His Prehistoric Past (1914)

Best movie ever!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Considering the fact that this was Chaplin's last film for Keystone, I wonder if there's any significance in the title and plot regarding how Chaplin really felt about Keystone. It's no secret Chaplin felt constrained by the slapdash slapstick and improvisation of Keystone comedies. Is it possible Chaplin was referring to Keystone in the title: His Prehistoric Past? Chaplin plays a caveman with Mack Swain who is the leader of the cavemen apparently. Chaplin and Swain get into it about Sum-babee, one of Swain's 1000 wives! Chaplin saves her from drowning, and Swain becomes jealous. The final scene seems to comment on the dreamlike year Chaplin had in 1914 making over thirty films for Keystone and becoming famous. Chaplin edited, wrote,and directed the film, which once again shies away from the familiar Slapstick of Keystone for the most part. *1/2 of 4 stars.

In 1914 Chaplin appeared in 34 shorts and the first ever feature length comedy for the Keystone Studios. While there's a notable step up when he takes over directing himself (in particular, the literary The Face on the Barroom Floor), the majority of them are generally pretty awful affairs, full of kicks up backsides and falling into rivers, with precious little else. In fact, many of the earliest ones resemble family home movies of today, with the stars encouraged to ad lib in random locations with no script at all.What's interesting is that at least half a dozen, possibly more, feature Chaplin out of character (sometimes he'll appear as the Tramp, but married, or with a steady job, so it's questionable). In this final short for the Keystone Studios he does appear in character… though as a prehistoric version of The Tramp.A bizarre idea that Laurel and Hardy would adopt thirteen years later for Flying Elephants (though not as monolithic versions of their regular personas, as here) the "cave man comedy" niche isn't really one that works as well as you might expect. There are some nice lines of subtext/innuendo ('A thousand wives for every man? I wish I had brought a bigger club.') and, as usual, Chaplin's work is significantly above that of the usual Keystone fare. Just watching some of the turgid shorts from this period (His Favourite Pastime/The Fatal Mallet et al) helps to get in perspective just how revolutionary Chaplin was in terms of plot, scale and ambition.That said, he's still hampered by the Studio line, and even taking into account the improved technical range with Chaplin's hand on the reigns, only around ten of the Keystone movies are above average. There's a reason why film historians always talk about the sentimental, everyman version of the tramp character, and neglect to talk about the spiteful, woman-beating, cigarette-smoking version found in these films. It's the same reason why people refer to The Kid as being Chaplin's first feature, whereas Tillie's Punctured Romance – admittedly the last film where Chaplin didn't write or direct, but instead just acted – has a longer duration. The films Chaplin did for Mack Sennett under the studio, are, simply, good for historical value only, but offer little worth in terms of entertainment or artistry. His Prehistoric Past is an average and forgettable short that presages his immediate move to the Essanay Studios.

This is an early Chaplin short. Almost all of his earliest films from 1914-1915 were plot less and pretty incoherent. However, considering the generally poor quality of films of the time, they were adored by the public. It was only a few years later that Chaplin's films began to be great works of art--with real scripts, higher production values and some coherence.This film is one of Chaplin's earliest. And, considering how early it was made, it's surprising how much plot there actually is. Charlie is a caveman in a land where there are 1000 women for every man. He defeats the leader of the tribe and becomes king. Later, when the old king returns and bonks Charlie on the head, he awakens in the present as a cop is hitting him over the head with a club. Apparently it was all a silly dream.The film had a few cute moments, but only a few. Not a terrible film when compared to the fare of the day, but pretty skipable despite having a VERY unusual plot.

As many films as Charlie Chaplin made, some of them were bound to be below his usual standard. "His Prehistoric Past" is a short comedy that is not very funny, nor does it contain the touches of humanity that Chaplin's best films have.The idea here is that Charlie joins a caveman tribe. The humor is supposed to come from the cavemen's clubs, the caveman king having a harem, and so forth, but none of it is very entertaining.Anything that Chaplin did probably holds some interest to his fans, but almost any of his other films is much better than this one.