Charlie (West) stays at a seaside lodging house frequented by sailors. He gets involved with a gang of crooks when a sea captain attempts to kidnap his landlady's daughter.Charlie (West) stays at a seaside lodging house frequented by sailors. He gets involved with a gang of crooks when a sea captain attempts to kidnap his landlady's daughter.Charlie (West) stays at a seaside lodging house frequented by sailors. He gets involved with a gang of crooks when a sea captain attempts to kidnap his landlady's daughter.
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Charley Chase
- Henchman
- (uncredited)
Ethelyn Gibson
- Mrs. Casey
- (uncredited)
Stanton Heck
- Sea Captain
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- Charley Chase(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Featured review
Don't fall for cheap imitations
I once went to a nightclub in Los Angeles where I witnessed a performance by an Elvis impersonator. He was dressed in a white jumpsuit (it was a "Vegas" Presley act), and he had the familiar hip-swiveling moves down cold. His Elvis-style singing was pretty good, too. All in all, he was fairly impressive, but at the end of the day there's no getting around the fact that there was only one Elvis Presley, and this guy wasn't him.
And that brings us to Billy West. At the height of the so-called "Chaplin craze," which coincided with the Great War, there were Charlie Chaplin look-alike contests all across the country, Chaplin impersonators on the vaudeville stage (including Charlie's former understudy Stan Laurel), and a few imitators who performed their acts before the cameras. Billy West was, by all accounts, the most accomplished Chaplin impersonator in the movies, and it's said that even Chaplin himself thought so. Billy bore a striking facial and physical resemblance to his subject, although silent comedy buffs can quickly spot tell-tale differences between the two: Billy, unlike Charlie, was right-handed, his face was somewhat square in shape, and his hair was usually parted in the center and slicked down, thus less bushy than Charlie's famous curls. And while Billy West moved gracefully and took falls as well as any of his contemporaries, he lacked that special dancer's elasticity that was the Little Tramp's greatest gift as a performer.
Another difference between the work of Chaplin and his best-known impersonator is clear in the Billy West comedy Ship Ahoy, and it concerns good taste versus bad taste. As late as 1919 West still favored the kind of vulgar gags Chaplin had left behind at Essanay several years earlier. This two-reeler was written and directed by Charley Chase (who also plays a small role), another gifted comedian who would soon become a star in his own right, but regrettably in this case his material is generally weak and sometimes in poor taste. The film begins in a seedy dock-side boarding house that caters to sailors, where Billy is a lodger far behind on paying his rent. The first major comic set-piece comes when Billy hides in his room from a seemingly crazy Italian guy who is flinging knives. As it turns out, the man is a performer who is practicing his knife-throwing act in the hallway -- which doesn't make any sense, but never mind. Billy dodges the blades, his hat is split in two, there's a fight, and then the Italian gets impaled in the butt by one of his own knives. We're treated to a gruesome shot of Billy pulling it out, slowly. The fight is interrupted when the landlady calls everyone to lunch, and the Italian promises he'll kill Billy after the meal, but we never see him again. It's that kind of movie. Because Billy can't pay his rent he's forced to move from his room to the grungy attic. That night there's a violent storm. Billy's sheets are blown off, then his bed is blown apart by the wind, so he sleeps in an improvised hammock.
Just when you're thinking this movie isn't going to go anywhere, the plot proper gets underway when a burly sea captain shows up. He's played by a large actor named Stanton Heck, who wears heavy makeup that was obviously intended to help him resemble Chaplin's frequent nemesis, Eric Campbell. The captain is a crook and a lecher who soon forces himself upon the landlady's daughter, Miss Casey (played by Ethelyn Gibson, who wears her hair like Edna Purviance). Billy comes to the girl's defense by donning drag and luring the captain away. This is a pretty funny sequence, due in part to the hilariously bizarre hat Billy wears as part of his disguise. The captain is briefly thwarted, but he later tricks Miss Casey into delivering a message to his boat which is manned by his henchmen. She is captured and held prisoner.
As it turns out, the captain and his crew are involved in jewel thievery. (His crew includes Leo White, who formerly worked with the real Chaplin, and our writer-director Charley Chase). Billy disguises himself as a cop, sneaks on board the boat, and then much frantic dashing about ensues. There's a nice little gag in this scene: in the middle of all the mayhem Billy calls a 'Time Out,' checks his watch, finds that it's still ticking, then permits the mayhem to resume. There's also an impressively staged shot when we see all the activity on-board from a distance, in a cut-away set representing the boat, as Billy and the crooks tumble and rush from one room to another. It's the highlight of the movie, but I must add that when Buster Keaton used a similar idea in his comedy The High Sign, produced a year or so after this, he improved on it enormously.
