Charlot #10: The Star Boarder

Whenever we went to new rooms, Charlie would ask the landlady, “Have you got a dark room, ma?”

Edith Scales, theatre costume mistress and Chaplin’s touring guardian in youth, quoted in Empire News, 1903

Charlie, as a resident of a boarding house, is the landlady’s favorite, to the chagrin of the other boarders as well as her husband. While the two enjoy a day together, her son snaps some photos that imply untowardness. The house later gathers to view the photos, and the meeting ends, how else, in a brawl.

Much of this took a second viewing to be inferred. The film has no titles either for dialog or to establish the roles of characters. Charlie as a boarder is self-evident, as is the landlady’s position. That the man is her husband is less clear, given not only the landlady’s favoritism towards Charlie but also her apparent openness to his flirtations.

Honestly, I found the film too low-energy to fully engage with. Even the melodramatic pastiche from last week had more zest. Shots of Chaplin playing tennis may carry some historical interest for the real sickos among us – Chaplin famously loved the sport – but the scene passes far too quickly for the actors to even attempt comedic experimentation. The layered inventiveness of the gags in, say, the boxing scene from City Lights is a long, long way in the future.

But we do seem to be watching some transformation taking place. In previous films the joke of the Tramp had been that he’s a rather repulsive creature, not someone you’d want hanging around. Now, largely I think by virtue of someone actually being receptive to his advances, he earns much more sympathy. Yes, he hogs all the treats in the house, but when the other tenants scorn him for being the landlady’s favorite we as viewers are on his side. While the tragic romantic figure of City Lights is also still a long way away, we can see the path that gets there.

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