Lost and Forgotten Charlie Chaplin Film Found? (Updated)

The frames show Chaplin (left) arguing with a look-alike in an office.

The film is in fair condition, though I only have the last part of the movie.

If you look closely and squint a bit, a shape can be seen outlining the words "The End". The same shape was used by Keystone Studios for their logo. Chaplin made his debut for the company in 1914, and ended his work for Keystone the same year.

The last 240 frames of the film were included on a spool in an eBay purchase made in January 2013 for a Keystone Kinescope E-32 projector.

In the same box where I recently found the lost 1920s Mickey Mouse film strips, I have discovered around 6.6 feet of film from the end of an unknown Charlie Chaplin short. The 6.6 feet of film runs around 240 frames and lasts around 20 seconds, and only one scene is displayed.

Only the last part of the film was included on the spool in the box, so there’s no easy way to find the title. After scanning through all of Chaplin’s publicly available filmography, I wasn’t able to find any trace of the scene in his movies.

While I’m unable to determine the title at this time, I can tell it’s a film shot at Keystone Studios in 1914. One small detail allowed me to come to this conclusion. The Keystone Studios logo shape can be seen surrounding the words “The End” in the final frames. 1914 was the first year Chaplin appeared in motion pictures, the only year he worked with Keystone and the same year he created his famous character “The Little Tramp”.

Update (February 5, 2013): The @ChaplinOfficial account on Twitter helped to identify the film as being from The Floorwalker. It’s not “lost” after all, and it’s from 1916, not 1914. While this little mystery has been solved, the Mickey Mouse film is still a question mark…