Essanay and Mutual 1980s–2000s Restorations
- For many years the Little Tramp’s mid-1910s films were inaccessible and languished in poor condition
- In the 1980s, film preservationist David Shepard fully restored them for the first time
- They continued to be reworked and improved over the next two decades
- Resulting in many unique and interesting versions for collectors
This is part of a series covering Chaplin’s life and career. If you’ve landed directly on this page, I strongly recommend you start from the Part 1 introduction.
US poster
Contents
- 1995 Essanay and Mutual restorations
- 2003 Mutual restorations
- 2006 Mutual restorations
- 1992 Police restoration
- Essanays and Mutuals in print
- Related articles
1995 Essanay and Mutual restorations
Like Chaplin’s Keystones, his Essanay and, to a lesser extent, Mutual shorts had a tortuous release and edit history from their theatrical début until well into the age of home video. But film preservationist David Shepard of Blackhawk Films had overseen the best quality releases for years, improving their quality incrementally. Finally, with the culmination of work begun in the early 1970s, his newly restored and Michael Mortilla-scored Essanays made their digital début via the two-volume Chaplin Lost and Found: Essanay LaserDiscs (1988). Although the shorts had been handled by several stateside home video labels prior to this, Image Entertainment would now distribute all domestic releases for the next couple of decades.
The following year, to commemorate Chaplin’s centenary, Shepard performed additional work on Blackhawk’s Van Beuren Mutuals and again commissioned custom ‘orchestral’ synthesizer scores from Mortilla. The fruits of their labours were released as The Chaplin Mutuals LaserDisc set (1991).
In 1995, Shepard extensively overhauled and remastered the Mutuals, for which Michael Mortilla expanded on and re-recorded his previous scores; these versions were initially issued on US LaserDisc (1995). In 1998, Shepard revamped the Essanays and supplied them with either a piano score by Eric James (1913–2006) or orchestral score by Robert Israel. Both sets of restorations were then issued on six US region 0/NTSC DVDs, and on VHS.
The DVDs were then collected into a box set, Short Comedy Classics: The Complete Restored Essanay & Mutual Collection, with a seventh disc featuring a great documentary, Chaplin’s Goliath: In Search of Scotland’s Forgotten Star (1996, 52min). It focuses on the too-short life of Eric Campbell (1880–1917), who played opposite Chaplin as the heavy throughout his Mutual period.
Throughout all of his restorations up to this point, Shepard chose to sequence the Mutuals as three continuous, non-chronological programmes titled the Charlie Chaplin Festival, Carnival and Cavalcade respectively, as per their 1938 Van Bueren reissues. These latest versions were subsequently issued in all other countries, although the UK initially skipped the Mutuals:
- US: Image DVD Essanays 1, 2, 3 (1999) and Mutuals 1, 2, 3 (1997), also in 7-DVD set
- UK: BFI DVD Essanays Vol 1 and Vol 2 (2003)
- Germany: Icestorm/EuroArts DVD Essanays 1–3 and Mutuals 4–6 (2003), also in 6-DVD set
- France: Arte Vidéo DVD Essanays 1–3 and Mutuals 4–6 (2000), also in 6-DVD set
- Spain: Divisa 4-DVD set (2007, reissued 2013)
- Benelux: Living Colour 6-DVD set (2007)
German DVD set. This is a 6-disc fold-out Digipak enclosed in a slipcase; the identical French and Dutch sets above were also issued in very similar packaging.
The US DVDs are generally excellent and though lacking in extras have the best audio and video overall, and will play anywhere. Meanwhile, all the rest mark a rare lapse in quality for their usually assiduous labels, being somewhat compromised with unconverted NTSC-PAL transfers. The UK Essanays are further hindered by having their stereo soundtracks folded down to mono; their only extras are onscreen text notes and image galleries, and a four-page booklet.
The French, German and Dutch discs are identical, with French and German subtitles, as well as English for their bonus 39-minute French-language Chaplin documentary. The Spanish DVDs almost mirror them but with Spanish and Portuguese subtitles instead. They round out the extras by adding an associated short on each disc. All four sets are long-deleted and expensive bar the French which is still cheap almost everywhere, making it the second best choice overall for this batch.
Of the main West European countries, Italy is conspicuous by its absence in the above line-up. That’s because our old friends Ermitage pirated these versions, with forced Italian subs and ersatz scores, along with similar treatment from some outfit called Azzurra Music. Both sets of DVDs effectively killed the demand for legit releases there until quite recently. Well done.
French Arte Éditions DVD box set
Some of these versions have also appeared elsewhere:
A 9-minute chunk of The Champion (1915) is on Criterion’s 2013 BD and DVD of City Lights (1931), as it foreshadows the latter film’s famed boxing scene – encoded in 1080i HD on BD
A Burlesque on Carmen (1915) is an extra on a DVD featuring the film it spoofed, Carmen (1915), and The Cheat (1915) (Image 2001, Flicker Alley reissue 2015).
The Rink is in the 5-DVD Slapstick Encyclopedia (Image 2002, reissued 2012) – also includes unique Chaplin Keystones, as noted previously
Easy Street with the same transfer but some new and rearranged intertitles, and a new score by the Alloy Orchestra, is featured on the Slapstick Masters DVD (Image 2003, reissued 2012)
Two of the Essanays and six Mutuals are extras on the French iterations of David Shepard’s Association Chaplin-sanctioned DVDs (GCTHV 2000/Opening 2001)
2003 Mutual restorations
In the UK, Shepard’s 1995 restorations had some missing snippets added by film historian Kevin Brownlow from BFI Archive materials, then were given new orchestral scores by Carl Davis, with re-recorded highlights released on a couple of CDs. On the subsequent BFI DVDs, the audio is uniquely in both 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround but is reprised in 2.0 stereo on more recently restored releases like those below and in Part 6. For the first time, the restored films are presented separately and in chronological order – as they have been ever since – although due to a mix-up the first six are on Volume 2 and the second six on Volume 1. These also have NTSC-PAL transfers and similar extras to the UK Essanay discs.
- UK: BFI DVD Mutuals Vol 1 and Vol 2 (2003/2005)
- Silva Screen 2-CD Chaplin: The Essential Film Music Collection (2006, 77min) sleeve: front/rear; disc 2 reissue:
- Threefold CD/MP3 Loitering Without Intent: Music to Chaplin’s Mutuals (2015) sleeve: front/rear
2006 Mutual restorations
David Shepard eventually carried out even further restoration, building on Kevin Brownlow’s improvements to his 1995 versions. The results, featuring the previous Carl Davis orchestral scores, were only released in the US as a 4-DVD box set consisting of two keep cases inside a cardboard slipcase with two substantial booklets. Discs 3 and 4 contain two documentaries: The Gentleman Tramp (1975) and the aforementioned Chaplin’s Goliath. Note this set was later reissued in a single case, minus the slipcase and booklets, so be careful which version you buy. Shepard goes into detail about all his work on the Mutuals to date in this 2006 interview; now check out these comparative screenshots.
- US: Image 4-DVD The Chaplin Mutual Comedies: 90th Anniversary Edition (2006)
Two of these versions have also been released elsewhere, including on BD encoded in 1080i HD:
- The Rink (1916) is on Criterion’s 2010 BD and DVD of Modern Times (1936).
- The Immigrant (1917) is on Criterion’s Au revoir les enfants (1987) BD, the fourth extras disc in their 3 Films by Louis Malle DVD set, and Concorde’s Auf Wiedersehen, Kinder DVD.
1992 Police restoration
US trade magazine advert
There’s just one other restored Essanay worthy of special mention: producer/director Don McGlynn’s unique but controversial reconstruction of Police (1916, 35min), included as part of The Chaplin Puzzle documentary (Denmark 1992). Some think it erroneously incorporates footage meant for Chaplin’s abandoned first feature, Life, including the orphaned flophouse sequence from contemporary cut ‘n’ paste cash-in, Triple Trouble. From the soundtrack booklet:
“In 1915, not long after the release of the ambitious feature film The Birth of a Nation, Chaplin had his own ambition to make a feature film. Production began on a film called Life and it was to be his most probing, hard hitting and honest film. The intention was to make a Dickensian slapstick comedy that showed the harsh underbelly of existence. But his production company, Essanay, felt he was taking too much time and forced him to abandon Life. Chaplin returned to his cherished project a few months later, added some new footage and came up with a three reeler called Police. Upon completion, Chaplin called it his best film. But Essanay released Police as a two reeler, cutting some of the harsher material and confusing key plot points.
