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Chaplin Mutual Comedies: Restored 90th Anniversary Edition Posters
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When Charlie Chaplin signed with the Mutual Film Company in 1916, he became the highest-paid performer at that time (with an annual salary of $670,000) and produced a dozen two-reelers that served as a blueprint for the rest of his career. The Mutuals captured the essence of Chaplin's serio-comic brilliance while revealing an artist at his creative peak. A stronger sense of ensemble was evident in the menacing presence of Eric Campbell, who became regarded as the ideal Chaplin heavy. "Easy Street" and "The Immigrant" (both 1917) represent the comedian's first masterpieces - incorporating social criticism that foreshadowed his feature-length efforts. The rough-edged quality of the Keystone and Essanay shorts has been replaced by a more polished style, with "The Rink" (1916) and "The Cure" (1917) displaying remarkable physical virtuosity. Charlie's later films never matched the exuberance and self-assuredness of that glorious 16-month period when the Little Tramp reached his artistic maturity.
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This set consists of all twelve of the two reel films Charles Chaplin made for the Mutual Film Company in 1916 and 1917, and is a good place to start for people who are curious about the early work of Charles Chaplin. His early films, such as "The Floorwalker" and "The Fireman" have more of the crude slapstick style of humor present in Chaplin's Essanay and Keystone comedies. However, as the series progresses, you can clearly see Chaplin's evolution as a filmmaker. "The Vagabond" seems to presage "The Kid" in its melodramatic style, and "One AM" shows Chaplin do a rare solo act in which he plays a drunk man returning home from a bar at closing time and using just about every piece of furniture in his home as a comic prop as the house itself becomes his nemesis. He begins to become a much better storyteller as well as a good comedian, and the entries from the end of the series, such as "The Immigrant" and "The Cure" are considered among his best work and are quite cleverly done. As the other reviewers have said, this set is very high quality in regards to the video. This is not one of those cheap Chaplin sets that you can pick up for less than twenty dollars that are barely watchable. In addition to the twelve comedies on the first two discs are two documentaries on the final two discs. The first documentary, "The Gentleman Tramp", is a very well done 1975 biography of Chaplin's life including plenty of clips of home movies of his later life as well as clips from his shorts and features. The final disc is a documentary about Eric Campbell (1880-1917), the large man who is Chaplin's foil throughout the Mutual series of films.
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It has been 90 years since these great comedies were made (1916-17) and many folks that are new to Chaplin may dismiss them as funny shorts. Chaplin by 1916 was a real big star and was paid $650,000 to do these 12 comedies in a little over a year. A ridiculous sum in 1916. Unlike his full feature films from the 20's and 30's (with the exception of City Lights - a masterpiece)) where there was much emphasis on pathos,and tearjerking scenes, these comedies are wild and wacky. In 1970, I bought some of these on 8mm films thru Blackhawk Films and the quality was OK, but these prints are a revelation. The Mutual Comedies are the height of Chaplin's art. Each film features a theme: The Pawnbroker, The Rink, The Vagabond, Easy Street etc. and they are all hilarious. The Mutuals had a cast of stock actors that too were outstanding including his 300-pound bully Eric Campbell, Edna Purveyance, his love interest, Albert Austin, Henry Bergman and others. THIS IS THE FINEST QUALITY EVER SEEN ON THESE MOVIES! There are Documentaries galore which are also very interesting. Without dialogue, Chaplin could make you laugh just with his eyes or an expression, or his walk. People forget that he revolutionized motion pictures by bringing movies even to the smallest of towns. People all over the world loved Chaplin. This is a milestone in cinema history and every serious student of film should own this and watch a master at work.
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This is the best I've ever seen the mutuals looking. If you've only seen them on a cheapie DVD with the same Duke Ellington jazz tune played on every film, you don't know what you're missing. Every film is scored by the best silent composer working today, Carl Davis, and taken from some of the best prints I've ever seen of anything from the 1910's, which is usually barely watchable, here looks as clear as something from the 40's.
Most importantly they're fun films, funnier than Charlie's more sentimental 20's stuff.
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Chaplin's Mutual-two-reelers, which by many are looked upon as the comedian's noblest work, have been brought out on video and DVD several times, always with variable quality. Some have been good, others weak.
I once heard a proverb which fascinated me, "The biggest enemy to great, is good." Well then, CHAPLIN MUTUAL COMEDIES: RESTORED 90TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION is not among the good sets; it is the greatest one out there. Not only does it include clear prints of the twelve pearls, all with beautiful musical scores composed by Carl Davis -- several of the movies, such as ONE A.M. and THE RINK, also have recently discovered footage added, available for the first time since their original release in 1916-17. This makes the collection very well worth to get even if you own all of the movies from before, like I do.
Oh well, the set would be a treat anyway, because of the special features, which actually could have worked as its own release. Especially interesting are two rarely-seen documentaries. The first one of them, THE GENTLEMAN TRAMP (78 min.) from 1975 --which I'd tried to find for years-- is narrated by Laurence Oliver, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and includes numbers of home movies, archive footage, etc. The second documentary, CHAPLIN'S GOLIATH (54 min.) from 1996 covers the life of Eric Campbell, the heavy Scotsman who played the villain in each one of Chaplin's Mutual-comedies. Also included are two fine and very interesting booklets: "The Chaplin Mutuals" by Jeffrey Vance and "The Making of The Gentleman Tramp" by Richard Patterson.
My only complaint is that while the music is very good --beautiful, really-- and fits the films wonderfully, there are a few times that I think it sounds a little too dramatic or melancholic when it, in my opinion, rather should be amusing; especially in ONE A.M. But that's just according to my taste.
Needless to say, this collection is a "must" to every Chaplin-fan. Well worth the money!
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