n 1916, two years after entering the movie industry, 27-year-old Charles Chaplin took his talents to Mutual Film Corporation after successful associations with Keystone and Essanay. Chaplin's $670,000 contract with Mutual to produce a series of 12 short movies made him the highest-paid entertainer of his time. The contract allowed him complete artistic control over the shorts, which he also wrote (or co-wrote) and directed. In his biography almost 50 years later, Chaplin would recall his 16 months at Mutual as the happiest period of his career.

Chaplin's extraordinary abilities were in full flower during the Mutual period, which produced some of his most imaginative comic gems in his "golden dozen" Mutual shorts. About this period in the great comic's career, film historian Ephraim Katz wrote: "Chaplin proved himself an inimitable pantomimist capable of moving his audiences from laughter to tears with a subtle gesture or a bold sweep of movement, as graceful as a ballet dancer." The following films all were released by Mutual in 1916.

The Floorwalker, the first film under Chaplin's contract with Mutual, takes his "Little Tramp" character to a department store, where he causes havoc while his look-alike, the store inspector, knocks out the manager and robs the safe. Further comic complications arise as the manager mistakes Charlie for the crook and the two set out on a madcap chase about the store, most memorably up and down its escalator. Chaplin was inspired to create the movie when he saw a real-life accident in New York City in which an unfortunate pedestrian slipped and skidded down an escalator to an elevated station, causing a crowd of onlookers to burst into laughter. Among the memorable gags in The Floorwalker is the "mirror routine" by Charlie and his look-alike that would be copied by the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup (1933).

Producer/Director: Charles Chaplin
Screenplay: Charles Chaplin, Vincent Bryan
Cinematography: William C. Foster, Roland Totheroh, Frank D. Williams
Principal Cast: Charles Chaplin (Tramp), Eric Campbell (Store Manager), Edna Purviance (The Manager's Secretary), Lloyd Bacon (Assistant Manager).

One A.M. , Chaplin's fourth film for Mutual, is a solo performance that becomes a tour de force with Chaplin demonstrating his classic drunk routine as an inebriated man returns home in the wee hours and does battle with the furniture and other inanimate objects in his home. (The only other character in the movie is the taxi driver who has driven him home.) In this one Charlie abandons the Little Tramp costume in favor of elegant formal wear, including a top hat and opera cloak. Chaplin biographer David Robinson wrote that "Surviving outtakes from the film reveal Chaplin's pains to perfect some tiny and apparently simple pieces of business like a slide on a slithery mat, and how many failures were sometimes necessary to achieve the perfect take."

Producer/Director/Screenplay: Charles Chaplin
Cinematography: Roland Totheroh
Principal Cast: Charles Chaplin (Drunk), Albert Austin (Taxi Driver).

Possibly the richest in comic invention of all Chaplin's films is The Pawnshop, his sixth film for Mutual. Charlie plays an assistant in a pawnshop run by portly Henry Bergman (in his first of many Chaplin films). In between battles with a rival employee (John Rand) and flirtations with the pawnbroker's pretty daughter (Edna Purviance, Chaplin's leading lady in many of his silent films), Charlie engages a series of customers in routines that showcase the comedian's inimitable flair for handling props and creating hilarious sight gags. The film's highlight is a lengthy sequence in which Charlie examines and "repairs" (i.e., destroys) an alarm clock brought in by a customer.

Producer/Director: Charles Chaplin
Cinematography: William C. Foster, Roland Totheroh
Principal Cast: Charles Chaplin (Pawnshop Assistant), Henry Bergman (Pawnbroker), Edna Purviance (His Daughter), John Rand (Pawnshop Assistant), Albert Austin (Client with Clock), Wesley Ruggles (Client with Ring).

The Rink, the eighth entry in Chaplin's Mutual series, was developed from a stage routine Chaplin had performed as part of the Fred Karno troupe and showcases his formidable roller-skating skills. Charlie is a waiter who can tell what a customer ate for dinner by checking food stains on his lapels. Away from the job he cuts quite a figure at the local skating rink, impressing a pretty socialite (Edna Purviance) who invites him to an elegant party where Charlie creates pandemonium after running into his oversized nemesis, Eric Campbell.

Producer/Director/Screenplay: Charles Chaplin
Cinematography: Roland Totheroh
Principal Cast: Charles Chaplin (Waiter Posing as Sir Cecil Seltzer), Edna Purviance (The Girl), James T. Kelley (Her Father), Eric Campbell (Mr. Stout), Henry Bergman (Mrs. Stout and Angry Diner), Lloyd Bacon (Guest).

The total length of the entire program is 96m.

by Roger Fristoe