Behind the Screen

1916
6.9| 0h24m| en
Details

During the troubled shooting of several movies, David, the prop man's assistant, meets an aspiring actress who tries to find work in the studio. Things get messy when the stagehands decide to go on strike.

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Reviews

Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?
Konterr Brilliant and touching
Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Horst in Translation ([email protected]) This was a concept that already existed 100 years from now (or almost hundred years) and here we see Charlie Chaplin's take on it in this 20-minute black-and-white short film. I wonder how much his personal experiences from very early in his career contributed to that. Then again, even if he was possibly at his peak in 1916, it was still early in his career as he wasn't even 30 when he made this and yet the probably biggest film star on the planet. Edna Purviance as his romantic interest and Eric Campbell as the antagonist, who looks so huge next to the tiny Chaplin, are frequent Chaplin collaborators and both are here on board again as well. I thought this was one of Chaplin's better films and enjoyed watching it for the most part. My favorite scene was probably the one with his co-worker's sandwich. Thumbs up.
Petri Pelkonen This silent short takes place in a movie studio.Charlie Chaplin is a stagehand named David.Eric Campbell is Goliath, his supervisor.Edna Purviance is a girl wanting to be an actress, dresses as a man and becomes a stagehand.Behind the Screen is a Chaplin film from 1916.Charles Chaplin plays the clown we all remember him as.Edna Purviance looks real pretty in this picture, wearing a boy's outfit.And then when that long hair comes out off that hat...And Charlie gets to give her many kisses! The movie involves some great pie throwing.And the lunch break is most amusing, where Charlie starts playing with the pie tins.And the gag with the lever and the trap door.This Chaplin comedy is a treat!
rdjeffers Monday September 24, 7:00 pm, The Paramount TheaterA wickedly funny parody of his Keystone days, Behind the Screen was Charles Chaplin's seventh production under contract to The Mutual Film Corporation. Building on themes used in A Film Johnnie and The Property Man, it is among the quickest and most clever of the series. Goliath (Eric Campbell) is a lazy stagehand who takes all the credit while his assistant slaves away unnoticed. David (Chaplin) slings eleven chairs over one arm while carrying an upright piano, kicks over cameras, and repeatedly drops a large column on the dramatic director (Henry Bergman). They remain when the crew (caught napping after lunch) goes on strike, and hire an aspiring actress (Edna Purviance) disguised in workmen's clothes to help. David realizes her true identity when she faints, and Goliath discovers them kissing. Behind the Screen ends with a colossal pie fight as the strikers bomb the studio and David rescues the girl.
Snow Leopard "Behind the Screen" is an excellent Charlie Chaplin short feature, with plenty of good slapstick and much more. The setting, with Charlie working as a hired hand in a movie-making operation, lends itself to a lot of good comedy, and there are plenty of standard gags plus a lot of material that creatively uses the props and situations of the setting. It also works very well as a self-satire of the industry (as suggested by the title), making some subtle and other not so subtle points. Finally, there is some nice interplay between Charlie's character and his superiors, especially his burly, brutish immediate supervisor, played by Eric Campbell, an amusing actor who was one of Chaplin's best supporting players.Most of these earlier Chaplin films (referring to 1914-1916, the years when he made the majority of his short features, making ten or more each year) do not get very high ratings. It's true that some of them are mostly routine slapstick, but there are also a few gems like this one that combine slapstick with substance. Most of the movies from these years can be rather hard to watch, because the film often survives in poor condition, and so it's understandable that even the best ones might not always stand out as clearly from the rest. But this one is a fine film, and definitely recommended for Chaplin fans.