Behind the Screen (1916)

Charlie is an overworked labourer at a film studio who helps a young woman find work even while his coworkers strike against his tyrannical boss.

Director:

Charles Chaplin (uncredited)

Stars:

Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Eric Campbell	...	Goliath - a Stagehand
Charles Chaplin	...	David - His Assistant
Edna Purviance	...	The Girl

Storyline

Three movies are being shot simultaneously and Charlie is an overworked scene shifter. The foreman is waited on hand and foot until all the shifters but Charlie go on strike. A girl looking for work pretends to be a man and helps Charlie. Charlie discovers her gender and falls in love with her. The foreman thinks they are homosexual and in the ensuing fight they become involved in a long pie throwing scene from one of the movies in production. The frustrated workers dynamite the studio.

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Plot Keywords:

film studio | falling in love | male female relationship | black eye | acting like a dog | 

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Genres:

Short | Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

TV-G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 November 1916 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Pride of Hollywood

Filming Locations:

Lone Star Studio - 1751 Glendale Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lone Star Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

23 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is one of the few films in which Charles Chaplin's character (David) gets a name other than "Charlie" or a description like "The Tramp". Only in his last sound films does he portray people with a full name.

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Quotes

The Girl: Can I be an actress, please?

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Alternate Versions

Kino International distributes a set of videos containing all the 12 Mutual short films made by Chaplin in 1915 - 1917. They are presented by David Shepard, who copyrighted the versions in 1984, and has a music soundtrack composed and performed by Michael Mortilla who copyrighted his score in 1989. The running time of this film is 23 minutes.

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Connections

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

User Reviews

pretty good Chaplin effort

In 1914 and early 1915, Chaplin did his first comedy shorts. In general, they were pretty awful--with almost no plot and consisting of him mugging it up on camera and hitting people. However, in 1915 he left Keystone Studio and began making better films with Essenay (though there are some exceptions) and finally, in 1916, to Mutual where he made his best comedy shorts. These newer films had more plot and laughs and usually didn't relay on punching or kicking when they ran out of story ideas.

This film is one of these later Mutual Films and has a pretty decent amount of plot. Charlie is a carpenter's assistant on a movie set and his boss mostly sits around doing nothing--making Charlie do all the work. Later, the crew goes on strike and Charlie gets to act (although in real life, Chaplin's sympathies would have definitely been with the workers). In addition, a lady sneaks onto the set and disguises herself as a male laborer. Charlie realizes this and falls for her, though everyone else thinks she's a guy. I particularly liked the scene where Charlie is making out with the lady and really smooching it up good--and his boss looks on with horror! Overall, this is a pretty typical Mutual film--neither better or worse than the average one and worth a look if you get the opportunity.

An interesting scene was the one where Charlie picks up the MANY chairs and then the prop piano. This exact same scene was replicated by Syd Chaplin (Charlie's half-brother) years later in THE BETTER 'OLE.