Chaplin's Essanay Comedies 1915

In 1914, Charlie Chaplin was lured away from Keystone Studios by Essanay with a huge increase in salary and the promise of creative freedom. Chaplin made the most of it with 14 official (and one unofficial) short films produced in 1915. The early films (His New Job and A Night Out with Ben Turpin; The Champion and In the Park with Edna Purviance, his leading lady in all subsequent shorts) are steeped in the Keystone tradition of pratfalls and well-placed kicks to the rear end, but you can see the Tramp persona develop through the films and mature in The Tramp and The Bank, which combine pathos and slapstick in a manner that defines Chaplin's greatest comedies. By the end of his stint at Essanay, Chaplin is in top form with Shanghaied, a stowaway farce on a boat; A Night at the Show, playing both a drunk dandy and a working class rube wreaking havoc at a vaudeville show; A Burlesque on Carmen, which spoofs the classic opera; and Police, in which the Tramp leaves prison to enter a world of rampant poverty and crime (portrayed by Chaplin with a cynical, satiric eye—yet also heartened with hope). This collection of newly restored films not only shows Chaplin's evolution as a performer and a filmmaker during his greatest period of growth but also represents a vital chapter in the development of silent comedy and film history. Extras include the bonus shorts Triple Trouble and A Night Out (both constructed from Chaplin outtakes), and a booklet with behind-the-scenes images and an essay by film historian Jeffrey Vance. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)