Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)

Cinema was in its relative infancy when an English immigrant to the United States donned a bowler hat, fake moustache and notched cane, and gave the world one of the most famous characters. Charlie Chaplin had debuted in a movie called "Making a Living" (as a non-Tramp character) and had filmed a movie before "Kid Auto Races at Venice", but this was the first released movie in which audiences saw the bumbling but kindhearted man in the ill-fitting clothes.Because cinema was a new phenomenon, movies didn't yet have complex plots, and there was no sound, no color, and no star system. It wasn't until a few months after the release that Chaplin directed his first movie, and so one might interpret the Tramp's interfering with the filming of the races as Chaplin's trying to figure out the path that he wanted to take in movies. Well, we should be glad that he took the path that he did, because he gave us some of the greatest movies ever. Most importantly, anyone who likes to learn about cinema history should definitely watch "Kid Auto Races at Venice".Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter Oona co-starred on "Game of Thrones". I wonder how "Game of Thrones" would be if the Little Tramp were a character.

Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) ** (out of 4) This is a historically important film but it's not a very good one. For the first time we see Charles Chaplin in his Tramp outfit as he causes trouble at a race. There really aren't any laughs in the film but again, it remains interesting because we see Chaplin working out his routine.Even though the film isn't that good it's still historically important for Chaplin.Various public domain companies have released the film but for the best quality you should track down the Image release.

In 1914, Charlie Chaplin began making pictures. These were made for Mack Sennett (also known as "Keystone Studios") and were literally churned out in very rapid succession. The short comedies had very little structure and were completely ad libbed. As a result, the films, though popular in their day, were just awful by today's standards. Many of them bear a strong similarity to home movies featuring obnoxious relatives mugging for the camera. Many others show the characters wander in front of the camera and do pretty much nothing. And, regardless of the outcome, Keystone sent them straight to theaters. My assumption is that all movies at this time must have been pretty bad, as the Keystone films with Chaplin were very successful.The Charlie Chaplin we know and love today only began to evolve later in Chaplin's career with Keystone. By 1915, he signed a new lucrative contract with Essenay Studios and the films improved dramatically with Chaplin as director. However, at times these films were still very rough and not especially memorable. No, Chaplin as the cute Little Tramp was still evolving. In 1916, when he switched to Mutual Studios, his films once again improved and he became the more recognizable nice guy--in many of the previous films he was just a jerk (either getting drunk a lot, beating up women, provoking fights with innocent people, etc.). The final evolution of his Little Tramp to classic status occurred in the 1920s as a result of his full-length films.Once again, in this short, there isn't much plot. No wait,...there's zero plot. The Keystone crew went on location (as they often did) to a kids racing event (kind of like a soapbox derby) and told Chaplin to just wander on and off the track again and again for the entire film. Apart from that, he did nothing except getting punched a few times for getting in the way. There is no coherence to this piece and it's only important for historical reasons--especially since this was the first time on film Chaplin dressed as the Little Tramp.

The Kid at the Auto Races at Venice (1914) is basically a short about an auto race and an early debut of Chaplin's alter ego "The Tramp".Minor spoilers....A cameraman is trying to document an auto race on film, that is until an unwelcome spectator decides to mug in front of the camera. Strange short subject comedy from Charles Chaplin and sadly how people act whenever there's a camera around. A bit amusing.An interesting short. Worth watching.B+