Independent Films, Comedy, Classics
The Rounders
by CharlieChaplin
Two drunks live in the same hotel. One beats his wife, the other is beaten by his. They go off and get drunk together. They try to sleep in a restaurant using tables as beds and are thrown out. They lie down in a row boat which fills with water, drowning them (a fate apparently better than going home to their wives).
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The Rounders by CharlieChaplin is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain 3.0 License.
Poster
Details
Language: Silent
Year of production: 1914
Length: 9min 32sec
Country: United States
Suggested by:
Baxter Martin
Directors:
Charlie Chaplin
Producers:
Mack Sennett
Actors:
Charles Chaplin .... Reveller
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle .... Charlie's Neighbor
Phyllis Allen .... Charlie's Wife
Minta Durfee .... Fatty's Wife
Al St. John .... Bellhop/Waiter
Jess Dandy .... Diner
Wallace MacDonald .... Diner
Charley Chase .... Diner
Cecile Arnold .... Hotel Guest (uncredited)
Dixie Chene .... Diner (uncredited)
Edward F. Cline .... Hotel Guest in Lobby (uncredited)
Ted Edwards .... Cop (uncredited)
Billy Gilbert .... Doorman in blackface (uncredited)
William Hauber .... Waiter (uncredited)
Edgar Kennedy .... Bit Part (uncredited)
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The Rounders
Two drunks live in the same hotel. One beats his wife, the other is beaten by his. They go off and get drunk together. They try to sleep in a restaurant using tables as beds and are thrown out. They lie down in a row boat which fills with water, drowning them (a fate apparently better than going home to their wives).
Watch film
Film reviews for The Rounders
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Baxter Martin
“The Rounders” (1914, Chaplin)
Here is another one of the many short films Chaplin acted in and directed for Keystone Studio in 1914, his first year on the job. “The Rounders” would be Chaplin’s 26th film and 12th as a director and would pair him with Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle as two drunks who live across from each other in a lodge. They both stumble home drunk separately and encounter less than happy wives who set about knocking their husbands down. Charlie’s wife uses his cane trick to cull him around the neck to keep him falling over a couple of times. A gag produced a few minutes later as Fatty would use two canes to pick Charlie up off of the floor by the neck. The wives meet angrily in the hallway and the two men spend the rest of the film trying to escape the pursuing women.
Typical of the early shorts, Chaplin was honing his craft and flashes several scenes of great slapstick comedy in “The Rounders.” Fatty was just about on par with Charlie for the second half of this short. It seemed rare that Charlie shared the camera that much with one person for that long but it definitely worked. There is a scene in a restaurant in which Fatty and Charlie are in the middle of the frame both doing their antics simultaneously and the viewer is charged with a decision as to who to focus on. It’s tough. “The Rounders” measures up a bit better than most of the 1914 films. Interesting take on women? “Pity the poor weak women” reads a caption before the husband beating ensues.
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