The Rounders | |
---|---|
Directed by | Charlie Chaplin |
Written by | Charlie Chaplin |
Produced by | Mack Sennett |
Starring | Charlie Chaplin Roscoe Arbuckle |
Cinematography | Frank D. Williams |
Edited by | Charlie Chaplin |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Mutual Film |
Release date |
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Running time | 16 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | Silent film English intertitles |
The Rounders is a 1914 comedy short starring Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle. [1] The film involves two drunks who get into trouble with their wives, and was written and directed by Chaplin.
A drunk reveller, Mr. Full, returns home to a scolding from his wife. Then his equally inebriated neighbor, Mr. Fuller, comes home and starts a fight with his wife. When Mrs. Full hears the physical altercation across the hall (Mr. Fuller starts strangling his wife after she hits him), she sends her husband to investigate. The two wives begin arguing, while Mr. Full and Mr. Fuller seize the opportunity to steal their wives’ money and flee together to a cafe, where they also cause trouble. When their spouses find them, they escape to a leaky rowboat on a pond. Safely out of reach of their wives and the victims of the commotion they caused, they fall asleep, oblivious to the rising water into which they eventually disappear.
Now somewhat antiquated, the term "rounder" was once commonly used to mean "a habitual drunkard or wastrel".
Moving Picture World wrote, "It is a rough picture for rough people, that people, whether rough or gentle, will probably have to laugh over while it is on the screen. Chas. Chapman [sic] and the Fat Boy appear in this as a couple of genial jags."
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.
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career.
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.
Mack Swain was a prolific early American film actor, who appeared in many of Mack Sennett’s comedies at Keystone Studios, including the Keystone Cops series. He also appeared in major features by Charlie Chaplin and starred in both the world's first feature length comedy and first film to feature a "movie-within-a-movie" premise.
Chester Cooper Conklin was an early American film comedian who started at Keystone Studios as one of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops, often paired with Mack Swain. He appeared in a series of films with Mabel Normand and worked closely with Charlie Chaplin, both in silent and sound films.
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.
His New Profession is a 1914 American comedy silent film made at the Keystone Studios and starring Charlie Chaplin. The film involves Chaplin taking care of a man in a wheelchair. It is also known as "The Good for Nothing".
Araminta Estelle "Minta" Durfee was an American silent film actress from Los Angeles, California, possibly best known for her role in Mickey (1918).
Caught in a Cabaret is a 1914 short comedy film written and directed by Mabel Normand and starring Normand and Charlie Chaplin.
The Face on the Bar Room Floor is a short film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin in 1914. Chaplin stars in this film, loosely based on the poem of the same name by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy.
Tango Tangles is a 1914 American film comedy short starring Charles Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle. 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.
His Favorite Pastime is a 1914 American comedy film starring Charlie Chaplin.
The Star Boarder is a 1914 American short comedy film starring Charlie Chaplin. The film is also known as The Landlady's Pet, its 1918 American reissue title.
His Musical Career is a 1914 American comedy silent film made by Keystone Studios starring Charlie Chaplin.
Getting Acquainted, subsequently retitled A Fair Exchange, is a 1914 American comedy silent film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring Chaplin and Mabel Normand, and produced by Mack Sennett for Keystone Studios.
Wine is a 1913 short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle.
Dale Fuller was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in more than 60 films between 1915 and 1935. She is best known for her role as the maid in Foolish Wives.
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.
Frank D. Williams was a pioneering cinematographer who was active in the early days of the motion picture industry. He developed and patented the traveling matte shot.