From personal experience, I know it takes a lot to get people to watch a silent film. There is certainly an aversion to it by most people, being that it lacks dialogue one can hear. In a world with booming soundtracks and epic speeches, it’s hard for many to imagine a world in film without sound.
If there is anything that people will at least try, it is the comedies. After all, humor is universal and you don’t always need words to understand it. Everyone the world over laughs when someone trips over their own feet.
It is no question who the giants of silent cinema comedy were. There has been a lifelong debate over who was better: Chaplin or Keaton. Of course, one can not forget the lesser known yet equally talented figures like Harold Lloyd and Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, but I’ll save those for another day.
Most people in my personal life know I have a certain affection for Charlie Chaplin, but when it comes to the argument I really can’t take sides. They both had amazing yet very different styles.
Charlie Chaplin
Born in England in 1889 , Chaplin’s parents were both stage performers. After his drunken father was out of the picture and his mother slowly began to lose her mind and was committed to a asylum, it was Charlie and his half-brother Sydney who carried on the family name in Vaudeville.
He joined the Karno Troupe in his early 20’s and embarked to America with 25 dollars. While touring the country, he hooked up with Mack Sennett of Keystone and started making films. His iconic tramp character first appeared on film in a short called “Kid Auto Races at Venice” in 1914.
From there, his career started a steady climb. After leaving Keystone he worked a short time with Essanay and Mutual, then eventually started writing, directing, producing, editing, and starring in his own films.
Chaplin was so flawless as the tramp that most people didn’t realize (and still don’t) that he was just a character. The tramp was a fellow often down on his luck, trying to make ends meet by working odd jobs and often getting himself into trouble.
Some of his best gags were the ones that were more subtle. They were “blink and you’ll miss it” situations, because Charlie was so smooth, quick and precise. Despite being a mangy tramp, he was always very graceful and some things he managed to pull off so seamlessly still amaze modern audiences.
Chaplin was also known for bringing genuine heart into his work. They were not simple slapsticks without substance, there was often an underlining message that was more apparent the longer his career went on. In the beginning of film, most pictures were pigeon holed into exact genres, while Chaplin blurred the lines and was probably the first to make romantic comedies and dramatic comedies.
In all of his career, Charlie never had the tramp speak a single line in a film even after sound was introduced. With the coming of sound, he retired the tramp and went on to make films in different roles. His reason for this being that he knew the tramp was a character loved world-wide, and he felt that having him speak would ruin that magic. He never wanted to alienate any of his fans by making the tramp only understandable to people who spoke English. To him and all others, the tramp was an “every man”, and was quoted as describing him as “A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.”
Suggested viewing:
Buster Keaton
Born in 1895 in America, Joseph Frank Keaton received the nickname Buster from Harry Houdini as a child, after he had fallen down a flight of stairs without injury.
He traveled with his family in a stage act growing up, and was known by an act he did with his father in which the older man would toss Buster around. Sometimes even into the orchestra pit or audience. He was rarely if ever injured, and would actually laugh gleefully during it. He noticed that his enjoyment of the fake abuse drew fewer laughs from the audience, and was the reason he adopted his deadpan expression while performing.
While Chaplin was agile and lithe, Buster appeared clumsy and erratic. Despite a look of chaos, every one of his movements was calculated with techniques he had learned while performing as a child.
He was also extremely daring, pulling off stunts that would surely hurt or even kill someone less skilled. It’s nearly impossible not to wince while watching some of his films, and wonder aloud how the man is still breathing.
Also in comparison to Charlie’s expressive face and body language, Buster was probably best known for being stoic. No matter the situation at hand, he managed to keep a serious face. Yet while you would think this would retract from his performances, it only enhanced them. And even without every emotion displayed plainly across his face, there was still something about him that told you exactly what he was feeling.
He, unfortunately, did not do very well in his later career, resorting to alcoholism. In an interesting turn of events, Chaplin, feeling sorry for the ailing Keaton, gave him a cameo in his film Limelight, where they did a wonderfully hilarious scene together as misfit musicians.
Suggested viewing:
Bygone Films 