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Best of Chaplin, Vol. 4 [VHS]

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For the "Best of Chaplin, Volume 4," we have a pair of somewhat unusual early comedies from Charlie Chaplin, so if you are looking for the beloved Tramp, this is not the volume for you. When Chaplin started doing movies parodies of Victorian melodrama was popular. When Chaplin produced his "Burlesque on Carmen" in 1916 for Essanay it was a takeoff of a pair of 1915 film versions of Bizet's "Carmen," one by Cecile B. De Mille starring Geraldine Farrar and the other by Raoul Walsh starring Theda Bara.

The plot has smugglers coming ashore and their leading sending the gypsy Carmen (Edna Purviance) to lure the Spanish officer, Darn Hosiery (i.e., Don Jose) away so they can get their stolen goods to town. John Rand is Escamillo the Toreador. As Darn Hosiery, Chaplin has a big sword fight with the officer of the guard (Leo White). The problem here is that you have to know the story of "Carmen" to appreciate the burlesque, especially the part when Chaplin is almost playing it straight as he accuses Carmen of infidelity and stabs her (only to let the audience in on the "joke" at the end). After Chaplin made his two-reel, the studio added another two reels consisting of Chaplin's outtakes and new gags shot by Leo White with Ben Turpin as the smuggler Le Renandado. All things considered, the "Burlesque on Carmen" is an interesting footnote to Chaplin's career, but nothing special, even as a parody.

"Laffing Gas" (Released July 9, 1914) was Chaplin's 20th comedy for Keystone. This one-reeler written and directed by Chaplin has Charlie as the assistant to a dentist, Dr. Pain (Fritz Schade). The dentist administers laughing gas to a patient, extracts a tooth, and finds he cannot wake up the old man, and gets Charlie to help. Most of the comedy here has to do with Charlie's accidental and deliberate mistreatment of not only the patients, but also his rival assistant as well. The point is to have fun at the expense of other characters, especially the serious ones like Mack Swain's man outside the pharmacy. This is not the beloved Tramp of later Chaplin comedies, since the assistant can be malicious and even sadistic, especially with those big pliers. Moreover, the frantic pace of the action in this one-reeler is certainly representative of the Mack Sennett approach to comedy at Keystone than the sublime blend of comedy and pathos offered in Chaplin's best work.