His New Job

This fairly routine farce from Chaplin sees his tramp character apply for a job as a film extra with a talent agency, then subsequently cause havoc on the set. Throughout the film he has a running battle with cross-eyed foe Ben Turpin, who provided a foil Chaplin on a number of occasions during Chaplin's time at Essanay. The slapstick is mostly of the spitefully violent type so often provided by the tramp in his earlier incarnations. Odd, really, how lovable this character was considered when, in nine times out of ten, he initiated violent confrontations with unprovoked attacks on others. This is passable entertainment but is not one of Chaplin's best, and is noticeable only for the glimpse it gives us of the early days of film-making.

As soon as he signed on to a lucrative one-year contract with Essanay Studios late 1914, Charlie Chaplin traveled at once from the warmth of Southern California's Keystone Studios to his new digs in Chicago, where Essanay had its headquarters. Not only was the money better at Essanay, but the studio gave the young comedian more freedom and time for teh development of his movies.

Chaplin's first scenario he wrote and directed for Essanay was January 1915's "His New Job," a fictional embellishment paralleling his new position at Essanay. The opening scene shows Chaplin going into the film production studio office to interview for a job. Seen in her first movie role as an office secretary is 15-year-old Gloria Swanson, soon to be a huge film star. Also, in one of only a handful of movies he's teamed up with Chaplin during his Essanay days is janitor-turned-main comic for the studio, Benny Turpin. And new to Chaplin was his name appearing for the first time in the opening credits. Since Keystone kept his entire tramp wardrobe, Chaplin personally was force to shop around Chicago to buy duplicate clothing.

A rewarding start for Chaplin's year with Essanay.

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.

The first effort from his Essanay period after leaving Keystone, 'His New Job' is not one of his very best or even among the best of this particular period. It shows a noticeable step up in quality though from his Keystone period, where he was still evolving and in the infancy of his long career, from 1914, The Essanay period is something of Chaplin's adolescence period where his style had been found and starting to settle. Something that can be seen in the more than worthwhile 'His New Job'.

'His New Job' is not one of his all-time funniest or most memorable, other efforts also have more pathos and a balance of that and the comedy. The story is still a little flimsy, there are times where it struggles to sustain the short length, and could have had more variety.

On the other hand, 'His New Job' looks pretty good, not incredible but it was obvious that Chaplin was taking more time with his work and not churning out countless shorts in the same year of very variable success like he did with Keystone. Appreciate the importance of his Keystone period and there is some good stuff he did there, but the more mature and careful quality seen here and later on is obvious.

While not one of his funniest or original, 'His New Job' is still very entertaining with some clever, entertaining and well-timed slapstick and a sly satirical element. It moves quickly and there is no dullness in sight.

Chaplin directs more than competently, if not quite cinematic genius standard yet. He also, as usual, gives an amusing and expressive performance and at clear ease with the physicality of the role. The supporting cast acquit themselves well, including a cameo from Gloria Swanson.

In summary, well worth your time if not a Chaplin classic. 8/10 Bethany Cox

One of Charlie Chaplin's many comedic talents was a sly satirical steak. In naming his first short for Essanay studios "His New Job", Chaplin was having a subtle dig at his previous contract holders, Keystone. Many of Chaplin's Keystone pictures had been assigned titles like "His Recreation", "His Musical Career", "His Prehistoric Past" and so forth. "His New Job" is thus a big raspberry at Keystone and its naming system, and was of course the last "His…" title of Chaplin's career.

As he would in many of his Essanay shorts, Charlie emerges from the back of the set, before plodding his way into the foreground. Whereas most of the Keystone pictures were silly through and through – ridiculous situations, ridiculous characters – Chaplin's tack at Essanay is to begin with a normal setting, populated largely with serious characters (although there are one or two silly ones for him to play off) and then to have the tramp emerging from the background to create chaos within that environment. Most of the gags come from messing with the conventions of the setting, using and abusing its props, and pricking the pomposity of those serious characters. It all equals bigger laughs than, say, everybody accidentally walking off with each others wives then hitting each other over the head with mallets.

You can see how Chaplin's style as a director has developed since his earliest Keystone pictures as well. Chaplin's method is entirely based around one principle – that he is centre of attention. Even when he is not foreground and centre-screen, he still frames himself neatly to draw attention, like for example in the shot when the leading lady has come to sign her contract. Charlie has become a marginalized figure in the background, but he can still be fully seen and our eye is drawn to him. Another hallmark of Chaplin's style is these very long takes (as oppose to the frequent editing back and forth in Keystone pictures not directed by Chaplin), which allow him to draw out his comedy business and build up a series of gags. His New Job still features a lot of the Keystone-ish two-shot gags where someone is thrown or pushed off the screen, cutting to another shot of them falling over a few feet away.

Although he no longer had the collaboration of Mack Swain, Fatty Arbuckle or Mabel Normand, Chaplin was starting to put together his own team of regular supporting players. Most notable here is of course Ben Turpin, playing Charlie's rival. Turpin moves and pratfalls like a comedy star, and Chaplin would soon ditch him for being too good. Also worth noting are Charlotte Mineau, who went on to star in about a dozen Chaplin shorts, usually as a slightly older woman in whom Charlie has no interest, and Leo White, one of the funniest and littlest-known of Chaplin's character actors.

And there is another very important element here, one that would eventually be integral to Chaplin's later work – the mixing of comedy with poignancy. Towards the end of His New Job, the tramp plays a scene in which he begs the leading lady not to leave him. It is shot and acted exactly as if it were the finale of a romantic drama… right up until the point where Charlie blows his nose and wipes his eyes on the hem of her skirt. While it's only a little moment and has very little to do with the overall picture, it indicates a very important principle in Chaplin's style – that poignancy can enhance comedy and vice versa.

And finally, the all-important statistic –

Number of kicks up the arse: 4 (3 for, 1 against)

Besides being pretty good in itself, "His New Job" is also interesting in that it is a clear improvement over the previous features that Charlie Chaplin had made when he was with Keystone Studies. While the Keystone features were not bad, and often contained some excellent material, overall they generally gave the appearance of having been thrown together quickly, which often left a lot of unrealized potential in some of their ideas and themes. And, while these Essanay features themselves were usually not quite as good as his later Mutual features, they did give Chaplin a chance to perform quite a few kinds of material, and most of them are well worth seeing.

In this one, Charlie's character is competing with some other hopefuls who are trying to break into the movies. Ben Turpin and Charlie have quite a few scenes together, and although their scenes are primarily knockabout slapstick, they do work well as a team. The action takes place in several settings, and on average it is fairly creative in its use of the settings and props. Most of the gags come off all right, and overall the feature works pretty well.