User Reviews

At the peak of his career, Charlie Chaplin's films were so hugely popular (and profitable) that a whole legion of lesser film comedians were imitating him. A few comedians took the gambit of performing Chaplinesque antics while at least maintaining some originality of appearance. The best and best-known example of this was Harold Lloyd's screen character Lonesome Luke, who was specifically created as a Chaplin imitation that wouldn't LOOK a Chaplin imitation. Chaplin's tramp wore too-large clothes, and had a mustache that consisted of one little dot ... so Lloyd's character Lonesome Luke wore too-tight clothes, and had a mustache made of TWO little dots.

However, quite a few film comedians (including at least one woman), took the audacious step of blatantly impersonating Chaplin's tramp, turning out counterfeit 'Charlies' that looked much like the original, even if they were less imaginative. The most successful (and most talented) of the faux Chaplins was Billy West, who mimicked Chaplin so conscientiously that he even slept with his hair in curlers to more closely resemble the genuine article. Reportedly, Chaplin himself (who did NOT look like the Tramp offscreen) once chanced upon Billy West's crew while they were filming one of their fake Chaplin shorts. Chaplin watched his imitator, then told him: 'You're a damned good imitation, but that's all you are.'

Unlike several other fake Charlies, the Billy West films are quite funny, and so close to the genuine article in appearance that viewers can be forgiven for mistaking them for actual Chaplin shorts. Indeed, one of Billy West's supporting stooges in these films was Leo White, who had been second-banana in several Chaplin shorts at Mutual and First National. An easy way to spot a Billy West film is that his fake Chaplin movies often prominently feature Oliver Hardy: pre-Laurel, and without his mustache, but clearly recognisable. Hardy never worked with the real Chaplin (which helps establish these 'Tramp' movies as imitations), but in the Billy West movies Hardy fulfils the same function of heavy-set menace that was supplied in Chaplin's movies by Mack Swain and Eric Campbell.

'Cupid's Rival' stars Billy West as Chaplin's tramp character, working as the porter in a fleabag hotel. One of the boarders is Oliver Hardy, as a struggling artist whose penury has brought him beyond the brink of hunger. (Though you wouldn't know it from his waistline.) Ethel Burton is ostensibly Hardy's girlfriend, but a rival artist across the hall wants her to pose for him ... and we all know what *that* can lead to. The jealous Hardy disguises himself as a woman(!) to spy on Ethel. I'm not sure if you want to see Oliver Hardy in drag. Meanwhile, the counterfeit Little Tramp stirs up trouble for all, and the movie climaxes in a Mack Sennett-style chase (a device which the real Chaplin had long since abandoned at this point).

'Cupid's Rival' is so well done that it could pass as a real Chaplin short. The bad news is that, if this were a genuine Charlie, it would be one of Charlie's *least* funny short comedies: more on the level of 'Tango Tangles' than 'The Adventurer'. Still, it's a good example of Billy West's work, and Hardy's. I'll rate 'Cupid's Rival' 5 out of 10.

Considering that the review by R. Gwynplaine MacIntyre gives a lot of background material concerning Charlie Chaplin imitators, I won't bore you with much more information. Suffice to say that of all the Chaplin "imitators" (a nice way to say thieves), Billy West was one of the best because he managed to look almost exactly like Chaplin and he was a pretty good rough and tumble comic. But, as Mr. MacIntyre also points out, West's shorts usually were about on par with a bad Chaplin short. Now I have seen one or two examples of West's films where he actually was as good or possibly even better than the average Chaplin short--but this is certainly not one of them.

I should point out that this film is less a copy of a Chaplin short of the day than a copy of the type film Chaplin was making back in 1914 and 1915. By 1917, his style had definitely matured and is more like the Chaplin we think of today. In contrast, his 1914 and 1915 films were totally unscripted and often just degenerated to everyone kicking and hitting each other for cheap laughs. And, that is exactly what happens here--really, really cheap laughs through pure slapstick. This is the trifecta of slapstick, as there is kicking, slapping and the cliché of a guy wildly shooting off a gun at everyone.

The plot, thin as it is, finds Billy working at a hotel. There are a lot of gags involving a painter (Oliver Hardy) and the other guests at the hotel. Some work well (I loved the scene with Billy vacuuming as the model's sash gets caught in the machine) but most fall very, very flat (aside from the bonking and shooting, the painting bit worse thin very quickly).

Overall, a curiosity and not much more.

This comedy short, Cupid's Rival, was the next-to-last one featured on disc one of the "American Slapstick" DVD collection. In this one, Charlie Chaplin impersonator Billy West is a porter at a hotel who brings his boss, a successful painter, breakfast. Across the hall, another painter-a struggling one-is barely living on enough to eat. That painter is played by Babe Hardy who would later go professionally by his real name of Oliver Hardy of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team. Oh, and there's a girlfriend of Hardy's who causes jealousy when she poses for the other painter. Like many of Chaplin's shorts he made for Mack Sennett, West here causes lots of chaos-accidental or otherwise-and there's plenty of punches-missed or otherwise, and, oh, Babe dresses as a woman at one point to keep on eye on his girlfriend. That he actually looked pretty convincing as such made me laugh heartily during those scenes. Overall, Cupid's Rival was quite funny throughout thanks to both West and Hardy.