Character Studies (1927) Online

I wish I knew more about this movie. I'd never even heard of 'Character Studies' until just today, when it was screened at a silent comedy tribute to Roscoe Arbuckle, but aside from seeing it once I know nothing about it or the circumstances under which it was made. Having seen it, I can attest that it's a fascinating treat for silent film buffs, and I'm glad it survives.

This is a six-minute vignette featuring six legendary screen stars of the 1920s, each playing himself. The set-up is simple: vaudeville performer Carter DeHaven steps out onto a stage and announces that he will now impersonate several famous movie stars, starting with Buster Keaton. DeHaven then steps behind a sort of combination makeup table/lectern where he keeps several costumes, hats, wigs, etc. for his act, and begins dressing as Buster. As he bends over to pull on an appropriate wig his face disappears from view. His hand reaches for the familiar pork-pie hat, he straightens up -- and we're looking at Buster Keaton! He poses for us, turning solemnly one way, then the other, and there's no mistake about it, this is Buster himself in his youthful prime. He turns away from the camera again, pulls off the hat and wig, and we're once more looking at Carter DeHaven, who announces that his next impersonation will be Harold Lloyd. He dons a new wig, puts on glasses, bends over behind the podium for a moment, straightens up -- and presto! It's Harold Lloyd! The joke here, in case I'm not being clear about it, is that Carter DeHaven wasn't actually impersonating anyone, his "act" was accomplished through camera trickery and was simply an excuse for these stars to contribute brief cameos to a short film that seems to have been intended as a pleasant hoax.

At any rate, after Harold takes his bow, we're treated to glimpses of Roscoe Arbuckle, Rudolph Valentino, and Douglas Fairbanks, the last of whom is dressed in full Robin Hood regalia. Doug makes the flashiest appearance of all, actually leaping over the podium at the camera, then splaying out his arms and gesticulating wildly in an amiable self-parody of his acting style. For the grand finale, just in case any viewers might still be in the dark about the authenticity of what they're seeing, Mr. DeHaven shrinks several inches for his "impersonation" of child star Jackie Coogan, dressed approximately as he was in The Kid. Jackie bows, and the film is over.

All I know about Carter DeHaven is that he was a stage and film actor and occasional director, who later served as Charlie Chaplin's assistant director on Modern Times and The Great Dictator; he was also the father of actress Gloria DeHaven. Beyond that, well, it's safe to say that when it comes to Hollywood's upper echelon, the guy was pretty well connected!

P.S. August 2005: Since writing this piece I've seen Character Studies again and learned more about it. The film is now available on DVD as part of an excellent set entitled "The Forgotten Films of Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle," with an optional commentary track delivered by film historian Richard M. Roberts. According to Mr. Roberts, a number of clues suggest that the film was made early in 1925 for a private screening at a party in honor of Charlie Chaplin -- the one male star of the period who is most conspicuous by his absence. Clues pointing to the year include the jig danced by Harold Lloyd, direct from his 1925 comedy The Freshman, the reduced girth of Roscoe Arbuckle (who lost a lot of weight in the mid-'20s, after the scandal that drove him from the screen), and the size of child star Jackie Coogan, who appears to be around 10 years old here. After the party screening the film was eventually released to regular theaters later in the '20s, possibly after the removal of footage featuring Arbuckle, whose reputation was still under a cloud. In any event, it's great that the complete and unedited version of this intriguing novelty item is now widely available.

Besides being a rather tantalizing piece of movie history, this is a fun and well-crafted short feature in its own right. The idea is very simple, but it is pulled off flawlessly, with special effects that are excellent for its era, and with plenty of good-natured energy from the numerous stars who appear in it.

Carter DeHaven sets things up by announcing a series of 'impressions', which then introduce appearances by several of the biggest film stars of the 1920s. A number of them perform brief but wonderful trademark bits: Harold Lloyd does the little jig from "The Freshman", Roscoe Arbuckle (looking much thinner as a result of his legal ordeal) does a frying pan gag, and Douglas Fairbanks appears as a swashbuckling Robin Hood. It's great fun just to see these and other brief appearances.

The movie's historical background is equally interesting. As other reviewers have noted, the original date can be determined with a little detective work, and Richard Roberts's commentary on the Laughsmith/Mackinac Media collection of Roscoe Arbuckle movies is well worth listening to, for all the fascinating details that he points out.

