mymangodfrey During his year at Keystone, when he rose from "anonymous vaudevillian" to "America's most beloved movie star" ("world's most beloved movie star" would take another year), Chaplin bridled against the improvised-boxing-and-frantic-running style of comedy that Mack Sennett pioneered.When it worked, this improvisational style could be joyful and amusing. When it didn't, the movies seemed lazily constructed, empty and chaotic. Tango Tangles, despite its historical interest (one of few shorts showing a young and very handsome Chaplin out of his Tramp getup), and despite the always-welcome presence of Fatty Arbuckle, is one of the shapeless failures.There's no movie here: just a bunch of great silent comedy stars goofing around, and not in an inspired way.

Jay Raskin This is apparently Chaplin's 7th film at Keystone. Chaplin came to Keystone in January. His first film, "Making a Living" was released on February 2nd and this was released five weeks later on March 9th. Welcome to Mack Sennett's "Fun Factory," Charlie. Was Chaplin surprised to learn that Sennett really did run it like a factory, producing comedy by the foot and reel?What is interesting is the diversity of these early films. Chaplin is not yet "The Little Tramp" by a long shot. In fact he plays many different roles at the start of his career, he has already played a hustler type (Making a Living) and cop ("A Thief Catcher), a man obsessed with being in the movies ("Kid Auto races" and "a Film Johnie") and a drunk ("Mabel's Strange Predicament"). He wasn't a star at this point. He played second fiddle to Mable Normand in "Mabel's Strange Predicament," and second fiddle to Ford Sterling in Between Showers." He is back at playing second fiddle to Ford Sterling again in this film. He is also back to playing a drunk. This time in his real clothes and without the mustache.While we have the release dates for the films, we cannot be sure of the shooting order. If the shooting order matches the release order, it seems apparent that Sennett was not at all sure that Chaplin could be a movie star and was preparing him to play supporting roles as another Keystone ensemble player.Sennett liked to shoot on locations where interesting things were happening. He literally drove his actors to events and had them improvise stories on the spot. This is Chaplin's second improvised film after "Kid Auto Races." What is interesting here is how well he improvises with Ford Sterling. They really look like a great comedy team together. Seeing this film along with "Between Showers" would convince anyone that they had a great chemistry and timing between them. They seemed to have been working together for years rather then he just starting weeks before."Tango, Tangled" looked like director Mack Sennett just set up his cameras in front of a dance contest floor and told his three leads, Chaplin, Sterling and Arbuckle to be funny. The amazing thing is that they manage to make-up a film out of thin air and it is funny.

CitizenCaine In his sixth film, Chaplin plays a music hall rival with Fatty Arbuckle and Ford Sterling. The appears to be a real dance in one scene and it would have been great to hear the actual music from the era. Instead, we get the droning soundtrack which stops and starts again several times through the film without any correlation to the scene occurring. Fatty Arbuckle moves well for a 300 pound man, although he was relatively young at the time. Ford Sterling wins out in the end and we somehow wonder whether or not Chaplin was being used properly at the time. In these early films he bounces back and forth between playing heels and troublemakers, as in this film, and a rough version of the tramp. The film is full of stock exaggerated character mannerisms for the period. ** of 4 stars.

MartinHafer This is a film from Chaplin's first year in films. During this VERY hectic year, he churned out film after film after film for Keystone Studios and the quality of the films are, in general, quite poor. That's because the character of "the Little Tramp" was far from perfected and the films really had no script--just the barest of story ideas. While some Chaplin lovers might think this is sacrilege, all these movies I have seen are pretty lousy. Yes, there are some cute slapstick moments but barely any plot--absolutely NOTHING like the Chaplin we all came to love in his full-length films of the 20s and 30s.As stated above, Charlie does not sport his usual mustache. The movie is about jealousy and consists of lots of people pushing and punching each other--that's pretty much it!