Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)
The Tramp interferes with the celebration of several kid auto races in Venice, California (Junior Vanderbilt Cup Race, January 10 and 11, 1914), standing himself in the way of the cameraman who is filming the event.
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Wow! Such a good movie.
Perfect cast and a good story
People are voting emotionally.
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
To what others have said about this short's historical importance, I'll just add that the movie is also very funny. The Tramp's seriousness, curiosity, and vanity make this weird prank of a short charming and silly.The movie also drips with cool period atmosphere. I wish more of the Keystone shorts had used this guerilla-shooting-at-real-events approach.
Although the gag gets tedious, I found myself giggling quite a bit at this short, credited as the first appearance of Chaplin's Tramp. There is an auto race at the track, and a crowd is gathered, as are cameramen to document the event for the newsreels. A man become curious about the cameras and begins hamming it up for them. We see this even now when people make fools of themselves for the news cameras, so it is a timeless gag.Chaplin went on to be one of the most influential film makers of all time, a true genius on the screen and this is our first glimpse at the character the world came to love.
Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) ** (out of 4) This is a historically important film but it's not a very good one. For the first time we see Charles Chaplin in his Tramp outfit as he causes trouble at a race. There really aren't any laughs in the film but again, it remains interesting because we see Chaplin working out his routine.Even though the film isn't that good it's still historically important for Chaplin.Various public domain companies have released the film but for the best quality you should track down the Image release.
"Kids Auto Races At Venice" (1914, Lehrman) This film marks the second film Charlie acted in and the first time we would see the famous 'tramp' character. It's six minutes of Charlie at a racing cart/box/derby race thing walking onto the racing track and in front of the cameraman. He is constantly shoved or knocked out of the picture. It's neat that the film gives us the 'camera' eye as well as a couple of other points of view. So we get to see Charlie intentionally blocking the camera and getting manhandled for it repeatedly. Charlie is like a fly that won't shoo. But, alas, six minutes of one routine is a bit much. And yet, this film is as much a part of our film history as any other 'important' picture. It's 1914 dudes!!