THE PROPERTY MAN
T.it.: Dietro le quinte; F.: Frank D. Williams; M.: Charles Chaplin; Int.: Charles Chaplin (trovarobe), Phyllis Allen (Hamlena Fat), Alice Davenport (attrice), Charles Bennett (marito di Hamlena), Norma Nichols (artista del vaudeville), Joe Bordeaux (attore anziano), Harry McCoy (ubriaco), Lee Morris (spettatore), Jess Dandy (Garlico), Joseph Swickard (anziano aiutante di scena), Joe Bordeaux (attore anziano), Gene Marsh (assistente di Garlico), Vivian Edwards, Cecile Arnold (Goo Goo Sister), Mack Sennett, Frank Opperman, George ‘Slim’ Summerville (spettatori); Prod.: Keystone Film Company 35mm. D.: 27’ a 18 f/s. Bn.
Film Notes
The Charlot of The Property Man is no longer the character moulded by Sennett during Chaplin’s first months at the Keystone studios. A hewfound inspiration and a different maturity come to the fore hinting at the more accomplished future films. This “Char- lot” has of course maintained the characteristics of troublemaker who loves to flirt and, in a way, his status as a free man. His mocking spirit and vindictive nature soon appear behind the scenes as well as on stage, he answers the blows by raising the stakes and creates a terrible commotion in the theatre, even amongst the audience, completing his adventures with a collective watering worthy of Sennett’s burlesque school.
Thierry Georges Mathieu, La naissance de Charlot. Keystone – 1914, n.11, Ars Regula, 2001