ThedevilChoose
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Loui Blair
It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
Mathilde the Guild
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
lugonian
THE FLOORWALKER (Mutual/Lone Star Company, 1916), Written and Directed by Charlie Chaplin, stars The Little Tramp in his first of twelve comedy shorts for Mutual (1916-1917). Coming a long way in a short time since his screen debut in 1914, Chaplin, now on his own, taking charge of his script and comedy material that has become genuine classics. Though some of his finest work in both short and feature-length formats were ahead of him, THE FLOORWALKER marked the new beginning in Chaplin's creativity and comical genius that developed with each passing film. Aside from Edna Purviance, Chaplin's frequent co-star since 1915, THE FLOORWALKER also marked the first of eleven comedies to pair the pint-sized Chaplin with the giant-sized Eric Campbell, a classic combination. A winning pair responsible for Chaplin's finest moments in screen comedy and new phase for the development of his tramp character that was to start here.Opening title: "The Big Store." The slight plot development introduces scenes involving a stern floorwalker (Lloyd Bacon) ordering his sales clerk (Albert Austin) about and a loyal secretary (Edna Purviance) working for her general manager (Eric Campbell). After Campbell reads some shocking news from a memo, he works on a diabolical plot of robbing the store safe along with his floorwalker. The floorwalker, however, turns against Campbell, knocking him unconscious only to take the full bag of money for himself. There's one setback, how to get out of the place without the store detectives watching. During a shoplifting spree from numerous bargain seekers, in comes a customer (Charlie Chaplin) causing trouble for the clerk and getting himself into mischief before going through a series of pratfalls up the down escalator. Evading store detectives, Charlie takes refuge in the manager's office where he comes face to face with his look-alike floorwalker thief. Wanting a job in the store, both men agree to switch clothes and identities, this leaving Charlie holding the bag and thief falling victim through a series of unforeseen circumstances.While not as crude as some of Chaplin's earlier comedies for both Mack Sennett and the Essanay Company, there's still some use of behind kicking and facial slaps to go around. Surprisingly, however, THE FLOORWALKER doesn't make use the traditional love match between Chaplin and Purviance. In fact, they share no scenes together whatsoever. Purviance's presence is devoted mainly towards her bearded, evil- eyed employer, Campbell. With a mannequin, water fountain and elevator playing part of prop comedy material, the one that gets the most attention is the escalator. Chaplin's ballet dancing technique where he avoids a fight is Chaplin style that's seldom imitated, never duplicated. However, the mirror bit between Chaplin and Bacon is one duplicated and imitated by other comedians over the years, the best re-enactment coming from the Marx Brothers twosome, Groucho and Harpo, doing it their way in the masterful production of DUCK SOUP (Paramount, 1933).Other than the gag material expected from Chaplin, THE FLOORWALKER makes good use with camera cutaways from one action to another. There's even a D.W. Griffith-type of extreme close-up reaction technique on the lady store detective (Charlotte Mineau) worth noting. Others seen in the cast include Bud Jamison, Leo White, James T. Kelly and Chaplin regular, Henry Bergman, doing a minor bit as an old man who blows his horn.An enjoyable twenty minutes that might have developed into a featurette, THE FLOORWALKER is as good as it gets. Along with the other Chaplin Mutuals, THE FLOORWALKER did have plenty of exposure on both commercial and public television broadcasts in the sixties and seventies with prints from 1930s reissue accompanied by jazzy music score and sound effects, the same prints acquired by Blackhawk and Republic Home Video for its video distributions in the 1980s and 90s. Interestingly, rather than placing these Chaplin Mutual comedies in order for which they appeared, Republic released these twelve Chaplin shorts in out sequence mix, placing THE FLOORWALKER as the second movie in the third of its four volume VHS sets. In recent years, THE FLOORWALKER has turned up on cable television, namely Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 13, 1999) with new orchestral scoring and silent acu-speed prints from Kino Home Video. Next in store of the Chaplin Mutual comedies: THE FIREMAN (1916) (***)
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"The Floorwalker" is a 1916 black-and-white silent movie, so this is going to have its 100th anniversary next year. Chaplin himself was in his mid-20s when he wrote, directed and starred in this one. It runs for roughly 30 minutes and features Chaplin's most famous character: The Tramp. All the action takes place at a department store where the protagonist is the new floorwalker. However, the old one is obviously not too happy about having been let go, so he decides to go out on a criminal note. Unluckily for Chaplin, the old one looks very similar to him, so Chaplis is basically busy for the entire film trying to get away from the huge store manager. He is played by Eric Campbell again, a regular in Chaplin's films. Edna Purviance is on board again, even if the romance story in this little movie is not really significant this time. All in all, a solid watch. Recommended.
Michael DeZubiria
So evidently the floorwalker is the guy that walks around the store making sure no one is shoplifting, which provides a wonderful situation for a little mixed identity. Chaplin plays an obnoxious browser, testing all of the products in the store and generally making a big mess without buying anything (this may be one of the few times in his career when he displayed a little understanding of the plight of the store owners dealing with pesky shoppers who don't buy anything). Soon, however, he is back to sticking up for the people. The floorwalker begins harassing Charlie while a real thief robs the place blind right behind him. There are two new and interesting things in this film. One is the escalator, which I have a feeling is the first escalator ever to appear in a motion picture (if you know of an earlier one, I'd be curious to hear about it), and the other is a Chaplin look-a-like. He's much bigger than the diminutive Chaplin, of course, but it's the first time I've seen his double appear with him in one of his movies. The escalator is well used here, as well. The humor surrounding it goes a long way, and Chaplin speed walking down it is one of the more memorable moments of his early career. Soon, the double, in his efforts to make off with a suitcase full of cash, pays Charlie to trade clothes with him (I am always suspicious of someone who wants me to wear their clothes out of a store), which Charlie foolishly accepts. The set up for the physical comedy is unusually clever in this film. The real bad guy gets caught and Charlie is congratulated for helping to capture him, then later an oafish guard wakes up (he had fallen victim to that silent film curiosity where someone gets knocked out and then later wakes up as though well-rested from a deep sleep), and comes after Charlie, unaware of his new hero status. He gives Charlie a hilarious thrashing.My favorite moment in the film is Charlie's brief farewell dance before he attempts to dive into that handbag. It reminds me of the prestidigitonious (something like that) scene in Sword in the Stone, one of my all time favorite animated films. There is a great scene near the end where Charlie does a hilarious little dance. It's hard to pinpoint it, but there is something definitely charming about the way he dances. I feel like I've seen a thousand other people do the same thing, and yet it still looks totally unique when he does it. The ending of this film is a little abrupt, but this is probably some of his best physical comedy yet.
TheOtherFool
Although Charlie Chaplin made some great short comedies in the late 1910's, others don't quite make it. Examples like His New Job and Shanghaied come to mind, and I would also The Floorwalker in this category.Charlie gets mistaken for a manager of a department store (and vice versa). This manager tries to steal money from the cash register and make a run for it, and Charlie is just an honest costumer but getting blamed for some missing objects, stolen by other costumers.There aren't many laughs in it, except for the last couple of minutes or so with some great scenes on the escalator. For the rest, quite disappointing.4/10.
