The Sunday Intertitle: Mr. Wow-Wow

Chaplin in troublemaker guise — GENTLEMEN OF NERVE (1914). A hundred years old!

Mabel Normand fulfills one of her regular roles, being fought over by men — in this case Chaplin and co-stars Chester Conklin and Mack Swain. Also a few random interlopers, played by a veritable who-will-be-who-if-you-give-them-a-few -years of screen comedy — Charley Chase, Billy Gilbert, Slim Summerville…

Nobody really has much chance to make their skills felt, except in terms of acrobatics — Chaplin comes out on top though Conklin has far more screen time, but Chaplin has to keep it quick and nasty in order to register at all, and poor Mabel is nearly trampled in the rush to centre stage.

Fiona actually prefers the early, brutish Chaplin — she’ll admit the film’s aren’t very good compared to later, but here he bites Conklin’s nose with little provocation, and stubs a cigarette in Swain’s face. It’s so gratuitously vicious, it’s sort of funny just by way of shock.