But really, you don't even have to care about the background all that much in order to find this miniature feature a pleasure to watch.

Years ago, when there was a syndicated special called "The Best of Gleason 3", one of the segments from "The Jackie Gleason Show" that was shown was one where the host was confronted by a weird-looking man claiming to impersonate various stars. He did this by disappearing behind the curtain and coming out as Zazu Pitts, Charles Laughton, etc. What really happened was those stars actually appeared as themselves, did their trademarks, and then disappeared behind the curtain with that weird man coming back in front to say who else he was going to do. That's pretty much the premise of this short except Carter DeHaven just goes behind his large chest, puts on a few wigs, changes clothes, and then suddenly you see him "as" Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Roscoe Arbuckle (presumably post-scandal since he seems to have lost some weight since his last movie), Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks (in Robin Hood costume), and Jackie Coogan. It's pretty interesting seeing no noticeable cuts when DeHaven "changes" to those stars though because most of the stars didn't really do anything, I found the whole thing a little bland. Still, Character Studies is worth a look if you're a film fan like me. P.S. I just found out Mr. DeHaven was born in my birthtown of Chicago, Ill.

I saw this at a screening of Buster Keaton's 'The General'. It was unannounced, but a pleasant little surprise. Featuring Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Rudolph Valentino, Roscoe Arbuckle, Douglas Fairbanks, and Jackie Coogan, it's a nice short film for anyone who gets a kick out of seeing celebrities of the silent era.

Audiences of today can definitely tell how Carter DeHaven's "impressions" of the aforementioned celebrities were done, but I'm not so sure on how keen audiences of the day were to "movie magic".

Overall, an amusing bit. It would have been more entertaining if Mr. DeHaven threw in an impression of an actress, but perhaps 1921 audiences weren't so comfortable with what would be transvestitism ... But, then again, Julian Eltinge made a living out of it.

Just to answer some of the context comments - I saw this in 2003 at Slapticon I (slapstick comedy convention). The film was from a private collection, and hadn't yet been restored / tinted (although it was in fine shape).

At the festival the presenter explained that this was shot likely for a Hollywood party or private audience, not general commercial release. This makes a lot of sense - at the time of its release (1925, **not** the 1921 that IMDb has), Roscoe Arbuckle was still very much banned (even if technically unofficially) from the screen and this film would have gone nowhere commercially. Even without the ban, it's doubtful that audiences would have quietly tolerated his presence in a film since they overwhelmingly believed him guilty (despite having been acquitted of all charges, with an apology from the jury).

Don't know why, but watching it just made me crack up.

It's part of the recently released Arbuckle box, and probably the booklet explains the background; I don't have a copy yet, so I can't say.

Quick-change comedian Carter De Haven announces he will do a few impressions, ruffles through his make-up trunk, and does six amazing impersonations - Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, and Jackie Coogan. They are so real, you'd swear De Haven was a chameleon… Due to the presence of the six stars "impersonated" by DeHaven, it is a remarkable find, and is likewise one of the best "short" films of its type.

At first, you're tempted to date the production at 1922, due to the presence of Fairbanks in "Robin Hood" (1922) regalia. Fairbanks and Coogan are the two most obviously in costume, but the latter looks a few years older than he appeared in "The Kid" (1921). The other stars look like they appeared in 1925. Lloyd and Valentino seem to have stepped right out of scenes from "Cobra" (1925) and "The Freshman" (1925). Apparently, this was made to celebrate Charlie Chaplin's completion of "The Gold Rush" (1925). All things considered, that makes sense. It was shown around May 1925, at "Pickfair".

********* Character Studies (5/25) Carter DeHaven ~ Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton

This very unique short is included in the four DVD set of THE FORGOTTEN FILMS OF ROSCOE "FATTY" ARBUCKLE. The exact date for this short and why it was made are unknown, but it is odd in that Fatty makes a brief appearance AFTER the famous rape scandal. The commentary on the DVD guesses that perhaps this was a movie made by United Artists (the studio owned by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks) to show to their friends at parties and was not ORIGINALLY intended to be shown to general audiences. However, a few years later, the film was released to the public.

