The Rounders

Chas. Chapman and the Fat Boy appear in this as a couple of genial jags. The humor is not of an offensive sort, though few performers can avoid this in such scenes. The angry wives follow them and they take to a boat in the lake, which is swamped in an amusing manner. - The Moving Picture World, September 19, 1914

It's fun to see Roscoe Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin together (plus a couple of brief appearances by Al St. John), although this movie as a whole is only mildly entertaining. Not that either of the stars disappoints, by any means, but the material limits them somewhat. It's also interesting, though, to see an earlier version of the extended, more carefully planned "drunk" acts that Chaplin did in features like "The Cure" and the excellent "One A.M."

The story is episodic, with the two stars as a couple of good-natured drunks who get into trouble with their wives and with plenty of others. Chaplin and Arbuckle could do that kind of material as well as anyone. Most of it is funny enough, although after a while it starts to run out of steam and seem a bit forced. There are a couple of good gags to go along with their drunk act, though other parts are fairly routine stuff. It's probably a little above average for its time, but it's not as imaginative as either Arbuckle's or Chaplin's best material.

The Rounders (1914)

*** (out of 4)

Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle show up separately at their homes where they take a beating from their wives. The two eventually bump into one another in more way than one and decide to go out together but of course the nagging wives follow. THE ROUNDERS is far from a classic movie and the truth is that's it's barely even a good one. With that said, it's impossible not to at least enjoy seeing the two comic legends working together and both of them delivering nice performances. As far as the comedy goes, it's very hit and miss because the majority of the times we're just getting the same gags over and over. The two drunks stumble around, knock things over and they each get hit a lot. This pretty much happens throughout the entire running time and their drunk level seems to change from one scene to the next. I still thought Chaplin and Arbuckle had some fine chemistry working together and this is show during the scenes where the two are trying to hold each other up and walk at the same time. This is certainly far from their best work but it's still worth watching.

Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle play two drunken gentlemen. They are neighbors and they return to disapproving wives.

It's a 16 minute short with two famous silent era stars. The concept is simple. It's easy fun. It's very basic. It may be better to get even more basic by staying in the hotel rooms. I would have liked the guys passing out in the hallway and the wives walk out on them.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

He did do better than 'The Rounders', still made very early on in his career where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'The Rounders' is a long way from a career high, but has a lot of nice things about it and is to me one of the better efforts in the 1914 Keystone batch.

'The Rounders' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and some other shorts in the same period. The episodic story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. Occasionally, things feel a little scrappy, occasionally repetitive and confused.

For someone who was still relatively new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'The Rounders' is not bad at all, pretty good actually.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable, with shades of his distinctive style here, and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. Fatty Arbuckle is also great and their chemistry carries 'The Rounders' to very entertaining effect.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'The Rounders' is still very amusing, cute and hard to dislike. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

To conclude, decent. 7/10 Bethany Cox