CHARLIE CHAPLIN: COMEDY WITH REALISM

Jonathan DeLeon History of American Cinema November 12, 2017

Hoping that one might stand up in a pile of well-greased marbles is a bit like hoping one can stand up in history. While one might manage balancing on top for a short while, eventually everyone tumbles down. Charlie Chaplin at the peak of his career was the most well-known person alive at the time. Since then, his name—while still impactful to many—does not carry quite the same effect as it once had. His legacy, however, can still be seen. Much of the comedy routines we have today were pioneered or vastly improved upon due to the efforts and creative genius of Charlie Chaplin. Actors study his acting. Directors study his cinematography. Animators study his movements. While the media of the early 1900s thought of Chaplin’s Tramp character as a clown, the Tramp was just an average run-of-the-mill person who let all his inhibitions aside allowing for the audience to see a clearer picture of his emotions. When considering his early life and struggles, the Tramp seems to represent an honest commentary on his circumstances, regardless of location or situation. In the movie “Gold Rush,” the Tramp is a man ill-prepared for his journey but filled with real struggles of hunger and shelter. The little boy in his film “The Kid” appears to be a commentary on his own life growing up with little to nothing. The movie “Modern Times” depicts a man who struggles to find work and provide for his love interest. What all three of these movies had in common, what most of the media at the time missed, was that the Tramp was not simply ever just a clown. He was Chaplin’s way of conveying emotion, be it funny or sad. He was commenting on the world around him. While it might seem that Chaplin’s Tramp character did not begin until his first appearance in film, it actually started much earlier. Most of who the Tramp is can be seen by looking back through Chaplin’s past—a stark contrast to his later life. Chaplin was born in the year of 1889 to Hannah Hill, who was a singer and stage performer. His father was unknown, but Charles Chaplin senior treated him as his own son regardless. Chaplin’s older half-brother Sydney was four years old at the time. In 1901, Chaplin senior died of alcoholism, leaving both boys to take care of their mother, who was becoming increasingly ill. Young Charlie began working as a stage performer, following in the footsteps of both his parents and their parents, who were also performers. He lands his first role in the on-stage performance of Sherlock Holmes. In 1908, both Charlie and his half-brother Sydney joined a theatre troupe named, “The Speechless Comedians.” Of the two, Sydney was the more successful actor, and he became far more valuable to the team. There came an opportunity for some of the troupe to head to America and perform there. Because Sydney was too valuable to let go, they sent Chaplin instead. Arriving in America during October of 1910, Chaplin began touring the states and performing the role of the drunk. This is where his unique comedic style starts to form as he begins experimenting with other acting methods. He was well regarded in his use of comedy—so much so that he caught the eye of Keystone pictures. Keystone hired Chaplin to make one-reelers with them. By the second film, they let him make his own acting choices. Quickly enough, in only three months he was moving on to directing the one-reelers as well. He finished his contract with Keystone in ten months after having created or acted in 34 one-reelers. His first on-screen performance for the reel “making a living”, he absolutely hated. He was quoted as saying, “The first time I looked at myself, however, I was ready to resign. That can’t be I, I thought, then I realized it was.” It was in his second film performance that the infamous character of “The Tramp” was formed. Charlie Chaplin reportedly donned the costume and let the character flow out from it. However, this idea wasn’t accepted by all. When asked about this in an interview he said, “Creation of the tramp, “I was a tramp in that story, and they wanted me to do all the usual slap-stick stunts. I had to beg them to let me play the part my way. ‘If you want somebody to pull all the old gags,’ I said to Sennett, ‘why do you hire me?” During the early days, not a lot of people found Chaplin’s ideas funny, as it wasn’t normal slapstick comedy, and it was something he had to fight for when he was starting out. People would often say that Charlie Chaplin’s career did not get started until he got into the movie industry. Most of the people and the magazines of the time did not begin to recognize him until after the character of the Tramp was created. However, even though he didn’t have much fame before acting on camera, his experiences growing up contributed more to his future success than the public knew at the time. Charlie Chaplin’s first feature film was “The Kid” which spanned six reels and allowed Chaplin to try out new methods with his character, the Tramp. He’s quoted as saying, “There had been satire, farce, realism, naturalism, melodrama, and fantasy, but raw slapstick and sentiment, the premise of The Kid, was something of innovation.” He goes on to explain that not a lot of people believed you could mix slapstick and comedy, but he did it anyway. Even though it was very unique for it’s time, the character of the Tramp didn’t change at all, and all of his usual comedic routines