The Chaplin Cavalcade

The second Chaplin compilation of the same year, released on 20 August 1941, this time gathering four shorts from 1916: One A.M., The Rink, The Pawnshop and The Floorwalker. The difference matters. The 1916 films come from just after Chaplin moved to Mutual; the sentimental passages have not arrived yet and the comedy is entirely physical. One A.M. is close to a solo turn: a drunk man trying to get into his own house and reach his bed, fighting the furniture for twenty minutes. Chaplin shares the film with nobody. The alarm clock in The Pawnshop is among his most imitated sequences: he examines the clock as though performing surgery, takes it apart and empties it onto the counter. Music and sound effects were added later to films shot silent. Who it is for: viewers who like early Chaplin shorts and pure slapstick. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a story. There is almost no plot in these films, and the added sound works against their original rhythm.