Very well executed

How sad is this?

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A Major Disappointment

A rapidly produced and poorly thought out short film. The movie barely allows Chaplin to get going with his newly developed ideas, but does allow Mabel to be……Mabel. The staging of a car race apparently sent the Keystone unit racing to the track, presumably without much of plot.At the beginning we see Mr Walrus (Chester Cronklin) chaperoning Mabel at the track. It takes just two seconds, while Walrus fumbles for his money at the turnstile, for Ambrose (Mack Swain) to move in, and try to seduce the lovely Mabel. Predictably, Walrus kicks Mack in the rear, and then quickly hustles his charge into the raceway. Once inside, Mabel seems to be disgruntled at Walrus' intrusion, but becomes truly 'Mabelescent' when she sees the race cars getting ready to go. The pair take their seats, but next to a flirty woman of uncertain years (Phyllis Allen). While Mabel gets all enthusiastic over the racing cars, Mr Walrus gets excited about the flirt with the roving eye. Spotting this, Mabel goes through her catalog of moralistic facial expressions, until she sees Walrus hand Phyllis a note, prompting Mabel to give Walrus a few words – something to do with morality it seems. Mabel suggests they leave, and while passing the flirty woman, stamps on her foot. About this time, Ambrose is busy trying to sneak into the track through a fence. His accomplice is Charlie Chaplin, alias Mr Wow Wow (Wow Wow is another of Charlie's throwbacks to his vaudeville days). Some comical scenes ensue when Ambrose becomes stuck in the fence and is freed by Charlie with a few kicks and lubrication from a soda siphon. Now inside the track, Charlie runs into Walrus and Mabel outside a fenced enclosure. Charlie strikes a match on Walrus' backside, which causes some amusement to Mabel. After a violent clash between the two men, Mabel grabs Walrus and runs off, whereupon Charlie begins a hilarious battle royal with spectators behind the fence. While Charlie begins another altercation with Ambrose, Mabel and her guardian have taken a seat next to, would you believe, the lady flirt. Before Walrus can begin any amorous escapades Mabel has hit him in the head, causing him to head-butt Mistress Flirt. Mabel again runs off and trips over a seated Charlie, who is in the process of drinking from Dixie Chene's pop bottle, while she's distracted. Mabel sits down next to Charlie and squashes his derby, but the two remain amiable to each other, and run off like hyperactive kids to closely examine a propeller-driven car. Returning to their seats Mabel gets amorous towards Charlie, and more so when Walrus turns up. Walrus is understandably angry with Mabel, and restrains his now immoral charge. Charlie is quick to throw off his jacket and square up to Mr Walrus, but when he throws a punch, Mabel is bowled over. However, Walrus is soon seen off, and Charlie becomes Mabel's sheikh for the day. The pair sit down and Mabel begins to flirt, but Walrus and Ambrose have fallen foul of the law, and are marched off in front of Mabel and Charlie, much to their obvious delight. The two begin to cozy up to each other, and Charlie tries to kiss Mabel, who shakes her head and offers her hand, which Charlie lovingly kisses, sending Mabel into raptures of a kind later seen in 'Mickey'. It is noticeable that when Mabel gets carried away laughing she displays her complete set of 'Marie Lloyd' teeth and gums. This is a rare occurrence, as she normally kept them well hidden, although when celebrated as a champion driver in 'Mabel At The Wheel' she again 'forgets' and reveals acres of enamel. The scene where Mabel refuses Charlie's kiss, is reminiscent of a real-life occurrence about this time, when Charlie was rebuked by Mabel, as he tried to kiss her. He had previously been successful, but it seems that Mabel had a rule – one man, one kiss. As Adela Rogers St. John once said, 'Mabel was unusually pure'.The film is the usual Keystone cut-price job, where a movie is made without a set or expensive scenery. As Mack Sennett usually had a car entered for the race, it's highly likely that none of the cast paid an entry fee – the organizers probably welcomed the free publicity (in later years Mabel also entered cars for certain drivers). Mabel, incidentally, can be said to have been a cut-price actress, as she needed few supporting assets beyond herself. Consequently, she was popular with the smaller studios, although giants like Paramount avoided Mabel, due, shall we say, to her irreverent personality. In fact, Mabel had threatened to brain the founder of Paramount Adolph Zukor and Mack Sennett with a heavy book, during Zukor's visit to Keystone.

