Making a Living (1914)
A conniving swindler in top hat and monocle cons his way into lodging and a newspaper job, then schemes to scoop a rival reporter's story and steal his girl, triggering a runaway trolley chase.
Making a Living was Charlie Chaplin’s screen debut, released before he had settled on the Tramp costume; here he plays a fast-talking confidence man in formalwear, a persona quickly abandoned once Keystone put him in the bowler hat and cane just days later.
Background
Making a Living was Charlie Chaplin’s very first film, made for Mack Sennett’s Keystone studio before Chaplin had developed the Tramp costume and persona that would soon make him famous worldwide. Director Henry Lehrman, who also appears in the film, was reportedly unhappy with Chaplin’s performance and resistant to his ideas during the shoot, an early sign of creative tension between Chaplin and directors who did not share his instincts for comic timing.
What to watch for
Watch for how different Chaplin looks here compared to almost everything he made afterward: he plays a fast-talking swindler in formal wear and a monocle, closer to a stage villain than the sympathetic, shabby-genteel Tramp he would adopt within days of this film’s release. It is most interesting today as a historical curiosity, the true starting point of one of the most famous careers in film history, rather than as a fully realized comedy in its own right.
