Wreaking havoc at the title event, Chaplin doesn't provide any great deal of belly laughs so much as he dishes us up a slice of pre-Kid history. Donning the tramp attire for the first time, his disrupting routine -- though less funny -- is akin to watching a member of the Jackass crew playing dumb and imposing himself on unsuspecting members of the public... but in the 1910s!

The first time of Charlie Chaplin being the Tramp is great only that the plot is somewhat plotless.

I've seen two different cuts of this film. For such a short film, it seems kind of strange.

The tramp dinks around at a race track, fucks with some cameramen, and cold-cocks another little kid. Basically pointless, but still a pleasant watch.

As said by another, pointless, but a funny start for Chaplin's Tramp.

Filming still quite primitive, but pleasant to watch.

I actually liked this a fair bit, mostly because it's so understated and simple. But I most appreciated that they spliced in footage from the camera Charlie kept obstructing, so that we witness the incident from both objective and subjective positions. Nothing alerts us to this clever bit of editing, but it works extremely well at helping us identify with Lehrman's cameraman character.