Tango Tangles (1914)

Directed by

Mack Sennett

Genre

comedy film, silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

12 min

Rated

NR

Rating

5.2 of 10 from 63 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A drunk man causes trouble in a dance hall as three men fight over a girl. The short film was shot without a script by letting the actors improvise.

slapstickchaoticfast-pacedplayfulwhimsicallightheartedfarceunscripted

What happens

Tango Tangles is a 1914 American silent comedy short film starring Charles Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle. The action takes place in a dance hall, with a drunken Chaplin, Ford Sterling, and the huge, menacing, and acrobatic Arbuckle fighting over a girl. The supporting cast also features Chester Conklin and Minta Durfee. The picture was written, directed and produced by Mack Sennett for Keystone Studios and distributed by Mutual Film Corporation. In Tango Tangles, Charlie Chaplin appears without makeup and his usual mustache, baggy pants, and oversized shoes. The film was shot at a dance hall without any sort of formal script. Mack Sennett, in his 1954 autobiography King of Comedy, said of the impromptu nature of Tango Tangles, "We took Chaplin, [Ford] Sterling, [Roscoe] Arbuckle and [Chester] Conklin to a dance hall, turned them loose, and pointed a camera at them. They made funny, and that was it." Tango Tangles marked the last time that Ford Sterling and Chaplin appeared in the same film. Sterling had decided to leave Keystone where he had gained most of his fame as the chief of the Keystone Cops. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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