Cruel, Cruel Love

1914 film

March 26, 1914 (1914-03-26)

Running time

16 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguagesSilent film; English (Original titles)

Cruel, Cruel Love

Cruel, Cruel Love is a 1914 American comedy silent film made at the Keystone Studios and starring Charlie Chaplin.

Plot

Chaplin plays a character quite different from the Little Tramp for which he would become famous. In this short Keystone film, Chaplin is instead a rich, upper-class gentleman (Lord Helpus) whose romance is endangered when his girlfriend (played by Minta Durfee) sees him being embraced by her maid and jumps to the wrong conclusion. She angrily sends Lord Helpus away, saying she never wants to see him again. Distraught, when Lord Helpus arrives home he is determined to end his life. He swallows what he thinks is a glass of poison and envisions himself being tortured in Hell. Not long afterward, the girlfriend's gardener and maid explain to Minta that Lord Helpus was not flirting at all. Minta quickly sends a note of apology to Lord Helpus. upon reading it, Lord Helpus flies into a panic and summons an ambulance to help him before he dies from the fatal dose of poison. There is no danger of Lord Helpus expiring: His butler had stealthily switched the liquid in the glass to harmless water.

Chaplin's romantic interest in this film, Minta Durfee, was the wife of fellow Keystone actor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.

Cast

Charlie Chaplin - Lord Helpus/Mr. Dovey
Chester Conklin - Lord Helpus' Butler
Minta Durfee - The Lady
Eva Nelson - Maid

Preservation status

Cruel, Cruel Love was presumed to be a lost film for more than 50 years until a complete nitrate film copy in reasonable condition was discovered in South America.^[1] Restoration copies were made by David Shepard of Film Preservation Associates, and by Lobster Films of Paris, and its original two-reel format is available for sale.^[2]

Review

A reviewer from Motion Picture World wrote, "Slight in texture, but it makes a pleasing, laughable picture."

References

^ Savanna Maue (February 16, 2019). "Kansas Silent Film Festival to show 'lost films restored' at weekend-long event". The Topeka Capital-Journal.
^ "Silent Era : Progressive Silent Film List". Silentera.com. Retrieved 24 October 2017.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cruel, Cruel Love.

The short film Cruel, Cruel Love is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
Cruel, Cruel Love at IMDb
Cruel, Cruel Love at SilentEra
Cruel, Cruel Love on YouTube
Cruel, Cruel Love at Rotten Tomatoes

Charlie Chaplin

Filmography
The Tramp
Chaplin family

Books

My Autobiography
Chaplin: His Life and Art
Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Close-Ups
Chaplin: A Life
Sunnyside

Songs

"Smile" (1936 music, 1954 lyrics)
"Eternally (Terry's Theme)" (1952 music, 1953 lyrics)
"This Is My Song" (1967)

Other

Films about Chaplin

Chaplinesque, My Life and Hard Times
Unknown Chaplin
Chaplin
Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin

Musicals about Chaplin

Little Tramp
Chaplin (1993)
Chaplin (2006)

Films directed by Chaplin

Keystone Studios	Twenty Minutes of Love (1914) Caught in the Rain (1914) A Busy Day (1914) Her Friend the Bandit (1914) Mabel's Married Life (1914) Laughing Gas (1914) The Property Man (1914) The Face on the Bar Room Floor (1914) Recreation (1914) The Masquerader (1914) His New Profession (1914) The Rounders (1914) The New Janitor (1914) Those Love Pangs (1914) Dough and Dynamite (1914) Gentlemen of Nerve (1914) His Musical Career (1914) His Trysting Place (1914) Getting Acquainted (1914) His Prehistoric Past (1914)
Essanay Studios	His New Job (1915) A Night Out (1915) The Champion (1915) In the Park (1915) A Jitney Elopement (1915) The Tramp (1915) By the Sea (1915) Work (1915) A Woman (1915) The Bank (1915) Shanghaied (1915) A Night in the Show (1915) A Burlesque on Carmen (1915) Police (1916) Triple Trouble (1918)
Mutual Film Corp	The Floorwalker (1916) The Fireman (1916) The Vagabond (1916) One A.M. (1916) The Count (1916) The Pawnshop (1916) Behind the Screen (1916) The Rink (1916) Easy Street (1917) The Cure (1917) The Immigrant (1917) The Adventurer (1917)
First National	A Dog's Life (1918) The Bond (1918) Shoulder Arms (1918) Sunnyside (1919) A Day's Pleasure (1919) The Kid (1921) The Idle Class (1921) Pay Day (1922) The Pilgrim (1923)
United Artists	A Woman of Paris (1923) The Gold Rush (1925) The Circus (1928) City Lights (1931) Modern Times (1936) The Great Dictator (1940) Monsieur Verdoux (1947) Limelight (1952)
Later productions	A King in New York (1957) A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
See also	The Chaplin Revue (1959)