Tango Tangles | |
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Directed by | Mack Sennett |
Written by | Mack Sennett |
Produced by | Mack Sennett |
Starring | Charles Chaplin Ford Sterling Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle Chester Conklin Minta Durfee |
Cinematography | Frank D. Williams |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Mutual Film |
Release date |
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Running time | 12 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | Silent film English (Original titles) |
Tango Tangles is a 1914 American film comedy short starring Charles Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle. [1] The action takes place in a dance hall, with a drunken Chaplin, Ford Sterling, and the huge, menacing, and acrobatic Arbuckle fighting over a girl. The supporting cast also features Chester Conklin and Minta Durfee. The picture was written, directed and produced by Mack Sennett for Keystone Studios and distributed by Mutual Film Corporation.
In Tango Tangles, Charlie Chaplin appears without makeup and his usual mustache, baggy pants, and oversized shoes. The film was shot at a dance hall without any sort of formal script. Mack Sennett, in his 1954 autobiography King of Comedy, said of the impromptu nature of Tango Tangles, "We took Chaplin, [Ford] Sterling, [Roscoe] Arbuckle and [Chester] Conklin to a dance hall, turned them loose, and pointed a camera at them. They made funny, and that was it." Tango Tangles marked the last time that Ford Sterling and Chaplin appeared in the same film. Sterling had decided to leave Keystone where he had gained most of his fame as the chief of the Keystone Cops.
The movie publication Bioscope wrote of Tango Tangles, "Jealousy in a dance room ends in a fight which is engaged by the dancers, musicians and attendants."
Another reviewer in The Cinema wrote, "The ballroom is soon converted into a battlefield which results in this Keystone being a real scream."
The Keystone Cops are fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent film slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917.
Fatty's Tintype Tangle is a 1915 comedy short film. A man (Fatty), tired of his mother-in-law's henpecking, leaves home in anger and sits on a park bench, where a photographer takes a picture of him sitting next to a married woman, whose husband is not pleased. Conflict ensues.
Tillie's Punctured Romance is a 1914 American silent comedy film directed by Mack Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone Cops. The picture is the first feature-length comedy and was the only feature-length comedy made by the Keystone Film Company.
Keystone Studios was an early film studio founded in Edendale, California on July 4, 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from actor-writer Adam Kessel (1866–1946) and Charles O. Baumann (1874–1931), owners of the New York Motion Picture Company. The company, referred to at its office as The Keystone Film Company, filmed in and around Glendale and Silver Lake, Los Angeles for several years, and its films were distributed by the Mutual Film Corporation between 1912 and 1915. The Keystone film brand declined rapidly after Sennett went independent in 1917.
Twenty Minutes of Love is a 1914 American comedy silent film made by Keystone Studios. The film is widely reported as Charlie Chaplin's directorial debut; some sources name Joseph Maddern as the director, but generally credit Chaplin as the creative force.
The Masquerader is a 1914 film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin during his time at Keystone Studios. This film stars Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle and has a running time of 13 minutes. It is the tenth film directed by Chaplin.
The Knockout is a 1914 American silent comedy film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. It also features Charlie Chaplin in a small role, his seventeenth film for Keystone Studios. It is one of only a few films in which Chaplin's Little Tramp character appears in a secondary role, not appearing until the second half of the film. It also stars Arbuckle's wife, Minta Durfee, Edgar Kennedy and Keystone owner, Mack Sennett in a minor role as a spectator. The film was directed by Charles Avery.
Cruel, Cruel Love is a 1914 American comedy silent film made at the Keystone Studios and starring Charlie Chaplin.
Araminta Estelle "Minta" Durfee was an American silent film actress from Los Angeles, California, possibly best known for her role in Mickey (1918).
The Rounders is a 1914 comedy short starring Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle. The film involves two drunks who get into trouble with their wives, and was written and directed by Chaplin.
Caught in a Cabaret is a 1914 short comedy film written and directed by Mabel Normand and starring Normand and Charlie Chaplin.
Mabel at the Wheel is a 1914 American motion picture starring Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, and directed by Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett. The film is also known as Hot Finish.
A Quiet Little Wedding is a 1913 American short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle. It features the earliest known film appearance of Arbuckle's wife, Minta Durfee.
Wine is a 1913 short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle.
Fatty's Flirtation is a 1913 American short comedy film featuring Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle and Mabel Normand.
His Sister's Kids is a 1913 American short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle.
Fatty Again is a 1914 American short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.
Fatty and the Broadway Stars is a 1915 American short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.
Al St. John (1893–1963) was an American comic actor who appeared in 394 films between 1913 and 1952. Starting at Mack Sennett's Keystone Film Company, St. John rose through the ranks to become one of the major comedy stars of the 1920s, though less than half of his starring roles still survive today. With the advent of sound drastically changing and curtailing the two-reel comedy format, St. John diversified, creating a second career for himself as a comic sidekick in Western films and ultimately developing the character of "Fuzzy Q. Jones", for which he is best known in posterity.
Peggy Pearce was an American film actress of the silent era. She worked primarily in short subjects at the L-KO Kompany and Keystone Studios. She appeared alongside stars including Charles Chaplin, Roscoe Arbuckle, Billie Ritchie, Slim Summerville, Ford Sterling, and Mabel Normand.