Like many classic movie fans this Christmas, I received one of the most eagerly-awaited DVD releases of the year: the “Chaplin at Keystone” set from Flicker Alley.
The set comes at the end of what turned out to be quite a year for Chaplin fans, as earlier in 2010, a long-unknown Chaplin film was identified by collector Paul Gierucki – quite a discovery!
This DVD collection marks the dedicated work of a number of individuals and institutions who put in a staggering amount of effort to bring these films to the consumer market in the best-looking and most complete versions available. With film material this old (the Chaplin -Keystone comedies were released in 1914), issues of restoration and preservation are obviously key.
A release like this provides two major benefits: it allows us to watch the evolution of one of cinema’s greatest artists in his formative year working in the medium, and it also heightens the importance of film preservation in order to ensure that these works will last another century.
Chaplin arrived at Keystone in 1914, hot off the stages of the British Music Hall circuit. He had traveled with the Fred Karno Company to America, where he toured before being courted away by Mack Sennett, Hollywood’s foremost producer of comedy films. Based in Hollywood, the Keystone company had been founded in 1912 as the movies’ first exclusive comedy film factory, turning out a number of one- and two-reel comedies starring popular comic talents such as Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Mabel Normand and Ford Sterling, all of whom were already major figures in screen comedy prior to Chaplin’s arrival.
The 35 films he made during that year (which included the landmark feature-length comedy, Tillie’s Punctured Romance) demonstrate his growth as both comedian and filmmaker.
This set, which boasts new restorations on 34 of the titles (Her Friend the Bandit is still considered lost), provides 21st century viewers with a comprehensive overview of the films that first introduced Chaplin to audiences of the world.
It’s really fun watching the earliest films in this set when his character wasn’t fully formed yet. He engages in the kind of rough, knockabout humor associated with the Three Stooges. Through it all, the incredible timing and masterful slapstick elevates the rough-house shenanigans to the level of art.
Thankfully, we can now see these films in editions approaching the quality that audiences saw in 1914.
For years, the Chaplin – Keystone comedies were available in very spotty editions on home video. Some budget video companies issued editions that were barely watchable, in low-grade video transfers from murky, dupey 16mm prints from a variety of different sources, all of variable quality. Over the years, these old video copies would get copied and re-copied, so much so that by the time some of them began appearing on bargain DVD labels, the picture quality actually managed to look worse than it had on older VHS editions.
Obviously, a master of cinema like Chaplin deserved better, even for his early formative works, so this set is a welcome upgrade. The basis for this set was the restoration work done by the British Film Institute in conjunction with David Shepard and Serge Bromberg. (The version of Tillie’s Punctured Romance on this set derives from the restoration done by UCLA.)
Thankfully, the producers of the DVD have included a featurette detailing the preservation efforts that went into the titles.
Narrated by Serge Bromberg, it’s an impressive tribute to the amazing individuals who made this project possible. The countless hours of work that went into it certainly paid off, as the films look better than they have in any previous home video version.
One of the biggest benefits to the clear print quality is the ability to see the comic mugging that the young Chaplin engaged in so frequently, with exaggerated facial gestures that can be missed when watching really contrasty or dark prints.
There are also little gags and bits of business that are easy to miss when watching choppy or badly-spliced prints. The smooth flow of the action here helps to restore many of the carefully-choreographed slapstick bits that Chaplin and other performers executed so perfectly. Finally, the narratives of these films are made much more clear by the restoration of footage previously missing, at least from home video editions.
This DVD edition contains an extra bonus for historians: a tour of some of the filming locations of the Chaplin – Keystone comedies, presented by historian John Bengston, who has done a truly remarkable job in identifying the present-day locations used by the silent comedians.
It’s good to finally see the formative work of one of cinema’s first geniuses and pioneers finally available in an edition that does justice to the historical importance, creativity and artistry of these works.
