Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914 American Silent Comedy film)

Tillie's Punctured Romance is a 1914 American silent comedy film directed by Mack Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone Kops. The picture was the only feature-length comedy made by the Keystone Film Company.

At the time of production Marie Dressler was a major stage star, and in this film Chaplin and Normand support her as leads within Keystone's stock company of actors.

The film is based on Dressler's stage play Tillie's Nightmare by A. Baldwin Sloane and Edgar Smith. Tillie's Punctured Romance is notable for being the last Chaplin film which he neither wrote nor directed, as well as the first feature-length slapstick comedy in all of cinema. In it, Chaplin plays a slightly different role from his Tramp character, which was relatively new at the time. However, he retains a moustache (here a pencil-thin "dude" type rather than his usual "toothbrush"), thin cane and distinctive walk.

Given the combination of factors it seems likely that it is also the first feature to contain a "film within the film" where the couple go to the cinema to watch "A Thief's Fate" large sections of which are seen. Whilst this occupies less than one reel of the total six reels it is still significant.

Plot
Charles Chaplin portrays a womanizing city man who meets Tillie (Marie Dressler) in the country after a fight with his girlfriend (Mabel Normand). When he sees that Tillie's father (Mack Swain) has a very large bankroll for his workers, he persuades her to elope with him. In the city, he meets the woman he was seeing already, and tries to work around the complication to steal Tillie's money. He gets Tillie drunk in a restaurant and asks her to let him hold the pocketbook. Since she is drunk, she agrees, and he escapes with his old girlfriend and the money.

Cast
Scene with Normand, Chaplin and Dressler
Marie Dressler ... Tillie Banks, Country Girl
Mabel Normand .. Mabel, Charlie's Girl Friend
Charles Chaplin ... Charlie, City Slicker
Mack Swain ... John Banks, Tillie's Father
Charles Bennett ... Uncle Banks, Tillie's millionaire uncle

Uncredited

Dan Albert ... Party Guest/Cop
Phyllis Allen ... Prison Matron/Restaurant patron
Billie Bennett ... Maid/Party Guest
Joe Bordeaux ... Policeman (appearance is not verified)
Glen Cavender ... First Pianist in Restaurant
Charley Chase ... Detective in Movie Theater
Dixie Chene ... Guest
Nick Cogley ... Keystone Cop Desk Sergeant
Chester Conklin ... Mr. Whoozis/Singing Waitor
Alice Davenport ... Guest
Hampton Del Ruth ... Bank's tall Secretary searching for Tillie
Frankie Dolan ... Movie Spectator/Party Guest
Minta Durfee ... Maid
Ted Edwards ... Waiter
Edwin Frazee ...Movie Spectator/Guest/Cop
Billy Gilbert ... Policeman
Gordon Griffith ... Newsboy
William Hauber ... Servant/Cop
Fred Fishback ... Servant
Alice Howell ...Guest
Edgar Kennedy ... Restaurant Owner/Butler
Grover Ligon ... Keystone Cop
Wallace MacDonald ... Keystone Cop
Hank Mann ... Keystone Cop
Harry McCoy ... Second Pianist in Restaurant/Pianist in Theater/Servant
Rube Miller ... Tillie's Visitor
Charles Murray ... Detective in "A Thief's Fate"
Eva Nelson ... Disgusted Guest in 2nd Restaurant
Edward Nolan ... Restaurant Dancer/Policeman/Mountain Innkeeper/Party

Guest
Frank Opperman ... Rev. D. Simpson
Hugh Saxon ...Bank's shorter Secretary searching for Tillie
Fritz Schade ... Waiter/Diner
Al St. John ... Keystone Cop
Slim Summerville ... Keystone Cop
Josef Swickard ... Movie Spectator
Morgan Wallace ... Thief in "A Thief's Fate"
Production
Mack Sennett, whilst working with a degree of autonomy, was working for the larger company of Kessel and Baumann.

When slapstick impresario Mack Sennett proposed to adapt the 1910 Broadway comedy Tillie's Nightmare to the screen in 1914, he enlisted the immensely successful star of the stage production, the then 45-year-old Marie Dressler, to play the guileless ingenue, Tillie Banks.[6] Dressler was paid a huge fee of £2500 per week and was also meant to have a share of the profits of Kessler and Baumann but they passed the distribution contract to Alco, voiding Dressler's contract with K & B and forcing Dressler to sue them. The situation was further complicated by Alco going bust, mainly due to overpaying for the distribution rights: £100,000. Chaplin's salary was far less than Dressler, certainly under $1000 a week, as he demanded an increase to $1000 a week early in 1915.[7]