Chase Me Charlie
Cast & Crew
Charles Chaplin
Charles Chaplin
Edna Purviance
Leo White
Eric Campbell
Ben Turpin
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
After Charlie, a poor orphan, rescues Edna Sugar-Plum from a hobo, Edna offers him a job on her father's farm. Charlie falls in love with the girl, but when he discovers that she already has a lover, he leaves the farm, brokenhearted. In the city, Charlie lands a job as a film actor but, plagued by memories of Edna, is soon fired. Later, he finds work as a plasterer and runs into Edna, who is on a visit from the country. Unable to win her heart, Charlie quits his job in despair, then meets her again by chance. Desperate and determined, Charlie finally succeeds in wooing Edna and convinces her to elope with him, but they are caught by Edna's father, who drags his daughter back to the farm. While employed as a janitor in a bank, Charlie saves Edna from a gang of robbers and at last convinces her grateful father to sanction their marriage.
Director
Charles Chaplin
Cast
Charles Chaplin
Edna Purviance
Leo White
Eric Campbell
Ben Turpin
Chester Conklin
Broncho Billy Anderson
Harry Brownlow
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
A compilation of many Essanay-Chaplin shorts, including The Tramp, By the Sea, The Bank, Shanghaied, A Night Out, In the Park, The Champion, The Woman, and His New Job, this film was first released in England in 1917 as a seven-reeler and was shown to British troops at the front. According to contemporary sources, Langford Reed wrote "jingles" for the film in verse and directed a scene in which two characters sing a song about Chaplin and another in which a reproduction of a letter from a British soldier thanking Essanay is seen. The additional footage and verse refer to places in Britain, and one modern source cites London as the setting for the story, although the original shorts were all set in the United States. One review includes a somewhat different plot. In the British version of the film, Charlie Chaplin's character name was Graham Douglas.
Various contemporary sources list different lengths for the film, some calling it a five-reeler, others a six-reeler. One contemporary source refers to the Leo White character as "The Count." Modern sources credit Langford Reed as both the director and the scenarist of the film and H. G. Doncaster as the editor. The plot of this compilation is somewhat similar to that of a 1916 Chaplin compilation, The Essanay-Chaplin Revue of 1916, although the earlier film includes excerpts from only three of the shorts.
The film was rereleased in 1948 under the title Chase Me Charlie. Essanay Manufacturing Co. registered the film for copyright that same year under the number LP1846. Citation Films rereleased the film under the same title in February 1960, with new narration by Teddy Bergman and a new musical score by the Elias Breeskin Orchestra.
