"Tillie's Punctured Romance" was novel merely for being a feature-length comedy. Feature-length films were just beginning to become the established norm and comedies were one of the last to follow suit; not until a few years later would Chaplin and others secure the transition from shorts to features in the genre. Additionally, this picture features one of the many collaborations between two pioneering titans of screen comedy: Mack Sennett and Charlie Chaplin.
Yet, "Tillie's Punctured Romance" is low on entertainment. It's crude, cheap and outdated--and unusually static for a Sennett film. That surely has much to do with it being an adaptation of a play, and it being an unusual project for him. The movie finally picks up when the Keystone Kops enter the action, with the rapid editing and more frantic slapstick characteristic of Sennett, but that's only in the last few minutes. The crude and violent slapstick and grotesque burlesque throughout the picture is rather representative of Keystone, but there's better if you also want to be entertained while examining the history of comedy and film ("Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life" (1913) is one of my favorite Keystone shorts). "Tillie's Punctured Romance" just wasn't funny for me.
Chaplin began his film-making career under Sennett, which I'm sure was very important, but probably not until his Mutual shorts would he outgrow Sennett's style to become the great screen comedian and filmmaker we now know he was. His talents are visible here, but are wasted. That's more than I can say for Marie Dressler's somewhat embarrassing performance. Yet, she would do better, as well, although not until the talkies. Mabel Normand does the best job in this one.
This movie is obviously an adaptation of a play in its staginess, and it's boring to watch the actors do all the work while the camera mostly remains stationary for extended periods. One thing I kept looking at were the unessential characters, or extras, who were watching the main characters act out the play. Although I found it boring enough, at times, to concentrate on the background, in actuality, people would watch the antics of such queer characters. And, it might be meant to also reinforce for the audience that this stuff is funny, but it also reminds one that this is a filmed play.
This is also a movie, though, in more than the literal sense. That should be expected from Sennett, who was one of the earliest to define what movies are. In the film, Chaplin and Normand watch a Keystone short, which reflects the outer film's story. It reminds me of such other early films as D.W. Griffith's "A Drunkard's Reformation" (1909), which delivered the moral of the story through a play-within-the-play. Although "Tillie's Punctured Romance" doesn't have much of a moral, its film-within-the-film delivers what there is of one. Sennett has other more interesting self-referential films to his credit (e.g. "Mabel's Dramatic Career" (1913), "A Movie Star" (1916) and "The Extra Girl" (1923)), and his films were often about making fun of other films, so this demonstrates that "Tillie's Punctured Romance", while a play, is also a movie authored by Sennett--just not a good one.
Yet, "Tillie's Punctured Romance" is low on entertainment. It's crude, cheap and outdated--and unusually static for a Sennett film. That surely has much to do with it being an adaptation of a play, and it being an unusual project for him. The movie finally picks up when the Keystone Kops enter the action, with the rapid editing and more frantic slapstick characteristic of Sennett, but that's only in the last few minutes. The crude and violent slapstick and grotesque burlesque throughout the picture is rather representative of Keystone, but there's better if you also want to be entertained while examining the history of comedy and film ("Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life" (1913) is one of my favorite Keystone shorts). "Tillie's Punctured Romance" just wasn't funny for me.
Chaplin began his film-making career under Sennett, which I'm sure was very important, but probably not until his Mutual shorts would he outgrow Sennett's style to become the great screen comedian and filmmaker we now know he was. His talents are visible here, but are wasted. That's more than I can say for Marie Dressler's somewhat embarrassing performance. Yet, she would do better, as well, although not until the talkies. Mabel Normand does the best job in this one.
This movie is obviously an adaptation of a play in its staginess, and it's boring to watch the actors do all the work while the camera mostly remains stationary for extended periods. One thing I kept looking at were the unessential characters, or extras, who were watching the main characters act out the play. Although I found it boring enough, at times, to concentrate on the background, in actuality, people would watch the antics of such queer characters. And, it might be meant to also reinforce for the audience that this stuff is funny, but it also reminds one that this is a filmed play.
This is also a movie, though, in more than the literal sense. That should be expected from Sennett, who was one of the earliest to define what movies are. In the film, Chaplin and Normand watch a Keystone short, which reflects the outer film's story. It reminds me of such other early films as D.W. Griffith's "A Drunkard's Reformation" (1909), which delivered the moral of the story through a play-within-the-play. Although "Tillie's Punctured Romance" doesn't have much of a moral, its film-within-the-film delivers what there is of one. Sennett has other more interesting self-referential films to his credit (e.g. "Mabel's Dramatic Career" (1913), "A Movie Star" (1916) and "The Extra Girl" (1923)), and his films were often about making fun of other films, so this demonstrates that "Tillie's Punctured Romance", while a play, is also a movie authored by Sennett--just not a good one.