The Star Boarder (1914)

A brat's magic lantern show exposes an indiscreet moment between a landlady and her star boarder.

Director:

George Nichols

Writer:

Craig Hutchinson

Stars:

Charles Chaplin, Minta Durfee, Edgar Kennedy

Cast

Cast overview:
Charles Chaplin	...	The Star Boarder
Minta Durfee	...	Landlady
Edgar Kennedy	...	Landlady's Husband
Gordon Griffith	...	The Son
Alice Davenport	...	Landlady's Friend

Storyline

Charlie stays at a boarding-house, where he is the landlady's favorite. Her husband grows jealous when observing this. Their little son has a camera. He happens to take some photos of his mother and Charlie in situations which are innocent but look indecent. He also takes a photo of his father and a female boarding-guest in a similar situation. In the evening the boy arranges a slide show in the boarding-house. Suddenly also the equivocal photos of his parents appear on the screen. His jealous father gets furious and starts chasing Charlie. Soon all the boarding-guests are involved in the fight.

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Plot Keywords:

landlady | boy | boarding house | slide show | brat | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Short

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 April 1914 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Fatal Lantern

Company Credits

Production Co:

Keystone Film Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

16 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Film Breaks: Charlie Chaplin (1999)

User Reviews

One of the better plots...

For about the first two thirds of The Landlady's Pet ( that's the real title, by the way - The Star Boarder was the former title, but ultimately it was changed) it seems that it is going to come across as three distinctly separate parts - the first third, where Charlie is the "star boarder," the landlady's favorite lodger to the chagrin of her jealous husband, the drunken scene, and the obnoxious son's disruptive magic lantern show.

But as soon as the lantern show begins it becomes clear that it is going to tie the rest of the film together, which is something that Chaplin wasn't doing much during that first year making Keystone short comedies for Mack Sennett. The drunken scene is sort of a straggler, it doesn't seem to have any reason for being there other than that Chaplin can do it so well (so well, in fact, that Robert Downey Jr. included it as part of his performance in the phenomenal 1992 film about Chaplin's life), the conclusion of the film and the tying up of loose ends is a welcome surprise.

Watch for Gordon Griffith, a mainstay in Chaplin's earliest films, stealing the show as the landlady and her husband's obnoxious son. It's easy to see why Chaplin kept casting him in his films!