In 1914, Charlie Chaplin began making pictures. These were made for Mack Sennett (also known as "Keystone Studios") and were literally churned out in very rapid succession. The short comedies had very little structure and were completely ad libbed. As a result, the films, though popular in their day, were just awful by today's standards. Many of them bear a strong similarity to home movies featuring obnoxious relatives mugging for the camera. Many others show the characters wander in front of the camera and do pretty much nothing. And, regardless of the outcome, Keystone sent them straight to theaters. My assumption is that all movies at this time must have been pretty bad, as the Keystone films with Chaplin were very successful.<br /><br />The Charlie Chaplin we know and love today only began to evolve later in Chaplin's career with Keystone. By 1915, he signed a new lucrative contract with Essenay Studios and the films improved dramatically with Chaplin as director. However, at times these films were still very rough and not especially memorable. No, Chaplin as the cute Little Tramp was still evolving. In 1916, when he switched to Mutual Studios, his films once again improved and he became the more recognizable nice guy--in many of the previous films he was just a jerk (either getting drunk a lot, beating up women, provoking fights with innocent people, etc.). The final evolution of his Little Tramp to classic status occurred in the 1920s as a result of his full-length films.<br /><br />This review, then, is based on Chaplin's earliest films. They were, by and large, terrible. However, as I have seen a major portion of the available output for Chaplin, I found myself still wanting to see all his films--even the bad ones! This movie is a stand out because it's about as early a Chaplin film as you'll find. Plus, unlike most other films, even of this era, there is no semblance of any plot. Instead, the film looks like the splicing together of unrelated outtakes. Chaplin is difficult to notice, as he looks nothing like the Little Tramp--instead sporting a monocle and fancy duds. Unless you are a nut like me, don't waste your time with this short.