His New Job (1915)

Why it's here:
When we started our festival, I intended to share with the boys work by all the major comedians and comedy teams I could think of (Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and on and on), but as we talked to other people and researched films to include, new names kept popping up. Ben Turpin was one of those names. We added this film into our festival much later -- after we'd already watched films through the 1940s -- because it would not only provide us with a chance to see Turpin, but almost more importantly, was available on Netflix and starred Charlie Chaplin. When in doubt, make sure Chaplin is present.

Specs:
1/2 hour, black and white, silent. We watched it on Netflix - found within a Chaplin collection.

Our family's average rating:
6.0

More about the film and our reaction to it:
This film is really cool for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it was Charlie Chaplin's first credited screen appearance. He'd been in many films before, but was always part of an ensemble cast and not singled out for screen credit. So there's a first. Another real shocker that I did not notice until reading about the film after our viewing, but this may have been Gloria Swanson's very first on-screen appearance!  You can just make her out in the opening scene as an office worker.

Another great surprise, that ended up being my favorite part of the movie, was a wonderful behind-the-scenes glimpse of early filmmaking. The "New Job" underlying the title, refers to  Chaplin being hired as an extra/carpenter/actor to work on a film production. This is a great chance to see the back stage area, star's dressing room, hand-cranked silent film camera, and many other treats, all circa 1915!

And I suppose I should address the impetus for our film: Ben Turpin. He is very funny and entertaining, but this was not a major film for him. His scenes with Chaplin are wonderful, but he spends so much time on the floor, we didn't get much of a glimpse of his famously crossed eyes. We liked him enough though that we will look for other films by him if they come within our sphere.

Iconic shot:

And here's another pic, so you can see Gloria Swanson before she was "big"