Da: Blackhawk Collection

The Rink was Chaplin’s eighth film at Mutual, and was one of the greatest public successes thus far, demonstrated by the now famous letter sent by the manager of the Princess Theatre in Piqua, Ohio to the offices of the Mutual Corporation: “We presented your picture entitled The Rink, featuring Charles Chaplin last night. Persistent laughter and shouting on the part of the audience brought down most of the house. We have been showing pictures many years without loss of life or damage to property: chunks of plaster fell off the ceiling and part of the floor collapsed. The Rink has proved a menace to real estate improvement, and the result of one day’s run has cost us considerable outlay in repairs. We enclose plasterer’s and carpenter’s bills. We would appreciate a check by return”. The story in The Rink takes place in two distinct settings: a restaurant and a skating rink, allowing Chaplin to show off a wide range of his strengths. In the first part the comedy flows, as in many of his films, when Chaplin assumes a role of responsibility or authority. As Bazin observed: “Society has a thousand good rules that are nothing more than a system eternally feeding off itself. That’s how it is, particularly when it comes to how society deals with how we eat. Chaplin could never behave appropriately in this context. He’ll always put his elbows in the plates, pour the soup in his lap, etc. The ultimate expression of this is surely when he himself is the waiter”. In the second part his ease, grace and amazing physical agility in the ice skating ‘dance’ leave audiences speechless. His static ‘shimmy’ with the cocktail shaker alone makes the film a gem.