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Behind the Screen (1916)

Behind the Screen

1916

  • Mutual Film Corporation
  • Directed by Charlie Chaplin
  • Starring Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell

Synopsis

David (Chaplin) is the assistant stagehand at the film studio. He does all the work while Goliath (Campbell), the main stagehand, rests. The Girl (Purviance), looking for a job, disguises herself as a boy and is hired as a property assistant. A variety of mishaps befall actors and directors as Charlie decorates the sets for scenes in several films. The director of a comedy turns the two property men into actors throwing pies at each other. As a result, pies are flying throughout the studio. Disgruntled strikers attempt to bomb the studio, but David dumps them, their bombs, and Goliath, through a trapdoor into the cellar.

Discussion

By 1916, Charlie Chaplin was producing funny, well-planned films. Behind the Screen, a two-reel (about 20 minutes) short, recalls Chaplin’s early days in film with Max Sennett at Keystone Studios. Many gags are basic Keystone-style slapstick: people hit on the head with various objects, pratfalls, and pie fights. Topical references reflect clichéd social attitudes of the time. The years before World War I were a time of increasing labor agitation and frequent strikes. Striking workers setting off dynamite also occurs in the final gag of Chaplin's three-reeler Dough and Dynamite (1914). Seeing David and The Girl — still dressed as a boy — embracing, Goliath dances about in an exaggerated feminine style, an obvious gay stereotype meant to be amusing.