User Reviews

"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!!

Tramp's first appearance and... he's a punk. Fun and meta at first, at least in the way that it's a movie about movie-making at a time when that was a fresh idea, but wears out its welcome as it's a one-note gag. There's not really any of Chaplin's great comically timed physical gags, it's just him being an a-hole getting in the way of a camera crew as they try to get footage of cars racing by. I wish there was more to it as Chaplin clearly already owns the role, but there's none of the charm or innocence yet. Guess these things would take time to alter, though unlike, say, Mickey Mouse's early appearances (comparing to iconic comic figures of the early 20th century), being an ass doesn't suit the Tramp so well, at least not to this extent (if maybe he'd just interacted with another character or built upon something that'd be one thing).

... who don't even know that they are the cast. You could do this sort of thing back before there were too many lawyers and too many laws. This is the first time that Chaplin dons the "Little Tramp" persona with his bowler, cane, tight coat, and baggy pants, although it was his second film.

He merely gets in the way of the crowd and the cameramen trying to film said Kid Auto Races at Venice, actually the Junior Vanderbilt Cup race. There is no evidence this race was held prior to or after 1914. Some carts had engines, some did not.

The point is, all of these spectators and relatives are very interested in the outcome of the race, as are the cameramen trying to photograph the event. And this obnoxious fellow keeps stumbling into the street, blocking their view, getting into the line of sight of the cameras, and spectators and cameramen keep pushing him out only to have him stumble back into the street and in the way.

Eventually some of the spectators are actually watching this clown and laughing at him rather than being annoyed. That was the magic of Chaplin even from the beginning. Notice that there are some cops around and that they have no guns, even in a semi-urban setting like this. Also note that they don't interfere with Chaplin. Did the director let the cops in on the joke, maybe give them a few bucks to let them make their movie and then leave? Maybe.

When you watch this, understand that until just a short time before, movies were just "actualities" - the filming of ordinary events such as people going to and from work and the tearing down of a building. Just the year before Chaplin had been a performer in music halls. His relationship to motion pictures was brand new.

This was shot in February 1914, six months before WWI begins and three years before America enters that war. Not quite two years after the sinking of the Titanic, just to give some perspective.

Kid Auto Races at Venice is far from Chaplin's best moment on film, but it might be his most important. In an early combination of the reality short subjects that dominated early cinema, and fictional comedy, this short piece features Chaplin as a tramp who annoys several camera crews at a car race.

As the first appearance of Chaplin's Tramp character, this film's place in movie history is secure. As a comedy, it's mildly amusing. Obviously ad libbed, it has an amateurish quality that holds up surprisingly well. It also provides a few thrills as Chaplin is nearly hit by the vehicles several times -- I doubt any of the near-misses were scripted!

There is no denying that this short film is not an example of Chaplin's best work on film, but every serious Chaplin fan, or cinema historian, needs to see it at least once.

Kid Auto Races in Venice is historical in that it marks Charlie Chaplin's first appearance as The Tramp. In this short film, The Tramp is a spectator in a soap box derby race that is being filmed. Throughout the short, Charlie keeps getting in front of the camera and getting pushed off by either the cameraman or other spectators. In addition, he almost gets knocked off by some of the kid racers! Obviously not much to mention of the plot of this six minute short but for some reason I was constantly amused by Chaplin's constant wandering in and out of the path of where the race cars were going as well as the cameraman's attempts to get him out of the way. Worth a look for film history buffs and the easily amused.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

He did do better than 'Kid Auto Races at Venice', his directing debut and the short that introduced us to the iconic character The Tramp. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'Kid Auto Races at Venice' is a long way from a career high, but does have historical significance for obvious reasons.

'Kid Auto Races at Venice' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and a good deal of other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious.

For someone who was new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'Kid Auto Races at Venice' is not bad at all.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. The Tramp did become more likeable later but again he was still evolving.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'Kid Auto Races at Venice' is humorous, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

Overall, far from one of Chaplin's best but pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The cinema has been with us for so long it's now possible to watch films that are well over a hundred years old. 'Kid Auto Races at Venice' is one of those titles that are central to film history but like scores of others I've never got round to actually watching it until on a whim I just looked it up on YouTube.

A full century after it was dashed off in a morning it still looks as fresh as a daisy and remains a subject of awe that Chaplin's creation burst on the screen fully formed; and serves as a refreshing reminder of what a nasty piece of work he was before his creator developed aspirations to play Pagliacci.

