Making a Living (1914)
by popegrutch
This film actually comes before Chaplin’s appearance as “the Little Tramp” in “Kid Auto Races at Venice.” Chaplin wears a similar outfit, with cane and baggy pants, but he has a stovepipe top hat, a long grey coat, and a large mustache with a more villainous look to it, similar to his appearance in “Mabel at the Wheel.” He is an unemployed man who tries to panhandle a reporter (played by director Henry Lehrman) before hitting on the reporter’s girlfriend (Virginia Kirtley, also in “Mabel’s Dramatic Career” and “A Flirt’s Mistake”). They fight, and he manages to scoop the reporter by stealing one of his photographs and rushing it to press, then running out and selling copies of the paper himself. In the process, several run-ins and chases take place, including a woman (Minta Durfee, who was in “Fatty Joins the Force” and “The Knockout”) with a jealous husband, and several Keystone Kops, who wind up chasing Lehrman, while Charlie gets into yet another fight with the husband. Interestingly, this is a much more complex and sophisticated film than “Kid Auto Races,” which essentially used ad-lib comedy and an exciting location to carry the film, while this is scripted and employs varied camera angles, tight editing, and even a traveling shot of Charlie running down the street (presumably the camera was mounted on a car in front of him).
Director: Henry Lehrman
Camera: Enrique Juan Vallejo and Frank D Williams
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Henry Lehrman, Minta Durfee, Virginia Kirtley
Run Time: 9 Min
Century Film Project 
[…] fellow (enough to have a car and servants in 1914) who wears a variation on his getup from “Making a Living” or “Mabel at the Wheel,” but with more understated facial hair. He’s in love with Minta […]
[…] survive in a world he doesn’t fit in to. Previous Chaplins often made the Little Tramp out to be more aggressive, somewhat less appealing, or drunkenly foolish. There would sometimes be moments of sympathy, but […]
[…] she lives next door to an oil field. She is courted by both Charles Inslee (who had roles in “Making a Living” and “His New Job”) and Ford Sterling (Chaplin’s rival in “Between Showers” and […]
[…] him greatly, to the point where he falls in love with the star (Virginia Kirtley, who we saw in “Making a Living” and “A Flirt’s Mistake”). The theater gives a wonderful sense of the squalid conditions of […]
[…] “Tango Tangles”) are rival “Mashers” after the same girl, Emma Bell Clifton (who was in “Making a Living” and “A Robust Romeo”), who is more interested in Chester Conklin (from “Mabel at the […]
[…] The husband and wife are Alice Davenport and Chester Conklin, who each had small roles in “Making a Living” and Wikipedia identifies one of the bellboys as Al St. John, but this may be as controversial as […]