Charlie Chaplin Collectors’ Guide: Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914)

• Charting convoluted release history of first feature length film for Chaplin, Keystone and comedy itself
• Among most famous silver screen comedies: huge success made Marie Dressler an overnight movie star
• But Chaplin’s presence ensured it was screened constantly for over 80 years and worked almost to death
• After almost a century of cut-up, trimmed-down versions, Tillie’s finally regained her former proportions

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.

Caught red-handed: Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin and Marie Dressler form a love/hate triangle (B&W, alt shot lobby card)

Contents

• Production
• Making an entrance
• 1931 sound reissue
• 1939 sound reissue
• 1967 sound reissue
• 1972 sound reissue
• 1997 restoration
• 2004 restoration
• Related articles

Production

A Journey Through Cinema | Roundtable discussion

The comic talents of Charlie Chaplin, Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, and the Keystone Kops all come together in hilarious slapstick formation in Tillie’s Punctured Romance, the first feature-length comedy. Tillie (Marie Dressler) is an innocent country girl romanced by a conniving Charlie Chaplin. He brings her to the big city and promptly begins spending her money on another woman, comedy queen Mabel Normand. When he learns that Tillie has inherited a fortune from her uncle, he suddenly has nothing but love and kisses for his erstwhile fiancée. He’s well on his way to having his cake and eating it too—marrying Tillie while romancing Mabel—when Tillie’s uncle turns up alive. The jig is up, and Charlie is on the run from both women, Tillie’s outraged uncle, and the Keystone Kops.

Tillie’s Punctured Romance never would have been made had it not been for D.W. Griffith. Long before he became famous for his features, Griffith was a maker of two-reel comedies, and had been a mentor and later a rival to Mack Sennett. Then, in 1914, Sennett learned that Griffith was planning an epic-length historical drama (The Birth of a Nation) and decided that if Griffith could do a drama running 12 reels, he could make a comedy that would run six. No previous comedy had ever run more than two reels, and Sennett’s backers thought that he was even crazier than Griffith.

Sennett’s secret was Marie Dressler, a major stage star who’d charmed audiences on Broadway in a comedy called Tillie’s Nightmare. He successfully wooed her into motion pictures, and his scenarist, Craig Hutchison, adapted Tillie’s Nightmare into Tillie’s Punctured Romance. Although it seems modestly proportioned today, in 1914 Tillie’s Punctured Romance was the early cinema’s version of It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, with Sennett pulling out all of the stops to fill its extra-large proportions. Sharp-eyed viewers will spot such celebrated comic stars as Edgar Kennedy, Charley Chase, and Chester Conklin in supporting roles. – US Republic Pictures LaserDisc (1991) LDDb

Making an entrance

Let’s face the laughter and dance: Tillie and the city slicker cut a rug on this US 1918 reissue lobby card

As discussed previously, once he left the studio, Chaplin’s Keystone films were reissued and rescreened constantly, in ever more edited and mangled shadows of their former selves. They were ultimately so compromised as to be almost unwatchable, but despite that the most famous of them endured and continued being a big screen commodity until David Shepard’s restorations finally came to the rescue. Numerous confusingly similar but very different versions are in current circulation; the provenance of all of them is clarified here for the first time.

Tillie’s Punctured Romance is notable for a number of reasons but chiefly remembered for co-starring Chaplin in his first feature length film. Directed by head of Keystone Mack Sennett, it’s also often cited as the first feature length comedy and, despite its success, Keystone’s only feature. This was due to the logistical difficulties involved in shooting such a huge production concurrently with dozens of quick and cheap shorts, all featuring the same actors.

There are other contenders for the title of first comedy feature, including several five-reelers such as writer-director-star Romaine Fielding’s Battle of Gettysgoat, an American Civil War satire. It was released in April 1914, roundly beating Tillie’s December 21, 1914 première but is sadly now lost. A pity we no longer have it, as it sounds a lot more easily digestible than The Birth of a Nation.

