Chaplin at Keystone

British music hall comedian Charlie Chaplin made his first motion pictures under contract to Mack Sennett's Keystone Film Company—the most successful producer of comedies in the U.S. at the time of Chaplin's year-long tenure in 1914. Chaplin at Keystone collects all 33 surviving shorts and one feature film made at Keystone, charting his rapid cinematic evolution from novice to director and star. Chaplin made his screen debut in Making a Living, in which he tries to steal another man's money, girlfriend, and job. His second piece, Kid Auto Races at Venice, marks Chaplin's first appearance as the Tramp, here a boorish figure compared to the legendary icon he would soon develop. The other shorts, including six costarring Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, show Chaplin taking on writing and directing responsibilities, while striving to create slightly more sophisticated, character-based stories within Keystone's signature style of pratfalls, punches, and pie-throwing. Anchoring the collection is Tillie's Punctured Romance, the first full-length slapstick comedy made in America, scripted and directed by Sennett and starring stage actress Marie Dressler and Keystone leading lady Mabel Normand (as well as the Keystone Kops). Here, Chaplin portrays a two-timing womanizer whose shifting affections lead to predictably chaotic consequences. The historical and archival value of this assemblage (restored in a collaborative project involving 19 archives in various countries) is immeasurable. While it may not be Chaplin at his best, it's Chaplin at the beginning, and a fascinating snapshot of American silent filmmaking in the early 20th century to boot. DVD extras include a bonus animated short, an excerpt from a Keystone Kops Komedy with an uncredited Chaplin in uniform, two featurettes on the Chaplin at Keystone project, and an excellent booklet with detailed notes on the films. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)