The Chaplin Puzzle provides an explanation of the butchering of Chaplin’s ambitious project – the only film directed by Chaplin to be savagely cut in the original release. Through careful detective work and research, Chaplin’s classic film has been pieced together. The bulk of its running time is the first presentation of Chaplin’s restored Police. With the footage reinstated, the work of a serious artist emerges. The social satire becomes more pronounced. The world view becomes more despairing and ironic. And the plot elements are more focused. But, most importantly, we see a hilarious comedy from one of the greatest figures in film history.”
The Vagabond (1916) US Mutual trade ad
David Shepard was given an executive producer credit – under protest, as he supplied the materials – and later said: “It would be my guess that as he so often did, Chaplin developed the sequence in Triple Trouble (perhaps for Life), shelved it, revised it, and started over again on the same sets for Police.” However, many Chaplin fans and scholars swear by McGlynn’s documentary and Police, and believe his version gets closer to Chaplin’s original intent for the film than any other. My advice is to check it out after seeing any of the more widely distributed versions detailed here and make up your own mind.
Both short and documentary are only available on a bonus disc in the now largely redundant 6-DVD Charlie Chaplin: 57 Classics (2004), and as a single Czech DVD (2009). They also share a lovely – and definitely uncontroversial – score by Danish composer Søren Hyldgaard which is available on CD and featured as a two-part suite on two of his other CDs.
Essanays and Mutuals in print
One of the best first-hand, insider accounts of Chaplin’s daily life and work yet published.
As previously stated, many Chaplin film books published prior to the great restorations of the last decade or two are badly outdated; naturally this hinders the noble first example, Charlie Chaplin: Early Comedies (1968) by Isabel Quigly, which runs up to The Kid. Though to a slightly lesser degree, this fate does sadly befall Ted Okuda and David Maska’s otherwise still-excellent CC at Keystone and Essanay: Dawn of the Tramp (2005). Any chance of an update, guys?
A brilliant, evocative first-person account of life behind the scenes at the Chaplin studio is rendered in CC’s Red Letter Days: At Work with the Comic Genius (2017). It’s edited by film historian David James and annotated by Dan Kamin, renowned veteran stage performer, magician and leading Chaplin expert. Between them, they authoritatively fill in the background behind Chaplin stock company actor Fred Goodwins’ lengthy and detailed account, completely forgotten since its original 1916 publication in the British Red Letter magazine. The book also includes three further Red Letter articles detailing Chaplin’s February 1916 trip to sign his record breaking Mutual contract…
As for those films, if you wish to know more about the most important set of comedy shorts ever made, look no further than Michael J. Hayde’s superlative Chaplin’s Vintage Year: The History of the Mutual-Chaplin Specials (2014, Kindle and unabridged CD) and Chaplin at Mutual: A Centenary Celebration (2017) by Brian J. Robb.
Grateful thanks to David Shepard (1940–2017) for his help with this article. And a life well-lived, in pursuit of preserving our past and spreading love, joy and laughter.
Related articles
- Charlie Chaplin Collectors’ Guide: A Film Primer
- Charlie Chaplin Collectors’ Guide: Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914)
- Charlie Chaplin Collectors’ Guide: A Burlesque on Carmen (1915)
- Charting Charlie Chaplin on Criterion Blu-ray and DVD
- Charlie Chaplin’s “Daddy” Versions: Copyright or Copywrong? – coming soon; subscribe to the email list to be notified
- Charlie Chaplin Documentary Guide – coming soon
- New UK Charlie Chaplin Discs From Artificial Eye
- Artificial Eye’s New UK Chaplin Blu-rays Reviewed
