The Fireman (1916)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Just perfect...

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

"The fireman" is a funny short film from Chaplin, although not being among his very best movies. The little tramp here is, as expected, a fireman. Off course everything he does is a disaster, as he is sleepy, clumsy, quarrelsome and sneaky. The outcome is that he is probably the character most times kicked in the ass ever in the history of cinema! Chaplin's slapstick is funny as it uses to be and I always love Eric Campbell as his antagonist (here, as the furious boss, also with the same love interest as usual). The choreographs performed by the firefighters are very charming. The most interesting element in this short film, that makes it somewhat innovative ans special, are the visual effects. Although simple, they are smart and funny. The horse drawn fire pumper moving backward, the quick change of clothes by the firemen... these are all simple visual effects, off course, but they are precise in adding funny moments to the story. I said that everything our favorite fireman did was a disaster, didn't I? Well, not everything. Edna Purviance was there...

This 1916 Chaplin short film builds a lot on its factors from the past. It's about 24 minutes long, a duration found for several of Chaplin's shorts. Eric Campbell is the main antagonist again and Edna Purviance plays the damsel in distress, although she doesn't appear until 9 minutes in. Before that it's Chaplin versus Campbell at the fire station and as always the huge Eric Cambell gets in trouble from Charlie's accidental actions. And of course, as you could expect from the location, there's lots of water splashing and foam action going on.After the comedic action, it gets a bit more serious, when Purviance enters the picture. Attempted insurance fraud, a big dangerous fire threatening a woman's life and some more critical scenes turn it into quite a drama. Of course, it's still paired with Chaplin's slapstick routine, so it's nothing too hard to digest. Nonetheless,I have to say I wasn't too fond of this film. The fire station action wasn't half as funny as it could have been, romance was almost non-existent here and was usually a factor that elevated some of Chaplin's other works, because it was displayed with so much heart and there's a scene where Campbell's character punches Charlie with full power in the face. Surprisingly, or probably not surprisingly given the tone of Chaplin's films, he gets up pretty quickly, but that was a scene of unnecessary brutal violence that is rather uncommon for most of Chaplin's films. On a more positive note, my favorite scene was the one where Chaplin stops the alarm from ringing as he wants to finish his board-game with another fireman, which made me quite laugh. All in all, I'd recommend this one only to Chaplin fanatics and for everybody else there's better choices to get into his filmography.

Monday September 10, 7:00 pm, The Paramount Theater, SeattleReferring to Chaplin's Mutual films and The Fireman, in his book American Silent Film, William K. Everson explains, "The weakest of them, the purely slapstick entries, such as The Fireman, are still superior to the best of the Keystones and Essanays; and the best of them (The Immigrant, Easy Street, The Rink) could stand with his best work from any period." The Fireman relies entirely upon the physical brutality found in those earlier films for much of its humor. Charlie suffers the indignities of his fellow firemen and flirts with the chief's (Eric Campbell) sweetheart (Edna Purviance). She visits the station with her father who tells the chief, "Let my house burn. I'll get the insurance and you can wed my daughter." Of course, it goes wrong, there is "An honest fire," and Charlie rescues Edna from her burning house while the other firemen are occupied in truest Keystone fashion.

In 1914 and early 1915, Chaplin did his first comedy shorts. In general, they were pretty awful--with almost no plot and consisting of him mugging it up on camera and hitting people. However, in 1915 he left Keystone Studio and began making better films with Essenay (though there are some exceptions) and finally, in 1916, to Mutual where he made his best comedy shorts. These newer films had more plot and laughs and usually didn't relay on punching or kicking when they ran out of story ideas.Compared to other Mutual comedies, this one is a bit of a let-down, as again and again it seems like Charlie and the crew really are given no direction. They just wanter about aimlessly and yell a lot and slap each other, but not a whole lot of plot until the very end. This is a pretty spectacular ending, though, as you really get to see Chaplin's athletic skills!