Early Charlie Chaplin: The Artist as Apprentice at Keystone Studios
The cottage industry of publishing books on Charlie Chaplin continues to prosper with this book, which is a worthy and enjoyable addition. Going back to Chaplin's roots, before his work at the Essanay Studios, film historian James Neibaur catalogs more than three dozen early silent films the master comedian and director did for studio producer Mack Sennett. Though he does not unearth any new information or insights, the author does correct stubbornly persistent errors, and he scripts his own fresh, readable, and helpful chronicle of Chaplin's evolution as a film artist. Beginning with Chaplin's cameo as a wily city slicker inMaking a Living, the work covers Chaplin's films in chronological order through the six-reel comedy with Marie Dressler,Tillie's Punctured Romance, noting credits, cast, general plot outlines, comic scenes, slapstick gags, and some contemporaneous reviews. This book offers an honest, homespun, and pleasurable tour through the novice era of an amazing film comedian.Summing Up:Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; technical students; professionals; general readers.(CHOICE)