BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

mymangodfrey During his year at Keystone, when he rose from "anonymous vaudevillian" to "America's most beloved movie star" ("world's most beloved movie star" would take another year), Chaplin bridled against the improvised-boxing-and-frantic-running style of comedy that Mack Sennett pioneered.When it worked, this improvisational style could be joyful and amusing. When it didn't, the movies seemed lazily constructed, empty and chaotic. Tango Tangles, despite its historical interest (one of few shorts showing a young and very handsome Chaplin out of his Tramp getup), and despite the always-welcome presence of Fatty Arbuckle, is one of the shapeless failures.There's no movie here: just a bunch of great silent comedy stars goofing around, and not in an inspired way.

TheLittleSongbird Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors. He did do better than 'Tango Tangle'. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'Tango Tangle' is a long way from a career high, but does have historical significance for obvious reasons. 'Tango Tangle' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and a good deal of other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious, the humour only amusing and lacking freshness at times and parts a touch scrappy. For someone who was relatively new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'Tango Tangle' is not bad at all. While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. Ford Sterling steals the show. Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'Tango Tangle' is mildly humorous, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short. Overall, far from one of Chaplin's best but not bad at all. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Michael_Elliott Tango Tangles (1914) * 1/2 (out of 4) Keystone romp has a dance hall girl getting the attention of a band leader (Ford Sterling), a clarinettist (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle) and a drunk (Charles Chaplin). The three men eventually bump into one another and more than one fight breaks out. Most might be attracted to this film due to the early appearance of Chaplin but it's the now forgotten Sterling who steals the show. He has a couple funny moments throughout the film but overall he doesn't have too much to work with. For the most part we just see the men each trying to sneak off with the girl but getting busted by another one of the guys and a fight breaks out. Arbuckle gets a nice scene where he's about to throw a man but that's about it for him. I was disappointed with Chaplin (how many times can you say that?) because he really doesn't bring too much to his role as the drunk. The one funny thing is that it appears this was filmed at a real dance and some people there didn't know they were filming a movie.

CitizenCaine In his sixth film, Chaplin plays a music hall rival with Fatty Arbuckle and Ford Sterling. The appears to be a real dance in one scene and it would have been great to hear the actual music from the era. Instead, we get the droning soundtrack which stops and starts again several times through the film without any correlation to the scene occurring. Fatty Arbuckle moves well for a 300 pound man, although he was relatively young at the time. Ford Sterling wins out in the end and we somehow wonder whether or not Chaplin was being used properly at the time. In these early films he bounces back and forth between playing heels and troublemakers, as in this film, and a rough version of the tramp. The film is full of stock exaggerated character mannerisms for the period. ** of 4 stars.