If that is what he’s doing here, it needs some work, which the concept will get. Chaplin would later on make films where he critiques authorities. We don’t know anything about these cops or why anything is happening. If this parody was intentional, it should’ve been weaved into the story more, instead of being crammed into the end. From what I’ve seen of the Keystone Cops, they’re foolish, but well meaning. It is a little surprising they’d be depicted like that in 1914. The ending seems like a parody of police today, who are criticized for starting pointless fights and being cowardly. What was anyone thinking when they made this? What were the other directors thinking when they watched this? It’s also edited so fast that you feel like you’re losing your mind. Why? This whole fight scene is not even trying, even a little, to not be contrived. After The Tramp runs at his door to open it (for no reason), the door knocks the cops over and they all run away. ![]() The Tramp runs into his room, the cops go in the hall, Mack is accidentally hit by the cops, and The Tramp leaves his room for no reason. What? Where on Earth could this be coming from? Why is this cop doing this? The Tramp runs back inside, Mack sees him, and a bunch of cops run after The Tramp for no reason. This is a fun sequence of what’s going to happen next? The only at least kind of good part of the film is now over.Ī cop sees The Tramp on the balcony and for no explained reason, starts shooting at him. The Tramp goes out the window right before Mack sees him. He takes her to her room and Mack comes in. Chaplin plays an unnerved and startled The Tramp very well. We get an actually funny sequence where The Tramp is trying to get her to her room without Mack seeing her in there and assuming the worst. Alice gets up, sleepwalking, and walks in The Tramp’s room. At about three minutes left of runtime, the story starts. Up to this point at almost nine minutes, nothing of substance has happened. A man, played by Mack Swain, leaves the hotel and his wife, Alice Davenport, goes to sleep. He eventually gets to his room and we see an extensive scene of The Tramp undressing to his underclothes for no reason. Why doesn’t somebody who works there kick The Tramp out? He’s so drunk he keeps falling over when trying to walk. The Tramp goes into a hotel and bothers people, seeming to be too drunk to know what he’s doing. The last film, Caught in a Cabaret, showed him having a job. We do get something new, The Tramp sleeps in a hotel, presuming he can afford to stay in one. I’d like to think this film is set before The Star Boarder due to the regression in the character’s development. It’s not explained why he did it, but the action is more innocent here than in the past. He was often disrespectful to women in some of the first ones, here the only rudeness towards women depicted is when he puts his legs on a woman’s lap that he was talking to. Starting with The Star Boarder, this didn’t happen when he drank. He bothered people quite a bit in the first five, with it sometimes fueled by drinking. The Tramp is prone to bothering people and getting drunk in Rain. The Tramp acts how he did in his first five films, before The Star Boarder fleshed him out more and made him nicer. Despite Chaplin’s below quality directing and writing, other Keystone directors, who expected to dislike the film, were impressed by it. The editing in this film is absurdly fast and choppy, with it sometimes being difficult to follow what’s happening. Most of the jokes here can be seen in earlier films, namely Mabel’s Strange Predicament. ![]() He’s playing The Tramp drunk, he falls down and is silly, but there’s no deeper look at the character or at least some original jokes for him to play. Chaplin himself is moderately funny here, but sadly not sophisticatedly funny and sometimes not funny at all, with his acting being surface level. Neither get much opportunity to make an impression, good or bad. This includes the decently funny, but not exceptional Alice Davenport and Alice Howell. ![]() Some of the more talented actors to appear with Chaplin in these more recent films are absent in this one, with many of the actors here appearing in the earlier Chaplin films. The film appears to be missing a little footage or the editing is so choppy and bad that scenes cut suddenly and sharply, weakening the pacing of the film. While his first directorial effort, which was shared with another director, was competent and funny, this one is a mess. This film is directed by someone who has never solely directed a film before, Charlie Chaplin himself! Finally, he’s got his hand in making a picture his way. It has many of the poor Keystone tropes that Mabel Normand didn’t use as often as others did. Caught in the Rain is basically a remake of the already not very good Mabel’s Strange Predicament.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |