User Reviews

At the peak of Charlie Chaplin's success, his 'Tramp' comedies were such solid money-makers that several other film companies churned out counterfeit Chaplin films, featuring actors (including at least one woman) who copied Chaplin's costume, makeup, and acting technique as closely as possible. One counterfeit, a Mexican who billed himself as Charlie Aplin(!), was sued out of business by Chaplin: the others were mostly too obscure to be worth bothering with.

By far the most successful fake Chaplin (both artistically and financially) was Billy West, whose attempts to copy Chaplin exactly were so conscientious that he even slept with his hair in curlers to duplicate Chaplin's naturally tousled appearance. (Ironically, West's black hair was genuine: Chaplin's hair was prematurely grey, and he had to colour it to play the Tramp.)

'The Rogue' isn't very funny, but it succeeds in being extremely Chaplinesque. Leo White, who played a European fop in some of Chaplin's Essanay films, plays a similar role here.

'The Rogue' casts West as the slavey in a boarding-house (not a very Chaplinesque role) overseen by a landlady who seems to be a cross between Alice Davenport and Marie Dressler, with a dash of Hattie Jacques. He crosses paths with a counterfeit count (White) and a stolen violin worth $20,000. (I have difficulty believing that ANY violin in 1918 was worth that much!)

For all his pains to duplicate Chaplin, West gets one detail wrong here, when he pantomimes a violin by using his left hand to play the bow. Chaplin, who was left-handed, famously played a violin with the chin rest and the sounding post reversed, and the strings restrung so he could bow it with his RIGHT hand. More positively, West is very Chaplinesque here in a gag where he pretends to faint ... so that a glass of brandy is fetched, which he quickly downs.

'The Rogue' largely LOOKS like a Chaplin film, even down to being filmed in Griffith Park, where Chaplin filmed some of his Keystone one-reelers. But this film isn't stylised enough to match Chaplin's universe. When a policeman arrives, he looks like a normal American constable ... not a Keystone Cop. At one point, a very realistic mouse shows up: Chaplin would have used a white mouse, as in 'The Circus'. The five tramps who rob the house in 'The Rogue' look painfully genuine: Chaplin would have cast actors dressed as variety-hall tramps.

Oliver Hardy -- pre-Laurel, pre-moustache, and billed as 'Babe' -- is on hand here, clearly meant to be a nemesis to West's tramp, equivalent to Mack Swain or Eric Campbell in Chaplin's films. But Hardy isn't up to the task, and has little else to do. Interestingly, Hardy is West's romantic rival for the leading lady's affections.

Reportedly, the real Chaplin -- in his civilian rig -- once happened to pass by a street where Billy West and his poverty-row crew were filming a 'tramp' picture. Chaplin stopped to watch the action, courteously waiting until a break in the filming. Then he went up to West and told him 'You're a damned good imitator, but that's all you are.' I'd put that as a good appraisal of West's career: a damned good imitation of Chaplin, but just an imitation. 'The Rogue' isn't funny in its own right, and is interesting only for West's skill as an impersonator, and for an early glimpse at Hardy. I'll rate 'The Rogue' 2 out of 10 for viewers who are aware that it's not a genuine Chaplin.