Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.
He did do better than 'Getting Acquainted', still made fairly early on in his career where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for, though previous efforts showed signs of his style starting to settle. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'Getting Acquainted' is a long way from a career high, but has a lot of nice things about it and is to me one of the middling efforts in the 1914 Keystone batch and a decent, if not one of the better ones, acting collaboration with Mabel Normand.
Sure, 'Getting Acquainted' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and some other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. Occasionally, things feel a little scrappy and confused.
'Getting Acquainted' is not bad at all, having said that. Far from it.
While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. Mabel Normand is quite charming.
Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'Getting Acquainted' is humorous, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.
Overall, pretty decent. 6/10 Bethany Cox
He did do better than 'Getting Acquainted', still made fairly early on in his career where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for, though previous efforts showed signs of his style starting to settle. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'Getting Acquainted' is a long way from a career high, but has a lot of nice things about it and is to me one of the middling efforts in the 1914 Keystone batch and a decent, if not one of the better ones, acting collaboration with Mabel Normand.
Sure, 'Getting Acquainted' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and some other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. Occasionally, things feel a little scrappy and confused.
'Getting Acquainted' is not bad at all, having said that. Far from it.
While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. Mabel Normand is quite charming.
Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'Getting Acquainted' is humorous, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.
Overall, pretty decent. 6/10 Bethany Cox