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Charlie Chaplin is at the top of his form in the three excellent shorts (plus a faux Chaplin) offered in
The Chaplin Essanay Comedies Vol. 4. He takes two roles in "A Night at the Show," the drunk dandy that was his music hall specialty and a working-class rube with a droopy mustache, to wreak havoc at a vaudeville show. Producer David Shepard's reconstruction of Chaplin's original two-reel version of "Burlesque of 'Carmen'" (expanded by Essanay to four reels with outtakes and new footage) brings the sprawling parody back down to the concentrated, cohesive, and very funny comedy Chaplin originally created. "Police" is classic Chaplin, the misadventures of the Tramp who leaves prison for a world of rampant poverty and crime, portrayed with a cynical, satiric eye yet heartened with hope. The final short, "Triple Trouble," was constructed by Essanay in 1918 from an unfinished feature called "Life" and outtakes from "Police" and "Work." While it lacks the narrative cohesion that Chaplin brought to his late Essanay films, it nonetheless features some excellent comic moments. Chaplin left Essanay for Mutual in 1916 where he created the dozen comedy classics that remain, in the eyes of many fans, the most concentrated examples of the Chaplin genius.
--Sean Axmaker
