ironhorse_iv Review of Making a Living

Making a Living (1914)

Silent No More! It's time to talk about 'Making a Living'. A very interesting little short.

[6/10 · 22 April 2021]

Also known by many names like 'Doing His Best', 'A Busted Johnny', 'Troubles' or 'Take My Picture', this 1914 one-reel comedy short was the first appearance of comedian Charlie Chaplin on the big screen. Produced and released by Keystone Studios, 'Making a Living' is certainly a unique watch for many things. For starters, while Chaplin did walk around with his cane in this flick. His famous iconic "Little Tramp" screen persona did not appear until his next film, 'Kid Auto Races at Venice', five days after the studio began distributing this short. Because of that, it was surreal to see Chaplin portray another character. The Max Linder-like Edgar English 'Swindler' character with his large moustache and top hat was bizarre looking on Chaplin's short frame. It made his head look hilarious colossal. Another thing worth noticing is how the character's cunning antics is a prototype to what the Tramp would do. Nonetheless one of the faults of the swindler is that the individual lacks the generally good-hearted childlike bumbling that the Little Tramp has. Because of that, most of his mannerism toward making the unnamed news reporter played by actor/director Henry Lehrman seem mean spirited and cruel. It really did seem that the innocent reporter did nothing wrong and the Swindler was just there to ruin his private life. Sadly, I really couldn't laugh at much of the antagonism antics due to that. Especially when it caused innocent people to get stab and strangle. I just wanted to turn the short at times. Thank goodness the other 34 Keystone shorts that Chaplin made in 1914 with the Tramp character was less annoying. Another thing that bugged me was the lack of slapstick from the Keystone Cop. It already sucks that most of the original cast didn't return for this short even actor Hank Mann who would later work with Chaplin on his other films. Don't get me wrong I do know that this is the 6th of the 12 films featuring the cops, most of the actors were working on Fatty Arbuckle productions, plus the casting of the Keystone police force changed from one film to the next with many of the members were per diem actors who remain unidentifiable such as Chaplin appearing in a bit role later after this as one in a lost short, but it really does seem like the members of the squad must had anger producer Mack Sennett, because the fictional humorously incompetent policemen really did take a backseat for this vehicle. None of them were given any screen time including main actor Chester Conklin. The cops don't appear on screen until a couple of minutes during the climax. Then the action unabrupt ends with no punchline. No comeuppance for the Swindler or anything. Lots of things are left unresolved. Not a great way to end the flick. I have to agree with Chaplin here, it really does seem like Lehrman deliberately removed some of the best parts from the short's final cut. There was a lot of missing frames during the opening and closing fighting scenes. It's very noticeable during the main characters both trying to woo a love interest Minta Durfee played by actress Virginia Kirtley and her mother portray by Alice Davenport. Another unabrupt cut was before the car crash scene. Who knows, maybe those sequence was in the original cut and lost over time, but a part of me kinda doubt it. After all, it's true that 5 seconds of the short was indeed cut from the UK release because of the violence. Sadly, if there is such a print version where those deleted scenes were included. It has yet to recovered. Until then, we have this version that can be found on the internet. While the black and white coloring kinda make the Swindler' monocle look like a bloody black eye and the contrast flickering film grainy is creepy in from both sides. The copy most people can see isn't that bad as it hasn't yet reached badly deteriorated conditions. Hopefully there are some film preservation institutions out there trying hard to keep it from dipping closer and closer to a significant loss of quality. Because this short has a lot of historical value. The footage of various areas of downtown Los Angeles streets in 1914 is a time capsule. After all, you would never get to see the original fame Fremont Hotel ever again as it was torn down in 1955. To be truthful, this short did have one of Keystone's more elaborate productions. One particular moment was the staging of a tipped car even if the footage where the Studebaker go over the cliff look like it came from another lost film. That scene was still pretty gutsy. Overall: While not as good as Chaplin's later flicks. This 13-minutes short was truly worth seeing. Nice to see where one of the cinema's most iconic superstars started from. Not a bad way to make a living.