Tillie's Punctured Romance Movie

This Keystone comedy, Charlie Chaplin's 33rd, is the first feature-length comedy ever made and contributed to making Chaplin and his co-star Marie Dressler major stars. Chaplin plays a con artist (not the Tramp) who talks Tillie, an innocent country lass, into taking her father's savings and running off to the city with him. Once there, he re-establishes his affair with the beautiful Mabel Normand, abandoning Tillie, who must begin working at a restaurant, while Charlie and Mabel spend her father's money for new clothes. Meanwhile, Tillie's millionaire uncle is reported to have died in a mountain-climbing accident. When the opportunistic Charlie learns that Tillie has just inherited three million dollars, he immediately rushes over to propose. She joyfully accepts, but is suspicious when she learns of her inheritance. Later, at a wedding gala at Tillie's new mansion where Normand has begun working as a maid, Charlie sneaks off for a little tete-a-tete with the latter. Trouble erupts when Dressler catches them smooching. Suddenly all the slapstick craziness for which director Mack Sennett is famous erupts as Tillie grabs a pistol and begins chasing Charlie and Mabel, firing randomly. Just as the wayward Charlie is to be strangled to death, the "late" uncle suddenly appears and ejects all the celebrants. Charlie and Mabel, chased by Tillie, race out of the ruined mansion to a pier where they are followed by the ubiquitous Keystone Kops whom the uncle has summoned. Tillie ends up in the drink, and when rescued after numerous attempts, she rejects Charlie while consoling Mabel, saying, "He ain't no good to neither of us," as the Kops drag Charlie away.

Historically significant as the first full-length comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance may not strike modern audiences with the same impact that it did those in 1914, but it's still a very funny excursion into broad slapstick. Seen many decades later, much of the humor is familiar, and that does blunt its effectiveness somewhat. But Tillie is also undeniably appealing, thanks largely to its stellar trio of leading players. Charles Chaplin, of course, is the best known of the three today, and he's marvelous; but this isn't the Chaplin that so many know, the "little tramp" that is forever set upon and forever suffering for being too innocent. In Tillie, Chaplin is a cad, a bounder, a womanizer who is after the title character solely for her money, and it's refreshing to see him in a change-of-pace role, even if it is one that doesn't demand as much of his unique talents as more tailor-made roles do. As Tillie, Marie Dressler is a treat, a big, galumphing presence whose bizarre coyness and whimsy make her character an outsized, delightful treat. Dressler's delicious performance anchors the film and accounts for much of its success. Yet the best performance is arguably from Mabel Normand as the "other woman." Her work here is wonderfully understated at times, yet she "revs up" to large scale silent movie acting at the drop of a hat. Mack Sennett's direction is broad, as is to be expected, and Hampton Del Ruth's screenplay doesn't always make sense, but the stars and the "Keystone Kops" more than make up for any deficiencies.