The Fireman (1916)
An incompetent fireman causes chaos at the firehouse, then must rescue his captain's daughter from a blaze her own father set deliberately to collect on the insurance.
The Fireman was the second of Chaplin’s twelve Mutual comedies, and its climactic rescue — Chaplin scaling a burning building to save Edna Purviance — set a template of death-defying stunt work mixed with slapstick that recurs throughout the series.
Background
The Fireman was the second of Chaplin’s twelve Mutual comedies, built around his character’s incompetent tenure at a fire station, where his bungling causes chaos until a real emergency forces him into genuine heroism. The film’s climax has Chaplin’s character scaling a burning building to rescue the fire captain’s daughter from a fire her own father set deliberately in order to collect on an insurance policy.
What to watch for
Watch for how the rescue sequence combines real physical danger with Chaplin’s usual slapstick timing, a template of death-defying stunt work mixed with comedy that recurs throughout the Mutual series and beyond. The film’s premise, mining comedy from an institution meant to be taken seriously, firefighting, is typical of how Chaplin often built his shorts around ordinary workplaces and professions rather than more exotic settings.
