Shanghaied (1915)
Chaplin's Essanay Comedies (1915) • 28m
Chaplin rented a boat, the Vaquero, to inspire the plot of this comedy gem. Charlie is hired to shanghai a crew, only to be shanghaied himself as well. He has to save himself and his sweetheart, who has stowed away, before the boat is sabotaged for the insurance.
The film contains some of Chaplin’s early playful dancing (dance would be an important part of his mature films), seasickness (one of Chaplin’s favorite routines), and a curious homosexual situation with Chaplin and the cabin boy, highly unusual in mainstream cinema for its time.
Up Next in Chaplin's Essanay Comedies (1915)
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A Night in the Show (1915)
This exceptional comedy owes its existence to Fred Karno's sketch, Mumming Birds, a burlesque of a music hall performance with terrible acts and ill-behaved patrons, in which Chaplin had found his great theatrical success playing the Inebriated Swell. Chaplin plays dual roles in the film: a versi...
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Burlesque on Carmen (1916)
Chaplin’s burlesque of Cecil B. DeMille’s popular film version of Carmen (1915), starring the great opera diva Geraldine Farrar, was originally intended and completed as a two-reel comedy in January 1916. In Chaplin’s version, Don José becomes Darn Hosiery (Chaplin), with Edna Purviance as the se...
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Police (1916)
Police uses comedy to make pointed – if glancing – social statements which over the years became central to Chaplin’s work. The film arguably is the most mature in the series and anticipates such later films as Easy Street (1917), The Pilgrim (1923), and Modern Times (1936).
The Tramp, releas...