were still present. In Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid,” there is a scene in which the boy the Tramp is taking care of gets into a fight with a thieving older boy. The Tramp’s kid chases after this older boy, fights him, and—much to the delight of the crowd—wins the brawl. This humiliates the thieving boy and, to some extent, the muscular older brother who enters the scene post fight. This is where Chaplin’s comedy routine begins. The Tramp does not see the older brother enter, but instead is trying to prep his kid for a second round. During this moment, Chaplin is using mime techniques to show the boy how to fight dirty. He signifies a strong downward punch and then promptly pats his chest to signify to the boy to go for the gut. Next, he kicks high in the air, then pats his backside as if to say, “Kick the boy’s butt!” It’s not until after he sees the giant older brother looming over him that he speaks, making for a quick change in attitude as well as comedy. “You wicked boy,” he says sternly to his kid whilst trying to make for a hasty escape. The older brother stops him, pits the two boys against each other, and threatens to beat up the Tramp if his younger brother doesn’t win. To no one’s surprise the younger brother does not win. The now enraged older brother starts another part of Chaplin’s typical comedy routine. The clever choreography and exciting stunts. Naremore says about this, “[Chaplin is] moving with such quick grace and falling with such abandon that the audience can always appreciate the difficulty and the clever theatricality of the show.” A police officer enters the shot, and seems far more prepared for a fight than the Tramp. However, he gets knocked out with one slug from the older brother, leaving the Tramp to fend for himself. Not only does the Tramp exhibit quick reflexes, he also manages to mime out some mockery and taunts. The older brother chases the Tramp around the set, destroying other objects with inhuman strength. Finally, he catches the tramp by his hair and drags him out to be punched, only to be stopped by an unknown woman. They both make up, much to the insisting of the woman. However, the Tramp sees an opportunity to win, and moves on to acting like a clown. He slugs the older brother across the face, ducks behind him and strikes him over the head with a brick. The now somewhat dazed older brother tries to chase the tramp, but each punch he throws is ill timed and never lands a hit. The Tramp manages to make it inside his house and promptly shuts the door. The older brother knocks and is greeted with a quick brick to the head. He now leaves the scene more dazed and confused muttering, “Oh well, I guess he’s not in.” While this whole clown act of fighting back might seem out of character for the kind Tramp, it was still in character. The Tramp while enduring and kind, is just as susceptible to anger, frustration and nervous breakdowns. Chaplin uses these normal human responses in his Tramp character to give him more relatability to the audience, even if it’s just the way the audience wishes they could respond. His character while clownish is usually always based on real emotion and responses. We see in Chaplin’s movie “Modern times,” he makes a comedic statement about the work industry at the time. The beginning of the film starts off with people suited to their roles. The manager is dressed nicely, and the workmen are all super strong. But then the Tramp is introduced. He’s scrawny and awkward and doesn’t fit the rest of the environment of workers. Naremore writes about Chaplin saying, “His behavior and his familiar costume are in many ways inappropriate to the conventionally realistic world established elsewhere in the film.” In the Tramps introductory shot, we see him trying to tighten bolts on an array of objects moved along a conveyor belt. He gets distracted by a fly and immediately falls behind. To catch up, he pushes past his fellow workers to reach the ones he missed, eventually causing the line to stop. The Tramp doesn’t fit the job position, which adds to the humor of the situation. Under those strict conditions and everything that he is later subjected to, he begins to have a nervous meltdown and ends up accosting a woman, messing with his co-workers, and ultimately destroying the very factory he worked at. While these are over exaggerated, it’s the sort of response we would all have or like to have at moments of deep frustration. Charlie Chaplin’s character, despite what the media at the time saw him as, was never just that of a clown. He always had more depth to his entertainment. There was comedy and drama so tightly intertwined it became hard to separate them. Looking back at the whole story of Chaplin, it’s much easier to see where he got his inspiration from. He drew from his own experience and from the experiences of those around him. People and their everyday lives where his biggest sources. Even when people saw the clown, or didn’t understand what they saw, they still related on a personal pathos level.

Bibliography

Goldwyn, Samuel. Behind the Screen. New York: George H Doran Company, 1923.

Hayes, Kevin J. Charlie Chaplin Interviews. University Press of Mississippi, 2005.

Larcher, Jerome. Masters of Cinema, Charlie Chaplin. Paris: Cashiers du Cinema Sarl, 2011.

Naremore, James. Acting in the Cinema. Los Angeles: University of California Press, Ltd., 1988.

Vance, Jeffrey. Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003.