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.