Silent Film Sources - Reviews

Directed by Mack Sennett. Scenario by Hampton Del Ruth from the play "Tillie's Nightmare" by Edgar Smith. Photographed by Frank D. Williams. 

Cast: Marie Dressler, Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Charles Bennett, Mack Swain, Chester Conklin, Edgar Kennedy, Charlie Chase.  

Tillie's Punctured Romance. The Keystone Film Co. © 1914 Kessel & Baumann managers. 

Starring Marie Dressler with Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand. Produced by Mack Sennett. 

Produced by Mack Sennett. 

Cast of Characters:  
Charles Chaplin, Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, Mack Swain, Charles Bennett, Chester Conklin.  

Refreshingly, the Keystone elements of the film break away from the theatrical tradition. Much of the film was made outdoors, and the performances, if not the situations, have an improvised quality. Despite the feature length, the film is fast paced, with the spirit and style of the Keystone short comedies. Much of the comedy is based on physical pain, with endless kicks to the backside. 

In what passes for the plot, passing city slicker Chaplin is hit with a misdirected brick by farm girl Dressler. When he recovers, Chaplin invites her to take the family savings and come with him to the city. Meeting up with girlfriend Mabel Normand, Chaplin absconds with Dressler's money. When Chaplin learns that she has inherited her late uncle's millions, he weds Dressler before she learns of her windfall. The most elaborate scene in the film is Dressler's nouveax riche reception for the upper crust, wildly disrupted when she catches her new husband romancing Normand. The finale is a well-staged chase on the Venice Beach pier with the stars pursued by the Keystone Cops. 

Dressler plays Tillie as big and homely, but the comedienne has excellent timing and is light on her feet. The unglamorous actress was 45, but part of the fun is the way she plays Tillie as a naive girl of 16. The film provides Dressler with several set pieces, including Tillie's first drink. Dressler handles this sequence beautifully, guzzling her drink, only to spray it over Chaplin, followed by a success of exaggerated takes, and an extended drunk scene. While Chaplin is not in his familiar tramp persona, many of his familiar moves are present, such as the tramp's running turn. Although he is not playing the lead, Chaplin is very effective in the last screen role not under his own direction. Dressler is fully Chaplin's equal at scene stealing, and the otherwise delightful Mabel Normand is overshadowed. 

The Blackhawk Films 16mm catalog notes that "our beautiful prints are reproduced from a 1920 reissue, which although slightly trimmed, was made from the camera negative." These 16mm prints have an organ score by John Muri for projection at 18 frames per second. 

The Blackhawk Films video restoration released by Kino on Video and Image Entertainment is based on the same material, but gaps in the 1920 print are carefully patched with sections from a lesser quality copy. The patched sections range from a few seconds to a four and one-half minute sequence where Chaplin and Normand enter a theatre to see a Keystone comedy. The film they see parallels the theft of Tillie's savings. Chaplin becomes increasingly uncomfortable, blurting out his woes to Normand, oblivious of the police detective sitting next to them. The video version features the John Muri score, and the opening titles were remade to match those of the original Keystone release. Added to the release is a Keystone from earlier in 1914, Mabel's Married Life. This short features Chaplin and, of course, Mabel Normand, which gives a good idea of the one-reel knockabout comedies that Sennett hoped to upgrade by adding stage star Marie Dresssler to Tillie. 

The Killiam Shows version features a piano score by William Perry. (Review © 1997 David Pierce)