If this hadn't been the Tramp's premiere, there'd be no sense in watching it. Very primitive comedy -- the whole film is a 7-minute shtick that consists of Chaplin standing in front of a cameraman who's trying to shoot an auto race. This is repeated for the length of the film.

Like most of Chaplin's first one and two-reelers, the comedy is almost completely obscured by the crudity of the film technique. As in most of the 1914 films, it's sometimes almost impossible to make out what's happening on screen, the technical side of things is so elementary. But it IS the tramps first appearance, so it will always have that claim on our attention.

In 1914 Charlie Chaplin debuted with the Mack Sennett shorts for Keystone. These shorts were made in rapid succession and while some are great, some are ok (like this one) and some are bad. Despite the results they were all released in theaters. These early shorts are pretty much like home videos (like the ones played on AMERICA'S FUNNIEST VIDEOS) with people that do stupid things and in the end they have pratfalls. His tramp character (that debuted here) was still evolving as he switched to Essenay studios a year later. He stopped this evolution process with his full-length movies in the 1920s.

In this short, as I said in the summary, there isn't much plot. The Keystone crew went on a kid auto race and they told Chaplin to just wander around and coming in and out of the track. The only thing that happens beside this is that he is sometimes punched by few adults for getting in the track. The only thing for which this short is important is because we have a first shot of Chaplin's most famous character.

There is some disagreement over whether or not this is really the first film in which Chaplin performed as the beloved Tramp, since apparently Mabel's Strange Predicament was filmed a month earlier (although released two days later), but the interest of the film as the first time that audiences saw his famous character, as well as the fact that he was clearly still learning about it himself, remains clear. This was long before the times of screenplays and film scripts, and it is clear from watching the film that it is completely ad-libbed, but what is also clear is not only the talent but also the symbolism and the foreshadowing of Chaplin's later career, which Chaplin could not even have known he was doing himself.

A lot of people have made the mistake of judging this film based on the quality of Chaplin's later work, which is ridiculous not only because the film was made during such an embryonic period of film history, but also because less than a half a year before it was made, Chaplin was acting on stage in England and knew absolutely nothing about film-making. Only a few years before this film was made, a film that depicted a group of people simply walking past the camera or people jumping into a lake was considered successful. The very thought of a "moving picture" had itself not lost its sense of being a novelty, so this film, if anything, was ahead of its time.

What is also worth noting is that, in the world's first look at Chaplin's most famous character, we get such a clear sense of his love of the crowd and his desire to be in front of the camera. It is very important when watching these early films to keep in mind the historical context in which they were made, and not only the films made by Chaplin but from anyone else who was making them during this period. This is the very beginning of film-making in Los Angeles, a rare look at one of the cinema's biggest talents literally learning his talent on camera in a young Hollywood. To write the film off because of simple comedy or time-damaged quality is absurd.

First of all, I am immediately fascinated by the film because of the fact that it was filmed in Venice, California, where I lived until about two months ago. Nothing is recognizable, since it was filmed 90 years ago and most of the setting is covered by crowds of people, but it should also be noted that Chaplin is literally trying on the costume which would soon make him one of the most famous people in the world, and in this six-minute comedy he is wandering around in a film learning his own act. That people today immediately demand high-budget quality from a film like this is ludicrous, to say the least.

It's also interesting to consider the fact that, while the film is very, very simple and the improvised comedy is not complex in any way, it is also very real and fits perfectly as an introduction to Chaplin as an actor and the Tramp as an everyday character. Watch any live, on-location news broadcast today and look at what any jerk standing behind the camera is trying to do, and the realism of some guy at the auto races, the Tramp, wandering in front of the camera and mugging makes even more sense. It's also interesting to see the people in the background, curious about this new film thing, obviously staring directly at the camera and watching the filming.

Chaplin, as he did in Making A Living, his first film, plays a bit of an unlikable character, but only unlikable as compared to what the Tramp would later become. He was a cheat and a swindler in Making A Living, while here he is just an annoying passer-by who won't go away. The film is book-ended by odd clippings of a note to "his best girl," and it is unclear why he "made tracks for the track," but for whatever reason, he was there and made it his mission to be in front of the camera of an increasingly irritated cameraman as much as possible.

The cameraman that Charlie is constantly blocking is played by Henry Lehrman, who directed the first few of Chaplin's comedies and with whom Chaplin never had a very positive relationship, either on screen or off. So many people are immediately put off by the technical crudity or stylistic simplicity or physical decay of films like this, but I think that they are even more fascinating for reasons like this. Filmed more than 90 years ago, it is still a clear look at Chaplin's budding career, both on and off the screen.

