Between Showers (1914)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Henry Lehrman

Writer:

Reed Heustis (writer)

Release Date:

28 February 1914 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Comedy

Plot:

Charlie and another man compete in trying to help a young lady cross a muddy street. The rival finds a wooden plank which Charlie takes from him...

Cast

Charles Chaplin	...	Masher
Ford Sterling	...	Rival Masher
Chester Conklin	...	Policeman
Emma Bell Clifton	...	Lady in Distress (as Emma Clifton)
Sadie Lampe	...	Policeman's Lady Friend

Also Known As:

A Rainy Day (USA) (working title)
Between Shaves (USA) (working title)
Charlie and the Umbrella
In Wrong Thunder and Lightning (USA) (alternative title)
The Flirts

Runtime:

15 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Spain:T

Company:

Keystone Film Company

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Funniest Man in the World (1967)

Charlie Chaplin meets the Tramp.

In Kid Auto Races at Venice, Chaplin first tried on the costume of the little Tramp, and was clearly unsure what to do with it. He wandered around and made himself seen, making it clear that he wanted to be noticed and had something to show the world, but he still wasn't sure what the personality of his character was. In Mabel's Strange Predicament, he tries something new, and finds that it went wrong. Now, in Between Showers, we have another example of the incredible, almost prophetic foreshadowing and symbolism that we saw in Kid Auto Races. Whereas in his last film, he was an obnoxious, belligerent drunk, in Between Showers he decides to try helping people. Not only that, but within the first few minutes of the film, he is literally testing out the waters. And as we would see in the years to come, the experiment worked with phenomenal success.

What Chaplin also largely discovers in this film is the hyperbolic fight scene, exaggerated to cartoonish proportions for the benefit of the slightly fast motion and the absence of close-ups, which provides a comic effect sufficient to inspire years of including similar scenes in future films. The plot is simple, as they were in those days, and concerns the varying degrees of possession of an umbrella, with hilarious results, as they say. Between Showers probably marks the last major change for the Tramp that we would ever see, since Chaplin got it nearly perfect here. Let the show begin…