Tillie's troubled romance
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Tillie's troubled romance |
| Original title | Tillie's Punctured Romance |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1914 |
| length | 64, 73, 82 (the completely restored version) minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Mack Sennett |
| script | Hampton Del Ruth based on the musical comedy Tillie's Nightmare by Edgar Smith and A. Baldwin Sloane |
| production | Mack Sennett for Keystone Studios , Los Angeles |
| music |
Hans May Arthur Honegger (both later sound version) |
| camera |
Franz D. Williams Hans F. Koenekamp |
| occupation | |
| |
Tillie's Troubled Romance , also known as Tillie's Broken Romance , Tillie's Romance on installments, and The Crazy Idyll of Charlie and Lolotte , is a 1914 American slapstick and silent film comedy directed by Mack Sennett . The title role was played by Marie Dressler , with Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand playing. The work was not only Chaplin's first feature-length film, but is also considered to be the first full-length comedy in US cinema.
action
The rough Tillie is a stocky and buxom, clumsy and not very handsome, but very resolute peasant trampoline. One day she met a thin man from the city when she accidentally threw a brick on his head that was supposed to be retrieved by her dog. City dweller Charlie has just separated from his previous flame Mabel in an argument. When he realizes that Tillie must come from a wealthy family, he ensnares her by all means. She quickly puts her heart at his feet. Charlie convinces Tillie to become engaged to him and they both run off into town.
Once there, the little crook tries both to fleece Tillie and to get back together with the much prettier Mabel. To this end, Charlie makes Tillie drunk while visiting a restaurant, and while she is dancing with someone else, Charlie and Mabel run off with Tillie's bag full of money. While the insolvent Tillie is being taken away by the police, the rogue couple first goes shopping for elegant clothes.
In the cinema, Charlie and Mabel watch the film “A Thief's Fate”, in which an unscrupulous couple takes an innocent girl from the country and is then arrested and punished. The two recognize themselves in this and they seem to have doubts about their actions. But when Charlie reads in a newspaper on a park bench that Tillie's wealthy uncle died on a mountain hike and that Tillie is said to be the sole heir to his three million dollar fortune, all moral concerns vanished in an instant. This makes Tillie interesting again for Charlie, the unscrupulous petty crook.
Tillie now works as a helper in a restaurant, where she struggles more or less clumsily to earn money. Charlie, who has left Mabel on the left again, goes to Tillie and asks for her hand. After initial doubts, she finally says yes, they both get married and move into the splendid property of the deceased uncle. While they bask in luxury and treat the uncle's lackeys badly, Mabel secretly applies to be a maid in the villa.
At the big housewarming party with the top ten thousand, Mabel identifies Charlie and the two ignite in a new old love for each other. When Tillie catches the maid and her faithless husband kissing, a heated argument ensues. First Tillie throws food at Charlie, who immediately runs away, then she shoots around wildly. Now the whole party threatens to get completely out of hand, the guests are also included in the marriage battle.
The hustle and bustle comes to an abrupt end when the uncle, believed to be dead, appears in the general chaos, which almost freezes Tillie in shock. The angry homecoming man chases the whole party, including Tillie, Charlie and Mabel, out of the house. Charlie suddenly loses interest in his now impoverished wife and pushes her away with a kick. The uncle calls the police to have Tillie arrested for the damage done. Immediately the goofy Keystone Cops are on their way.
Chased by the frenzied Tillie, who shoots after Charlie, Charlie and Mabel take refuge on a viewing platform at the harbor. Arriving at the pier, Tillie is pushed into the water by the police car and, screaming for help, rowed with her arms. The Keystone Cops, for their part, tip their vehicle from the pier into the depths and the water police that have been summoned also go overboard. After her rescue, Tillie finally realizes what a useless and unscrupulous guy her faithless husband is, and gives him back the wedding ring. She and Mabel, who has also been cured, embrace, Charlie is dragged away by the police.
Production notes
This film, which premiered on November 14, 1914, is considered the first full-length cinema comedy in the USA. In Europe there had already been the hour-long comedy Le duel de Max by and with Max Linder in 1913 , but also the one-hour American A Florida Enchantment by and with Sidney Drew premiered three months before Tillie . Mack Sennett took on both the direction and the production in personal union. He allowed himself the enormous luxury of 14 weeks of shooting, which was enormous for the time, and several months of production time went by before the film premiere (while short film comedies came to the cinema within a few days after the shooting ended).
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Sennett could fall back on almost all of his best film comedians of the time; In addition to Dressler, Chaplin and Normand, these were above all Mack Swain , Chester Conklin , Edgar Kennedy , Charley Chase , Minta Durfee , Charlie Murray and Alice Howell as well as the legendary Keystone Cops , among them Hank Mann and the difficult-to-identify Slim Summerville and Al St. John . This line-up secured the refinancing of the production, which was as ambitious as it was (for the time) expensive.
The only notable comedian at the time working for Keystone Studios who did not appear in the film was Fatty Arbuckle , possibly due to his too Dressler-like corpulence. His later companion and friend Buster Keaton claimed in an interview with Canadian Fletcher Markle in 1964 that Arbuckle had instead directed about half of the film undisclosed.
For Charlie Chaplin, Tillie was not only his first full-length comedy, but also the last published film in which he was neither involved as a screenwriter nor as a director. Since he was still in his experimental phase when shooting began, he also played one of the very few negative characters of his entire career.
The Canadian theater actress and then film debutante Marie Dressler, who leads the ensemble, was one of America's most popular comedians at the time. She played the role of Tillie in two other films by other film studios, Tillie's Tomato Surprise (1915, only exists as a fragment) and Tillie Wakes Up (1917), but was only able to achieve success as a film star towards the end of her life, in the early sound film era .
The 1928 film Tillie's Punctured Romance with WC Fields and Louise Fazenda in the lead roles is not a remake of this film.
Reviews
Reclam's guide said, “Mack Sennett had recruited several of his most famous comedians for him; but the star was undoubtedly Marie Dressler, who dominated the scene with a lot of temperament. For Chaplin, then still the "new man" at Sennett, it was undoubtedly a success that he was allowed to play the second leading role alongside her; and he too has his big scene: the declaration of love to Tillie while he is balancing on a garden fence, and the move into the millionaires' palace, for example, where he makes fun of the lackey guards. The film is not entirely typical of Sennett's directorial style, as it gave up many of its best options - the hectic pace, the chases, etc. - in favor of a continuous and complicated plot. However, you can find some of these ingredients in the turbulent festival towards the end of the film. "
The Movie & Video Guide wrote: “Not terribly funny, or coherent, but there are good moments; mainly interesting for historical purposes. "
In Leslie Halliwell Halliwell's Film Guide reads: "Museum piece comedy Which no longer irritates the funny bone but has clear historical interest".
Bucher's encyclopedia of the film recalled: "For Chaplin, the film was the ultimate breakthrough."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reclams Filmführer, by Dieter Krusche, collaboration: Jürgen Labenski. P. 127. Stuttgart 1973.
- ↑ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 1343. Translation: “Not overly funny or uniform, but there are good moments; mainly interesting for historical reasons. "
- ↑ cit. n. Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 1032. Translation: "Museum piece comedy that no longer strains the laughing muscles today, but has a clear historical meaning."
- ↑ Bucher's Encyclopedia of Films, Verlag CJ Bucher, Lucerne and Frankfurt / M. 1977, p. 774.
Web links
- Tillie's troubled romance in theInternet Movie Database(English)