The Keystones

They are crude and primitive, especially when compared to the more refined First National productions, but some of Chaplin's Keystone shorts are significant as pioneer efforts from perhaps the most important figure in motion picture history.

His Trysting Place, Dough and Dynamite, The Rounders, and His Musical Career all come to mind.

I'm quite fond of a number of the Keystones, and would like to see them all carefully restored. They take some getting used to, but many of them are quite enjoyable once oone tunes in to the rhythm.

Connie K.

Almost every one has an embryonic Chaplin moment...a gag that he would later develop more fully or a gesture that would become a trademark. Would that the Library of Congress continue the fine work they began when they restored 'Gentleman of Nerve'. Perhaps the one most begging for restoration is 'Making a Living'. It's a crime that CC's debut exists only in a version without intertitles. One of film history's vexing little jokes. The next candidate would be 'Mabel's Strange Predicament', possibly shot a day or two *before* 'Kid's Auto Races'.

Rob Farr

Rob Farr & Kathy Lipp-Farr wrote:

Maybe I'm exposing my naivete by asking this question, but what would it take for this to happen? Who could be contacted?

Any possible restoration assumes that there are some original elements around. An inquiry to the Library of Congress as to whether 'Making a Living' exists in more complete form such as a paper print would be a good place to start. Sometimes a restoration is accomplished by an intrepid individual combing the world for prints and fragments and putting together the best pieces to form a definitive print. In the case of 'The Gold Rush', the Chaplin estate funded Brownlow and Gill. Doing the same for Chaplin's Keystones would be a very expensive academic labor of love, since the opportunities to recoup costs through commercial release are nil.

Rob Farr

You could start by getting in touch with AMC (American Movie Classic) the classic movie channel in a bid supporter of film preservation efforts, and not a few Chaplins have been thus preserved.