Caught again: US 1918 reissue lobby card

Tillie’s production and history is covered extensively in various books focusing on Chaplin and Keystone, and such essays as:

• The Making of Tillie’s Punctured Romance – Bo Berglund
• Tillie’s Punctured Romance – Hal C F Astell, author of CC Centennial: Keystone (2016)

• The Life Story of an Ugly Duckling (1924) – Marie Dressler | Internet Archive/alt
• “Marie Dressler: The Thunder Thief  (1930) – Adela St. Johns, The New Movie Magazine
• My Own Story (1934) – Marie Dressler

Stage star Marie Dressler, secured by Keystone at great cost, was reprising her signature role in the big screen adaptation of the musical stage play, Tillie’s Nightmare. Dressler, who originated the role, also owned the rights to the 1910 play by A. Baldwin Sloane and Edgar Smith, and had toured it for three years to packed houses and rapturous critical notices. In particular, it spawned the popular song “Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl”, “a satire on the sentimental ballads of the 1890s” (p.338 and 348). Dressler was also ably supported onscreen by almost all of Keystone’s biggest stars, including Mabel Normand, Mack Swain and of course, Chaplin. In fact, the only noteworthy omission from this virtual roll call of Keystone’s top stable was Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. It was perfectly understandable, given his frenetic work rate, which exceeded even Chaplin’s unimaginably hectic schedule. At least 50 films featuring Arbuckle were released in 1914 alone, including seven with Chaplin.

• The Recorded Art of Marie Dressler (1960) – Al Debus, International Discophile
• Marie Dressler: The Unlikeliest Star (1997) – Betty Lee
• MD: A Biography, with Stage… Film… Disc… ography (1998/2006) – Matthew Kennedy
• A Great Big Girl Like Me: The Films of Marie Dressler (2009) – Victoria Sturtevant

1914 US magazine advert

The resulting film was wildly successful – even more so than the play – and increased the bankability of all its cast. Of course Chaplin, even though appearing in a rare non-Tramp role, benefitted the most. Tillie played constantly for years and subsequent to the initial run, all publicity moved Chaplin’s name squarely up to top billing, with Dressler and Normand eventually not even mentioned at all. Capitalising on the by-then universal “Chaplinitis” sweeping the planet, he was also always misleadingly pictured in his Tramp garb.

US 1918 reissue trade advert

1931 sound reissue

There were any number of domestic and internationally released re-edits of Tillie all over the world during the silent era. Effectively documenting all of them would be impossible. However, prior to the 1990s there were various sound reissues, most of which are still in circulation. Instead of being truly silent and relying on a live musician for accompaniment, they all had custom recorded musical scores contained on the film’s optical soundtrack.

Details on the first such reissue are frustratingly scant and what exists is often inconsistent and contradictory but I’ll continue updating this section with all I can dig up on it. Retitled Marie’s Millions and freshly endowed with a music and effects track, some sources have it as a 4-reeler first released in the US as early as 1929. However, it seems most likely it’s purely British in origin. The Bioscope (7 Oct, 1931) reviews a recent trade show screening by Equity British Films at a length of 5,500 feet, equating to 1:01 at 24fps; and Oxford’s Phoenix Cinema screened it in Feb 1932. Meanwhile, according to this thesis it was released in India in 1933, also as a 4-reeler. Adding weight to it originating with Equity is that the following year they produced a 4-reel sound reissue of A Burlesque on Carmen.

The likes of (David) Quinlan’s Film Stars (1981–2001) muddy the waters a little by confusing it with W.C. Fields’ lost 1928 silent film, also titled Tillie’s Punctured Romance but no relation whatsoever to our Tillie. Further confusion arises due to the fact that by March 1923, 1915, the Keystone Tillie’s US distributor was the Christie Film Co., Inc. (LP24669); meanwhile, the W.C. Fields-starring namesake (LP25031) was coincidentally produced and distributed by Al Christie, one half of the same company.

Here are all known archive holdings on Chaplin’s Tillie, though none specifically mention Marie’s Millions aside from two of the BFI’s prints and they’re both silent. One of them, acquired in 1931, is only a 300ft fragment but the other, from 1929, is 4,700ft (52:13 at 24fps). Curiouser and curiouser…

1939 sound reissue

1939 sound reissue in sepia; here’s the B&W version

There are such no problems identifying the second documented sound reissue, produced by Walter Futter in 1939 (40min). Guy V. Thayer, Jr. was credited with “re-editing” and new intertitles were by the multi-talented Mort Greene, Oscar-nominated lyricist, cartoonist, gag writer, etc. It features a spirited orchestral score by Edward Kilenyi, Sr. with judiciously placed sound effects, somewhat similar in style to the Van Beuren Mutuals. With a change of the main titles, Monogram Pictures re-released this same version in 1941. After replacing the main titles yet again, Burwood Pictures released it in 1950, spurred by the recent successful reissue of City Lights.

