Caught in a Cabaret Movie

Caught in a Cabaret
Rating:
Run Time: 33 min
MPAA Rating:
Released: 1914
Directors: Mabel Normand
Genre/Type: Comedy
Slapstick
Producers: Mack Sennett
Plot Synopsis by Phil Posner
Charlie Chaplin's 12th film for the Keystone company was also his directorial debut, receiving co-directing credit with co-star, Mabel Normand. Chaplin plays a waiter in a seedy cabaret who is always in trouble with his boss, Edgar Kennedy, and at odds with another waiter, Chester Conklin. While walking his dachshund in a park during his lunch break, he rescues rich-girl Mabel from the clutches of a thief who has chased away her boyfriend, Harry McCoy. Charlie introduces himself as O.T. Axle, Ambassador from Greece, (the first of Chaplin's "impersonation" roles) and is brought home to meet her parents and receive their thanks, much to the chagrin of Mabel's boyfriend. He receives an invitation to return later for a garden party. The suspicious boyfriend follows Charlie back to work and discovers the truth. Back at work Charlie deals with a bullying customer, Mack Swain, by serving him a drink and knocking him out with a large mallet when Swain tilts his head back to drink. Later, at the garden party, Charlie misbehaves, getting drunk, flirting with Mabel and singing loudly along with the band. The boyfriend, watching from a distance is now determined to expose him. When Charlie takes his leave to return to work, Harry suggests that the party go slumming to the very cabaret at which Charlie works. When the upper-class guests arrive, they are treated like royalty by the workers and other patrons. When Charlie discovers them at his table he hides the apron he's wearing and sits down next to Mabel, pretending that he's another guest. When the boss scolds him for sitting down on the job, Charlie is exposed as a lowly waiter, much to the shock of Mabel and her father. A melee then ensues between Charlie and his pistol-wielding Boss, whom Charlie knocks out while Mabel hides under a table. Charlie protests his love for Mabel, but she responds with a final knockout blow.

Videos of Caught in a Cabaret

Cast

Actors Character Born
Alice Howell May 5, 1888 in New York, NY
Cliff Bowes Nov 14, 1894 in Pueblo, CO
Gordon Griffith Boy Jul 4, 1907 in Chicago, IL
Josef Swickard Father Jun 26, 1866 in Coblenz, Germany
Harry McCoy Lover
Wallace MacDonald
Hank Mann
Charles Chaplin Waiter Apr 16, 1889 in London, England
Mabel Normand Mabel Nov 9, 1892 in Boston, MA
Alice Davenport Mother
Minta Durfee Dancer
Phyllis Allen Dancer Nov 25, 1861 in Staten Island, NY
Chester Conklin Waiter Jan 11, 1888 in Oskaloosa, IA
Edgar Kennedy Cafe Proprietor Apr 26, 1890 in Monterey, CA

Back to the topReview

Review by Craig Butler
While Charlie Chaplin is justifiably hailed as a genius of the cinema, the fact remains that many of his films, such as Caught in a Cabaret, are nothing more than amusing trifles that don't indicate the genius that was evident in his best known works. That's not a criticism of Chaplin or of his major pieces, merely an acknowledgement that much of what Chaplin created is disposable entertainment, and there's nothing to be ashamed of or to apologize for in that fact. Cabaret is good fun and provides plenty of laughs, but it is no way a great film, or even for that matter a very good film. The plot is rudimentary, the dialogue cards strain for laughs, and the editing is especially poor; the last flaw is unfortunate, as so much of the success of comedy, especially silent comedy, rests in timing and rhythm, and the editing here deadens a number of potential laughs. That said, Cabaret still has Chaplin, the irresistible Mabel Normand and the handy Chester Conklin, all of whom work very well together and who can make laughs out of even the simplest material. There's also Minta Durfee's curious "spearmint" dance, filled with so much posterior movement that it demonstrates how amusingly low down films could be before the Code set in.
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