actual off-screen status at his studio. In the opening sequence a scruffy-looking Charlie goes into a cinema and sees a Keystone comedy featuring an actress he admires. When her co-star, an older man, gets fresh with her Charlie becomes so upset and agitated he is ejected from the theater. He heads straight to the Keystone Studio, seeking to get in. (Thus the title: he's like the "stage door johnnies" who would hang around theaters, hoping to meet the performers and/or get a job with the acting company.) He watches as prominent performers such as Roscoe Arbuckle and Ford Sterling, wearing their street garb, step out of cars and casually enter the studio, smiling and chatting. They're members of the In Crowd, but he is not. Approaching a bemused Arbuckle, he requests and receives a hand-out. He tries this again with Sterling, but -- in a reflection of their alleged off-camera friction? -- receives nothing; Sterling even takes the coin Arbuckle had given Charlie earlier. The studio director (Edgar Kennedy) refuses Charlie admission, but he easily slips past the elderly doorman. Once inside he finds the girl he so admires (Virginia Kirtley) but ruins the scene she's acting in because he believes it's actually happening. He runs amok with a prop pistol, scaring everyone, then leaves.

The comic mayhem that occurs in the studio and at a nearby house fire --which might have been a real event-- amounts to routine Keystone knockabout, apparently improvised while the cameras were rolling. Charlie contributes some cute gags: he lights a cigarette by shooting it with a pistol, and starts to kick a stage hand but when the man turns he quickly switches to scratching his ankle. What's really of interest here is the context and the subtext: essentially Chaplin was still on probation when this film was made, and his colleagues' wariness towards him appears to be genuine. A Film Johnnie captures a time when Charlie hadn't made the grade, just yet.