We’re not done with Walter’s baby just yet: a fourth go-around for his version followed hot on the previous three’s heels. This US re-redistribution was still in 1950 – presumably after yet another change of the main titles. It was executed by a British-based studio, who also got it across the Pond this time. Like the others it was “3,645ft… 40 minutes” in length, according to its UK pressbook. A similar pressbook, with even more hyperbolic copy, appeared as a US trade magazine pullout. A trailer was also produced for at least the UK issue, though it’s currently MIA too. The film appears to have been particularly well publicised, judging by the abundance of US and UK ephemera online and perennially for sale from dealers and auction sites. Indeed, this release is the source of most of the Tillie memorabilia floating around these days. All of these materials cite “Re-released by Eagle Lion Films” and “Copyright 1950 Pathe Industries Inc.” [sic] in the fine print.

US Eagle-Lion Films 1950 sound reissue poster. I’m as fond of Tillie as anyone, but as to it being Chaplin’s “greatest full-length comedy hit”, well…

Following so soon after Burwood’s US distribution, it’s possible it was an illicit copy of Walter’s version: the film itself may have been PD but Kilenyi’s recent soundtrack and Greene’s titles were definitely not. Eagle-Lion were a British-based company who for a short time had production and distribution interests in the States but never thrived and were subject to merger in 1950. Presumably, Tillie was one of the last titles distributed under their own banner.

Nonetheless, Eagle-Lion’s very distinctive artwork was still being used for releases of Tillie into the 1960s, probably also using their earlier prints. In the US it was shown theatrically at least as late as 1962, playing a supporting role for the English-dubbed French-language epic, Michel Strogoff (1956). By then, in addition to being Chaplin’s “greatest full-length comedy hit”, it was also touted as “40 minutes of fun for mom and dad and all!” Given the huge amount of mostly unidentified BFI holdings on Tillie, I’m pretty certain this version and its trailer, and quite possibly other versions too, are lurking in their vaults, just waiting to be properly catalogued.

US Eagle-Lion Films 1950 sound reissue lobby card (set)

1967 sound reissue

The third known sound reissue came courtesy of RAS Films International in 1967 (75min), who retitled it Charlie’s Big Romance. Sidney Tager performed production duties and though it has much more footage, some of the credits have been carried over from Walter’s version. It’s accompanied by a lively but tasteful orchestral score by William Perry and features added sound effects and tongue-in-cheek narration, as was common practice in silents reissues from the 1950s–1970s. As usual, there was an array of foreign renamings, for instance for its 1969 Danish run it became Chaplin som lykkejæger (Chaplin as a Lucky Hunter). It ran until at least as late as 1972, as evidenced by its Australian release in December of that year.

1972 Australian sound reissue daybill

This version first appeared on US DVD via Laserlight’s 1999 release, with its RAS Films title card replaced by a generic one reverting to its original name. It was simultaneously issued on DVD in the UK by Delta, who also reissued it in the US in 2002. Thereafter, they’ve been copied countless times by other PD DVD companies and as with Chaplin’s other low budget discs of this nature, all of them will play anywhere in the world.

US 1967 sound reissue title card. It was replaced in the copy linked above for a generic video-generated title by a PD DVD distributor.

1972 sound reissue

By the turn of the 1970s, Blackhawk Films, vendors of 8mm and 16mm reductions for the collectors’ market, had built up a sizeable Chaplin catalogue consisting of all his pre-United Artists public domain shorts that survived in viewable condition. Tillie was added to their roster in spring 1972 and sold in various permutations of different lengths, all derived from a 16mm print in the Paul Killiam Collection. The Blackhawk catalogue later noted that “our beautiful prints are reproduced from a 1920 reissue, which although slightly trimmed, was made from the camera negative.” Blackhawk’s version is stretch-printed, with every second frame shown twice for projection at 24fps, and either silent or accompanied with a new piano score, also by Perry.

