Tango Tangles (Chaplin / Sterling 1914)

Sterling again, though without the goatee, and the gulf betwen him and Chaplin and Arbuckle is certainly... notable. Fatty has by far the lesser role of the three of them here, but it's still nice having him around. The three comedians are rivals for a hat-check girl's affections at the local dance hall. Fatty and Sterling are musicians, Charlie is a suave drunk. There's no nore to it than that, but it's different enough to be very watchable.
Chaplin is the very model of subtlety, understatement and poise- he is without his moustache here, and he just looks like he did in all those old newsreel films: young, fresh, innocent and English, with a hell of a head of hair and wildly excited eyes. He has a couple of fight scenes with Sterling and here at least the great gesticulator is... good. Sterling takes a good fall, a spinning eye-catching collapse and back up again. The fight scenes momentarily becomes dances themselves. But wherever he is and whatever he is doing, you can't help watching Chaplin. We are watching him with hindsight of course because of what he became, but even if you're judging him on what he is, you're watching someone who shouldn't have been allowed to fill the same screen as Ford Sterling. He is so clearly putting the older comedian to shame with every movement he makes.

A Muddy Romance (Normand 1913)

There's so much talking in some of these Keystone shorts- do lip-readers ever have a go at transcribing the dialogue? Whatever your thoughts about Mabel, this is pretty shoddy stuff. It has a certain reputation (in as much as any pre-1920 non-Chaplin film has any reputation at all these days) due to the spontaneous manner in which it was filmed and the advantageous use it made of the draining of a lake, but to be frank the lake scenes aren't any funnier than anything else in it.
And I don't like Sterling much. He over-acts and seems to be known for it, but I hate all the playing to the camera, the exaggerated protestations. He's a pantomime character, and this sort of schtick is almost unwatchable now- the look he had is a distinctive one but he's one of the most irritating silent comedians I've come across so far. Maybe he'll grow on me; it's not impossible.
Two rivals for Mabel's affections then, engaging in a tit-for-tat throwing contest, which somehow ends in an elopement to the lake with the Kops in attendance. There aren't really any saving graces to this one.

That Little Band Of Gold (Arbuckle / Normand 1915)

Arbuckle- how do we refer to him these days? Bear with me, my knowledge in these matters still aint great. Roscoe or Fatty- which is it to be? My heart says Roscoe, but damnit all he made his money as Fatty and he never seemed to have a problem with it (correct me, please correct me, if I'm wrong...) So Fatty, for now, it is. The only films of his I'd seen before this one were a batch of the Keaton shorts, and this I don't think is quite in that class. But that's ok, that's no great shame, I loved those films- 'That Little Band of Gold' doesn't need to be feeling too inadequate. And this is my first glimpse of Mabel Normand (second glimpse shortly to follow (now read on dot dot dot)). And she's eye-catching. She's not exactly forgotten these days, but people, the general public, just know her as a name now don't they? How many people out of a hundred would recognize her picture, let alone be able to name one of her films?
This is a bright two-reeler of romantic entanglements and lazy diversions. Arbuckle (that's Fatty to you, my friend) and Normand are newly married, but he has a wandering eye and enjoys a decadent life, and he soon begins to stray. Ford Sterling is the over-acting friend / rival whose paramour he takes up with. There is a long opera house scene which, despite offering no amusing moments whatsoever, is culturally fascinating- our band of heroes seem to have been plunked down in the middle of a genuine opera audience and so we end up with our own little slice of cinéma vérité. It's fun to watch their get-up and reactions.
Fatty is the antithesis of Chaplin here- was this a standard character for him? Rich and pampered, he lives in a mansion surrounded by servants, and he lives in his own moral vacuum, existing for his own hedonistic pleasures alone. Sure he ends up with Mabel again at the film's conclusion, but how many people are buying that as a long-term commitment? Jeremy Kyle surely beckons a few months down the line. We never learn what it is that allows him to live this extravagant lifestyle either. The film's highlight, probably the only moment (for all Arbuckle and Normand's genuine charisma and chemistry) that you'd want to revisit, is a scene of first-rate clowning with Fatty and his new wife's scandalized mother.