The Rink (1916)
A clumsy waiter sneaks off from his restaurant job to roller-skate at a rink, where his surprising grace on wheels collides with a love triangle and a jealous rival determined to send him crashing.
The Rink shows off skating skills Chaplin had honed as a boy in England, and the film’s second half — an extended chase conducted entirely on roller skates — is often singled out as one of the most physically precise sequences he ever staged.
Background
The Rink is another of the twelve shorts Chaplin made for Mutual, and it draws on his own childhood roller-skating skills, honed growing up in England well before his film career began. The plot is slight, a clumsy waiter sneaks away from his restaurant job to skate, and finds himself tangled in a love triangle, but it exists mainly as a frame for an extended sequence of skating-based physical comedy.
What to watch for
Watch for the film’s second half, an extended chase conducted almost entirely on roller skates, which is often singled out by critics and historians as one of the most physically precise and impressive sequences Chaplin ever staged. The control and grace he displays on skates, in contrast to his character’s usual clumsiness, is part of what makes the sequence so memorable, and it offers a clear demonstration of the real athletic skill underlying much of his slapstick comedy.
