The New Janitor

The comic business is handled well enough, but not much we haven't seen before (though the gun between the legs bit is good for a laugh). The interesting bit is Chaplin's decision to spend such a large chunk of the picture's second half on the straight dramatic business of the robbery, a definite sign of things to come. So-so on it's own, but an interesting precursor to 1915's "The Bank," just to show how far along Chaplin had gotten in the course of about a year.

The film has a pretty well-defined plot, an oddity at this stage of Chaplin's career. But that keeps the film moving, even though much of it isn't very funny--that is unless you get a kick out of seeing people find endless reasons to punch each other in the face.

Chaplin sexually assaults a woman with a feather duster, almost takes a header out a 7th story window, and beats the crap out of nearly every other character in this short. Pretty amusing.