Behind the Screen Movie

Behind the Screen
Rating:
Run Time: 20 min
MPAA Rating:
Released: 1916
Directors: Charles Chaplin
Genre/Type: Comedy
Slapstick
Showbiz Comedy
Producers: Charles Chaplin
Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
In Behind the Screen, the seventh of his 12 Mutual Studios two-reelers, Charlie Chaplin pokes some less than gentle fun at his former employer Mack Sennett. Chaplin and Eric Campbell play a couple of bumbling stagehands at Gigantic Picture Studios. They knock each other about, break for lunch, and knock each about again. Pretty Edna Purviance sneaks into the studio disguised as a boy. Chaplin finds out her secret and steals a kiss -- drawing a very suspicious glance from Campbell. The film ends with a combination union strike and slapstick pie fight. Best bit: a temperamental movie comedian refuses to throw a pie without proper "motivation." Chaplin spent so much time achieving perfection in Behind the Screen that Mutual was obliged to apologize to its exhibitors for missing the scheduled release date by two weeks.

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Charlie is an overworked labourer at a film studio who helps a young woman find work even while his coworkers strike against his tyrannical boss. full summary | add synopsis
The problem in America is NOT Hollywood, it is the people who idolize and watch the vomited filth that oozes out of from Hollywood Walt Disney and all the other godless movie makers. Movies don't make people commit adultery... adulterous pe...
Let me note one important thing: The entertainment business in Hollywood, just like any other industry, skews its findings so as to justify where it thinks it needs and wants itself to be. The sort of programs that are selected are often a ...

Cast

Actors Character Born
Charles Chaplin Scene Shifter Apr 16, 1889 in London, England
Edna Purviance Girl Seeking Film Job Oct 21, 1894 in Lovelock, Paradise Valley, NV
Eric Campbell Scene Shifter Foreman
John Rand Scene Shifter Nov 19, 1871 in New Haven, CT
Leo White Scene Shifter
Lloyd Bacon Director of Comedies Jan 16, 1890 in San Jose, CA
Tom Wood Actor
Frank J. Coleman Producer
Wesley Ruggles Actor
Henry Bergman Director of History Film
Charlotte Mineau Actress Mar 25, 1891 in Bordeaux, France
James T. Kelly Cameraman
Albert Austin Scene Shifter Dec 13, 1881 in Birmingham, UK

Back to the topReview

Review by Mark Pittillo
In early 1916, Charles Chaplin signed a contract with the Mutual Film Company to produce 12 two-reel comedies for $10,000 a week, an unprecedented amount of money at the time. Over the next 16 months, Chaplin churned out twelve little masterpieces that represent perhaps the height of his artistry, and together made up, according to Chaplin, "the happiest time of my career." Behind the Screen is the seventh Chaplin Mutual, and one of the funniest. Like the others, it is a sublime combination of the fast-paced (and often violent and nihilistic) slapstick of Chaplin's Keystone period with touches of the gentle pathos that would dominate his later career. Chaplin had previously used a behind-the-scenes setting in A Film Johnnie (1914), but here the idea is more refined, and the skillfully choreographed set pieces more dazzling. Produced, written, directed, and scored by Chaplin, the film also features beloved Chaplin regulars Edna Purviance and Eric Campbell in plum roles. Behind the Screen also contains Chaplin's only recorded pie fight.
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