After Chaplin made one of his best films: Dough & Dynamite, he made one of his worst: Gentlemen Of Nerve. During this first year in films, Chaplin made about a third of all his films. Many of them were experimental in terms of ad-libbing, editing, gags, location shooting, etc. This one takes place at a racetrack where Chaplin and his friend try to get in without paying. Mabel Normand is there with her friend also, and Chaplin manages to rid himself of both his and Mabel's friends. He then woos Mabel in the grandstand with no apparent repercussions from his behavior. Lots of slapstick in here, but there is very little else to recommend this film for other then watching Chaplin develop. The print I saw was badly deteriorated, which may have affected its enjoyment. Charley Chase can be glimpsed. * of 4 stars.

1914 was an amazing year for Charlie Chaplin. It was his first year in films and he appeared in more than 30 films! While most of these films weren't particularly good, they did give him a chance to slowly evolve his screen persona. However, by this film, the familiar "Little Tramp" character was still in development. Sure Charlie looked the part, but his character still lacked the sweetness and decency that he later developed. Instead, Chaplin often hit, kicked or did other nasty things to people for seemingly no reason at all.As for this very slight film, it is interesting to watch for the cast. While they are not familiar today, Chaplin stars along with Mabel Normand, Chester Conklin and Mack Swain--all exceptionally popular stars with Keystone Films. The problem with this film is that while it has a few nice scenes, the plot seems very vague and improperly developed. Chester and Mabel got to the race track (a very common theme in Keystone productions--it must have been located near a race track). Charlie and Mack show up and sneak in. Mack is chased by the police for doing this while Charlie slaps Chester around and steals his girl. In the end, for no apparent reason, the cops take Chester and Mack away--leaving Charlie with Mabel (who, oddly, didn't seem put off by Charlie's boorish behaviors).Unless you are a huge silent comedy buff or film historian, this is a very forgettable film that is only important in the evolution of Chaplin. What he and the other actors actually do on stage, while not unusual for a Keystone film, isn't particularly funny when seen today.

It would probably be inaccurate to claim that Mack Sennett's Keystone-comedies of 1914 only provided either havoc in a park or havoc at an auto-race track, but I would have understood it if someone had that impression. Taking place during a genuine auto-race, GENTLEMEN OF NERVE resembles several previous Keystone-films quite a bit, notably THE SPEED KINGS as well as Chaplin's own KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE and MABEL AT THE WHEEL. Here, Mabel and Mack Swain look forward to a day at the races when Charlie turns up and causes plenty of annoyance to Swain, as he openly flirts with Mabel.Nothing truly new under the sun, perhaps, but GENTLEMEN OF NERVE still ranks among the more amusing Keystones Chaplin appeared in. One funny bit involves Mack trying to enter the raceway through a hole in a fence but gets stuck, only to get a policeman behind him at that very unpleasant moment. Chaplin is completely confident in his role as "the little fellow" by this time; though still far less lovable than in later films, his playful agility and facial expressions are worth the time for their own sake. It's also interesting to note that the crowds of people surrounding him in this film, many of whom have presumably turned up only to enjoy the auto-race, often seem to recognize Chaplin by this time, less than a year after he entered the medium of film. Such location shots in Chaplin's films would become less and less frequent through the next year and then disappear altogether, but while making GENTLEMEN OF NERVE, he still has to cope with the curious crowds while trying to be creative as a performer.In sum, the film is not a master piece, and was never intended to be; on the other hand, it's still quite funny.