Carter DeHaven, an actor pretty much forgotten with time, is the star of the short. He is standing on a stage and announces he will be doing some impersonations of celebrities. He has a chest in front of him and he pretends to be taking makeup and props out of it and ducks down--when, with trick camera-work, he emerges as an exact copy of the original. Actually, the camera relatively seamlessly stops and the ACTUAL celebrity is featured--i.e., pretending to be an imitation while it's really the original. This is a cute idea and such very famous stars are featured as Harold Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks, Fatty Arbuckle, Rudolph Valentino and ultimately a young Jackie Coogan! Wow--that Carter DeHaven sure seems versatile!!! The short is an absolute must for lovers of silent cinema.

When I first saw this short, it took be a few rewinds to prove to myself that those were actually the REAL stars, not someone in makeup! Today it seems impossible to have some of the biggest stars of Hollywood at the time in a fun little film like this. It is simple light-hearted fun to watch, but for the time rather technically involving, at least because of all the trouble Dehaven goes through with his "makeup". Nice little time capsule.

"Character Studies" is an American movie from 1927 that is from the later days of silent film and also still in black-and-white of course. The star here is Carter DeHaven, who at the same time is probably also the least known cast member as he pulls off a magic show in which he transforms into some of the biggest names from back then. And they really needed these names to make it work. With the exception of Chaplin, you will find all the Tier I names from the silent era and it's a nice deal of trick photography that makes even a transformation into probably the world's most known child actor look credible. It is a nice little presentation and I enjoyed it. You can also appreciate it if silent films are not among your very favorite genre because I did so myself. Also good to keep it this short at comfortably under 10 minutes as it might have gotten repetitive otherwise. Definitely a success, go check it out.

This film short was originally made for the entertainment of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and guests, and was probably shown at Pickfair to the delight of all. Today, it is special to see because of the assemblage of those being impersonated.

It is best not to know about the film's concept before watching it, except that Carter DeHaven, using a trunk and some wardrobe props promises to do impersonations of various Hollywood stars upon request. Since this film was made during the silent era, these impersonations are purely visual.

Viewers who are amazed by his facility with disguises will get a chuckle from his last one--Jackie Coogan.

The film is the result of a sizable effort and its conceit is ingenious. It must have been a hoot for those who originally saw it.

WHAT A PLEASANT little surprise and a reaffirmation of the old adage that "Good Things come in Small Packages!" It was quite by chanced hat we stumbled across this on Turner Classic Movies this past weekend.

AS BRIEF AS was the screen running time, it is just as brilliant. To our shame, we hadn't ever heard of Carter Dehaven.

SHAME ON US!! We assure you that we do now; as do so many of our cinematic constituents! THOSE UNCREDITED GUEST appearances by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Jackie Coogan, Douglas Fairbanks, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Rudolph Valentino were an example of a throwback to the very earliest days of film.

THE "MAGICAL" USE of the camera's lens by transforming Mr. Dehaven, right before our eyes, into all of those celebs of Screendom. The technique and resulting "transformations" certainly are identical to those employed by Georges Melies two decades or so earlier.

THE ORIGIN OF this short as a private party gift to Douglas Fairbanks and wife, Mary Pickford, is certainly an example of the opulence that was Hollywood in the 1920s. But in the later decision to release this commercially rendered this a huge chunk of amazement to be shared by all!

THANKS YOU SO much, Mr. Dehaven!!

Character Studies (1927)

** (out of 4)

Historically interesting, if overall silly, film has Carter DeHaven doing various impersonations of other silent screen stars. Instead of him actually doing the impersonations, through editing, the real stars end up coming out of the magic box. Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Jackie Coogan, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino and Fatty Arbuckle appear as themselves. Overall the film is rather boring and there's nothing too special here outside of seeing the real stars. What makes this film so interesting is that it was apparently filmed in 1925 as some sort of "friends" movie because Arbuckle had already been blacklisted from appearing in movies due to the murder case he went through.

Impressionist Carter DeHaven goes through the major silent screen stars as the tide was turning as sound prepared to take over. He has a stage and a trunk, and in that trunk are costumes, wigs, fake mustaches and a few props. All of a sudden, up pops Buster Keaton, deadpan grimace and all. Down he pops again, rummaging through the trunk, and up pops a dancing Harold Lloyd. The charade continues, using padding to represent Fatty Arbuckle (flipping pancakes behind his back), becoming a very believable Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Robin Hood, and finalizing it as Jackie Coogan as "The kid". It's all very fast, very funny, and makes you wonder, "How did he do that?" These silent rarities are often a mixed bag, showing the modern audience some really untalented deservedly forgotten acts of the past, but in the case of Carter DeHaben, he is most worthy of re- discovery