Only a few months later, he would begin directing his own films and his nearly unmatched career in film-making would be launched. Anyone with even a mild interest in film history or silent films should not miss this one, as it is a major landmark in cinematic history and the career of one of its biggest stars. For those of you that demand complex plots and polished film-making, maybe you should stick to watching modern film.

Charles Chaplin in his second appearance in film, which is also the debut of his famous character the Tramp. One can easily guess that the aforementioned character was not as defined in attitude yet at that time, since in this he is portrayed as a more irritant "intruder" who constantly interrupts the filming of a kids car race, much to the anger of the cameraman/director (played by Henry Lehrman, obviously).

While many may find the film a bit repetitive or a one-joke situation stretched to 6 minutes or more, Charles shows that he can carry a film, giving his best on his performance.

Regarding the technical aspects, I found it curious how Lehrman used the cameras to first show the interrupted race from the point of view of a main camera, then using another one to show the intrusive tramp who gets in the middle of the "main filming".

For any Chaplin enthusiast, this is a must see.

Seems like a lot of the reviewers are comparing this movie to Chaplin's later films, or complaining because there is no story. It's a 10 minute short of a guy being obnoxious and pissing people off. I laughed!!

English stage pantomimist Charlie Chaplin, who had just signed a year's contract with Keystone Studios, was disappointed in his movie debut. He was told by studio head Mack Sennett to improve his screen presence or he would break his contract. On a rainy afternoon waiting to rehearse for his next movie, February 1914's "Mabel's Strange Predicament," Chaplin spied on several costumes hanging and laying around in the Keystone dressing room. He began trying on several pieces of clothing, including a small bowler hat, a tight-fitting jacket, baggy pants, oversized shoes, and a fake mustache to make him look older than his youthful 24-year-old face.

His role in "Mabel's" was to play a vagabond drunk hanging out in a hotel lobby. Recalling vaudeville tramps who appeared on the English stage such as Lew Bloom, Chaplin admitted he drew inspiration from the British comic magazine's two tramp characters as well.

For "Mabel's Strange Predicament," actress Mabel Normand assumed directing duties while Sennett looked over her shoulder examining on set Chaplin's performance. The studio head couldn't have been as critical of Chaplin's screen presence as he was after his initial film since the new actor, upon reviews from the press, drew accolades such as "we do not think we are taking a great risk in prophesying that in six months Chaplin will rank as one of the most popular screen performers in the world."

The public's first view of Chaplin's vagabond role appeared a few days earlier from "Mabel's" premier when his "Kid Auto Races In Venice" was shown, even though the later was filmed shortly after "Mabel's." Since the editing was minimal in "Kid Auto," Keystone Studio was able to release it before the more involved "Mabel's." Shot during Venice, California's Junior Vanderbilt Cup races, "Kid Auto" was filmed within a 45-minute period where Chaplin is seen hogging a camera's view intending to record the sporting event. Henry Lehrman, who directed the one-reeler, plays the cameraman who physically attempts to get Chaplin out of the way. Like a Monty Python skit, the Keystone Studio camera is recording another movie camera and operator recording an event, likely the first movie in cinema to do so.

Chaplin also drew praise in his role as a tramp wanting attention in "Kid Auto." As one movie reviewer wrote, "Chaplin is a born screen comedian; he does things we have never seen done on the screen before."

Chaplin's tramp character would evolve through the many years the actor assumed his character. From "Mabel's Strange Predicament" initial drunken role to a caring but down-on-his-luck everyman during the Depression Era, Chaplin's on-screen personality would personify what many had experienced during those trying times. Chaplin portrayed the tramp in 25 of his 36 films he made for Keystone during his first year, and he continued to do so through his next 30 years on the screen.

This was the film which introduced Charlie Chaplin's Tramp character to the world and, while by today's standards it isn't particularly entertaining, given the quality of the competition at that time it's easy to understand why Chaplin (and the tramp) became popular so quickly.

Back in the early days of cinema the studios cranked out films at an incredible rate just to keep up with demand, and it's understandable that much of what was produced was well below standard. A director, a cameraman and two or three actors would wander the streets looking for suitable locations, and then, when they found somewhere, just make stuff up and hope it was funny.

