The Fireman
About The Fireman
A father makes a deal with the fire chief: let the house burn, collect the insurance, and the chief may marry the daughter. A real fire starts somewhere else. The owner rings the public alarm. Charlie and another fireman keep playing checkers and stuff a cloth in the bell. A telephone call is ignored. The man comes to the station in person. Charlie, who also wants the daughter, climbs the outside of the burning house, carries her down the face of it, and faints.
Cast & crew
More about The Fireman
Chaplin’s second Mutual release. He wrote, directed, produced, and plays the fireman. William C. Foster and Roland Totheroh photographed. Mutual released it on 12 June 1916. The English Wikipedia times the two-reeler at 32 minutes. Another listing says 24. Edna Purviance is the daughter. Lloyd Bacon is her father. Eric Campbell is the brigade foreman. Leo White, Albert Austin, Henry Bergman, and James T. Kelley are billed.
Themes
Making
Chaplin builds the Mutual reel on a brigade that will not leave a game. Campbell’s chief is in on the insurance. The rescue is the one alarm Charlie treats as real, because the woman is in it.
Look
Foster and Totheroh shot the muffled bell, the checkers, and the climb down the face of the house.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A two-reel print survives. Published timings are 32 minutes and 24 minutes.
Notes
- The insurance fire and the real fire are two different alarms. The company answers the wrong problem until the man walks in.
- The checkers game is why the bell is muffled.
- The climb is on the outside of the building, and he faints after he has her down.
- An Internet Archive copy is filed as CC_1916_06_12_TheFireman.
Scenes
- The father trades the house and the daughter for an insurance payout.
- Charlie and the other fireman gag the bell and stay at the checkerboard.
- He carries her down the outside wall and faints.
Also available
- Internet Archive (CC_1916_06_12_TheFireman)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Fireman (1916) by Charlie Chaplin.webm)
