A Film Johnnie

ca. 12 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguagesSilent film
English (Original titles)

A Film Johnnie is a 1914 American-made motion picture starring Charles Chaplin, Roscoe Arbuckle, and Mabel Normand.

Cast

• Charles Chaplin - The Film Johnnie
• Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Himself
• Virginia Kirtley - The Keystone Girl
• Peggy Pearce - The Keystone Girl
• Mabel Normand - Mabel
• Ford Sterling - Himself

Plot

Charlie goes to the movies and falls in love with a pretty girl he sees on the screen. He goes to Keystone Studios to find the actress. While there, he disrupts the shooting of a film. A fire breaks out. Charlie is blamed, gets squirted with a firehose, and is shoved by the female star.

The title of the film is a variation on the term "stage door johnnie". It was once commonly used to describe someone who regularly loitered near the actors' entrances of theaters hoping to meet the players or perhaps land a job onstage or backstage.

Reviews

A reviewer for Bioscope wrote of Chaplin and A Film Johnnie, "Another triumph for the old Karno comedian. Knockabout of an extraordinary character. An extra special comedy."

A reviewer for Moving Picture World wrote, "Edgar English's [Chaplin's] work in this picture will keep it amusing."

A reviewer for The Cinema wrote, "The sensation of the year is the success of Chas. Chaplin...One of his films is A Film Johnny [sic] which shows how his admiration of a film beauty led to a commotion in a cinema and finally took him to the Keystone Studio--and a job. All the Keystone heads are in this [film] and it is packed with indescribably funny incidents."

See also

• List of American films of 1914
• Charlie Chaplin filmography
• Fatty Arbuckle filmography

External links

• The short film A Film Johnnie is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
• A Film Johnnie at IMDb
• A Film Johnnie on YouTube