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.

"Tango Tangle" is a 12-minute short film from the year 1914, the year when World War I began. So if you put this into perspective, you will not be surprised that this is a black-and-white silent film. It is over 100 years old and stars Charlie Chaplin, which means it is almost exclusively comedy. Some drama occasionally, some fight sequences and also some romance of course. But all this really only serves the purpose of getting even more comedy in here. There are more stars working on this one other than Chaplin. The director and writer is Mack Sennett, very successful back in the day and co-starring in here is Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, one of the biggest silent film stars and filmmakers in his own right. Sterling and Conklin are also somewhat famous to people with huge interest in silent films. Charlie here arrives at a dance and mayhem quickly ensues as he keeps fighting the musicians over the love of a young woman that everybody seems to have an interest in. Despite the strong cast and crew, this was only a mediocre movie, nowhere near Chaplin's best. I do not recommend the watch.

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.

Tango Tangles, one of Charlie Chaplin's earliest silents, was made before The Little Tramp became his film persona of choice. Here, without his moustache, the surprisingly young-looking comic does a variation on his popular music hall drunk act, playing a dandy who tries to woo a cute dancer, much to the chagrin of his rivals for her affections -- a band leader and a fat musician, the latter played by Fatty Arbuckle.This is quite a rare film in that Chaplin is completely and utterly overshadowed by one of his co-stars. Ford Sterling, an actor little remembered today, plays the bandleader, and offers such balletic, graceful and funny slapstick in his comedic fights with both Chaplin and Arbuckle that one could think that Chaplin might have taken some inspiration from the older actor in his own later performances as The Tramp.This was a movie that cries out for sound. The story takes place at a dance (apparently a real one, based on the fact that a number of bystanders can be seen smiling and waving at the camera!), yet the music usually heard on the stock soundtracks provided for these silents on DVD and video does not match the action on screen, which appears to be performed in time with whatever music was being played at the time.This isn't a bad film by any means, and it's interesting for its rare glimpse of the silent era Chaplin without his Tramp disguise. It also offers some funny moments for Fatty Arbuckle. But this is very much Ford Sterling's show and he's a joy to watch.