Capo
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Post by Capo on Jan 23, 2007 9:48:09 GMT
Behind the Screen Charles Chaplin 1916 USA Screenplay: Charles Chaplin; Producer: Charles Chaplin; Photography: Roland Totheroh; Editing: Charles Chaplin; Cast: Charles Chaplin, Eric Campbell, Edna Purviance.
A runner on three different simultaneous film sets runs into trouble when he is cast in a pie-throwing slapstick scene. Sometimes visually chaotic (Chaplin trying to dance his way round fake though heay pillars for fear of knocking one over), always narratively chaotic (he's almost always running around), often funnily chaotic (pulling chair after chair after chair onto one shoulder). Any longer and it'd be boring; as it is, it suffers from something most of his features do not, that is, the overused gag that is funny at first, then runs into the ground. The gags themselves, however - a lever-mechanised trapdoor, the pie fight, and the attempt at a meat sandwich - are very clever.
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