His New Job
About His New Job
Charlie waits to be interviewed at Lodestone Motion Picture Company. The girl beside him is hired at once. A man jumps the line. Another fight decides who is next. Twice Charlie walks onto a set that is already shooting. The director sends him to the carpenter. In props he fusses over a classical statue of a woman. When the actor playing a Prussian officer is fired, Charlie gets the uniform, a worse one, and is sidetracked into a dice game with the carpenter. On the set he wrecks the scene, knocks the set down, and wipes his face on the star’s skirt.
Cast & crew
More about His New Job
Chaplin wrote, directed, and starred. Louella Parsons shares a writing credit. Jess Robbins produced. It is his first film after Keystone, and the only one he shot at Essanay’s Chicago studio. Filming was in January 1915, mid-winter. The release is 1 February 1915. It runs 32 minutes. He disliked the plant and the cold and moved the company to California. Ben Turpin is the cross-eyed rival. Gloria Swanson is an uncredited extra, a stenographer. Charlotte Mineau, Leo White, Robert Bolder, and Charles J. Stine are billed. Agnes Ayres is also listed.
Themes
Making
Chaplin uses the first Chicago week to film a man wrecking a movie company. The dice game is what keeps him off the set he was just given.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A 32-minute print survives.
Notes
- The title points at the new Essanay contract, not only at the extra’s promotion inside the story.
- Lodestone is the studio name on the set.
- The Internet Archive identifier CC_1915_02_01 matches the 1 February release.
- Swanson’s bit is before her feature leads.
Scenes
- The girl next to him is signed before he is seen.
- He walks into a take that is already rolling.
- The Prussian uniform leads to a dice game, not to the set.
- He uses the star’s skirt as a towel and the scenery comes down.
Also available
- Internet Archive (CC_1915_02_01_HisNewJob)
- Wikimedia Commons (His New Job (1915).webm)