In 1985, Blackhawk was acquired by Republic Pictures who later issued this iteration of Tillie on VHS and LaserDisc. This and the preceding versions of Tillie were heavily bootlegged and are now available from many sources, but they often run completely silently or have their scores replaced with ersatz needle-drops.

• US: Republic LaserDisc (1991, LDDb) and VHS (1992)

Getting along famously: Charlie, Marie and Mabel in an early publicity still (CC Archive)

1997 restoration

By 1997, David Shepard’s Film Preservation Associates owned the Blackhawk Library and he augmented the Killiam print with material from other sources and a new John Muri organ score. This 72min variable-speed version was issued on LD. He went on to improve its picture quality much further by replacing most of the 16mm interpolated material with a 35mm source and issued his ‘final’ version on DVD. A few years after that, he provided all of his original materials on the film to UCLA for their then upcoming project…

• US: Image DVD (1999) and Laserdisc (1997) w/Mabel’s Married Life

2004 restoration

Tillie has now been returned to virtually her original length by the superlative 2004 restoration (85min, 18fps) from the UCLA and BFI. Supervised by preservationist Ross Lipman, this version combines every known viable frame of the film in existence. Well-received screenings took place at various film festivals, usually with solo piano accompaniment. Later, as part of the Chaplin Keystone Project, she was given a digital clean-up by Lobster Films in Paris. DS: “As much as possible has been done to balance contrast and the geometry of the shots as the film switches from source to source, as well as to clean the image. No one would take it for a new film but compared to anything seen in the last 80 years or so, it looks amazing.”

Tillie’s punctured legacy: Observations on the restoration of Chaplin’s first feature – Ross Lipman

The Alloy Orchestra’s Ken Winokur led Tillie’s Nightmare, a specially convened ensemble, in writing and recording a new ragtime score incorporating tunes from the original stage play, and also performed it live at several screenings. This latest incarnation, the nearest to the film’s original release since the 1910s, was issued on DVD from 2010 as part of the complete restored Keystones box sets. It took her nearly 100 years but Tillie finally came full circle to entertain us as once before.

A final word: I know it’s an uphill battle even getting the primary version of a film restored, but in my ideal world all these fascinating diversions along the path would be available in quality editions too. The Kilenyi and Perry-scored reissues ‘Mickey Mouse’ the onscreen action relentlessly and though some find it annoying after a while, they’re still an important part of Tillie’s story. Chaplin himself would have loathed seeing his old films presented in this way but there was nothing he could do about it. At least their constant reissue kept his name in the public eye during the ever-lengthening gaps between his own increasingly ambitious releases.

Personally, I love these iterations of the shorts but that’s from the perspective of my silents experience mostly being via good condition prints or superlative restorations, and all with live or recorded scores by the best musicians in the business. Although I did see old, sped-up, Mickey-Moused clips of silents on the telly as a kid, my memories of them are quite hazy. God forbid I’d be coming to these wonderful films via their public domain versions now, or worse still, that they remained my only frame of reference as they sadly are for so many.

Of course, the latest restoration should be the default version, but one way of looking at the others is the way you would remixes of a favourite song. At the very least, they’re interesting alternatives that it’s nice to sample once in a while; a new spin on an old friend. For the very same reason I’m not wholly opposed to film colorization, audio remixing for surround formats, 3D conversion of 2D films, etc. If they’re your thing, knock yourself out and if not, just ignore them and stick with the versions you prefer. Mind you, the idea of any of the above versions of Tillie being newly colorized, 3D-converted and remixed in Dolby Atmos is a bit hard to take!

US 1918 reissue trade advert

Grateful thanks to Scott MacGillivray (Wiki) for help with this article.

Related articles

• Charlie Chaplin Collectors’ Guide: A Film Primer
  • Part 2: The Bad, the Ugly and the Good
  • Part 3: Early Reissues
  • Part 4: Keystone 1914
  • Part 5: Essanay and Mutual 1980s–2000s Restorations
  • Part 6: Essanay and Mutual Restored in HD
  • Part 7: Shorts and Features 1918–1967
  • Part 8: Shorts and Features in HD
• 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