Most of the time it was pretty lame, but Chaplin here at least shows a modicum of talent and originality as he lampoons the average man's propensity to abandon his dignity and self-respect if it means he can stand in front of a movie camera for a few seconds. It still goes on today - just check out the witless oafs who crouch slightly in the background and wave their arms while grinning inanely while a news reporter delivers his TV bulletin on the streets - and it at least shows a level of observation lacking from most movies of its day. The joke lasts too long - even Chaplin can't wring six-minutes worth of laughs out of such a simple concept - but it's still fairly interesting to watch.

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' was the first time Charles Chaplin put on his iconic costume to entertain the moviegoers. The film lacks a big plot, elaborate stunts, and tricks. But the simplicity of the gags is the main magic of this movie. Charles Chaplin, although an experienced stage performer, was only in the very beginning of the long road on the discovering the artist he truly is.

'Kid Auto Races at Venice' is an interesting movie for a couple of other reasons than just being the Tramp's first on-screen appearance (well, 'Mabel's Strange Predicament' was filmed before, but this one was released first). We can see how the camera operator of that time worked. The movie was filmed at a real racing event, so we get to see how auto races were held at that time. This movie holds quite a high documental value.

A simple movie, that is quite cleverly constructed. There might not be some big profound meaning in this, but it is a mildly entertaining affair which even offers two or three laugh bursts (at least it did it for me).

Keystone and Max Sennett liked to improvise stories as they went along. He was the first guerrilla filmmaker (to use a phrase that was popular in the 1960's).

Henry Pathe Lehrman was assigned to direct Chaplin after Sennett hired him. As we know they did not get along. Lehrman was perhaps understandably jealous. Chaplin had been hired to replace Ford Sterling as Keystone's lead comic. Lehrman probably thought that he should get a shot as he had been working with Sennett for some four years, with over 50 films to his acting credits and some 35 to his director credits, and Chaplin was a vaudevillian who had not made a film before.

One can see this film as a kind of test for Chaplin. Given just an event for the background, could Chaplin come up with a film story on the spur of the moment. It was almost an intelligence test, like putting a new rat in a maze to see if it can find the cheese. Only in this case, the rat breaks all the records for finding the cheese. Chaplin passes the test with flying colors.

Chaplin holds to a single idea or theme and just repeats and elaborates on it, like a Baroque musical work by Bach. Chaplin is just a by-stander at the event who becomes fascinated by the documentary camera filming the event. He wants to be in the movies and so he stands in front of the camera and preens himself like a peacock. The bystander imagines that he can become a movie star simply by stepping in front of the camera. One can almost hear director Lehrman telling Chaplin, "You think it is so easy to become a movie star? You think you can just step in front of a camera and become a star? Do it. I dare you." Chaplin takes the dare and is absolutely hilarious as he drives the story director played by the real director Lehrman crazy.

There is no story here. This is minimalist guerrilla cinema. Chaplin stands in front of the camera, Chaplin walks in front of the camera, Chaplin runs in front of the camera and Chaplin tosses his hat in front of the camera and retrieves it. This is not a plotted story, it is just the camera finding, discovering and falling in love with Chaplin.

Lehrman should get a great deal of credit for this movie as well as Chaplin. He allows his real anger at Chaplin to be displayed for all the world to see. The greatest joke is that we, the audience, don't understand that the anger is real, barely disguised in the spontaneous plot.

Watching the behavior of the crowds, the kiddie race cars and the cameraman cranking the camera are bonus treat here. It just adds to fun of Chaplin boldly announcing his presence in the world of cinema.

The last shot is a close-up of Chaplin making a funny face at the camera. It is a shocking close-up that rivals the last shot of "The Great Train Robbery." Instead of a gun going off, we have Chaplin making a funny face a few inches from the camera lens and having his nose squeezed. It is a great shot that only lasts a moment, but leaves us wanting more.

This is not so much a film as a record of the descent of the Great God Pan to Earth. No funnier or happier footage has been shot in the 100 years since.

When I was young I got this one with another feature on 200 feet of 8MM film. It was a Black Hawk silent which was with A Busy Day. While this is considered the first release to introduce the tramp to movies, it is such a short film that there is very little to look at- it might be 5 minutes long.

As this was Charlie before he was actually writing & producing his own films, there is quite a difference in this Mutual compared with later his later films when he takes control behind the camera as well as in front. This was almost certainly shot in one day at the soap box derby races in California.

History is important and this one is readily available to see as most of Chapins films were preserved. He is one of the earliest stars to have a full film record of is career available so historians can study his career better than most actors and directors.