In sum, Ship Ahoy isn't all that great, but silent comedy buffs will want to see it for three reasons: first, because there are a couple of good sequences; second, because of Charley Chase's involvement, and third, for confirmation that even the best Chaplin impersonator of his day wasn't nearly as good as his subject. At the end of the day there's no getting around the fact that there was only one Charlie Chaplin, and Billy West was definitely not him.
And that brings us to Billy West. At the height of the so-called "Chaplin craze," which coincided with the Great War, there were Charlie Chaplin look-alike contests all across the country, Chaplin impersonators on the vaudeville stage (including Charlie's former understudy Stan Laurel), and a few imitators who performed their acts before the cameras. Billy West was, by all accounts, the most accomplished Chaplin impersonator in the movies, and it's said that even Chaplin himself thought so. Billy bore a striking facial and physical resemblance to his subject, although silent comedy buffs can quickly spot tell-tale differences between the two: Billy, unlike Charlie, was right-handed, his face was somewhat square in shape, and his hair was usually parted in the center and slicked down, thus less bushy than Charlie's famous curls. And while Billy West moved gracefully and took falls as well as any of his contemporaries, he lacked that special dancer's elasticity that was the Little Tramp's greatest gift as a performer.
Another difference between the work of Chaplin and his best-known impersonator is clear in the Billy West comedy Ship Ahoy, and it concerns good taste versus bad taste. As late as 1919 West still favored the kind of vulgar gags Chaplin had left behind at Essanay several years earlier. This two-reeler was written and directed by Charley Chase (who also plays a small role), another gifted comedian who would soon become a star in his own right, but regrettably in this case his material is generally weak and sometimes in poor taste. The film begins in a seedy dock-side boarding house that caters to sailors, where Billy is a lodger far behind on paying his rent. The first major comic set-piece comes when Billy hides in his room from a seemingly crazy Italian guy who is flinging knives. As it turns out, the man is a performer who is practicing his knife-throwing act in the hallway -- which doesn't make any sense, but never mind. Billy dodges the blades, his hat is split in two, there's a fight, and then the Italian gets impaled in the butt by one of his own knives. We're treated to a gruesome shot of Billy pulling it out, slowly. The fight is interrupted when the landlady calls everyone to lunch, and the Italian promises he'll kill Billy after the meal, but we never see him again. It's that kind of movie. Because Billy can't pay his rent he's forced to move from his room to the grungy attic. That night there's a violent storm. Billy's sheets are blown off, then his bed is blown apart by the wind, so he sleeps in an improvised hammock.
Just when you're thinking this movie isn't going to go anywhere, the plot proper gets underway when a burly sea captain shows up. He's played by a large actor named Stanton Heck, who wears heavy makeup that was obviously intended to help him resemble Chaplin's frequent nemesis, Eric Campbell. The captain is a crook and a lecher who soon forces himself upon the landlady's daughter, Miss Casey (played by Ethelyn Gibson, who wears her hair like Edna Purviance). Billy comes to the girl's defense by donning drag and luring the captain away. This is a pretty funny sequence, due in part to the hilariously bizarre hat Billy wears as part of his disguise. The captain is briefly thwarted, but he later tricks Miss Casey into delivering a message to his boat which is manned by his henchmen. She is captured and held prisoner.
As it turns out, the captain and his crew are involved in jewel thievery. (His crew includes Leo White, who formerly worked with the real Chaplin, and our writer-director Charley Chase). Billy disguises himself as a cop, sneaks on board the boat, and then much frantic dashing about ensues. There's a nice little gag in this scene: in the middle of all the mayhem Billy calls a 'Time Out,' checks his watch, finds that it's still ticking, then permits the mayhem to resume. There's also an impressively staged shot when we see all the activity on-board from a distance, in a cut-away set representing the boat, as Billy and the crooks tumble and rush from one room to another. It's the highlight of the movie, but I must add that when Buster Keaton used a similar idea in his comedy The High Sign, produced a year or so after this, he improved on it enormously.
In sum, Ship Ahoy isn't all that great, but silent comedy buffs will want to see it for three reasons: first, because there are a couple of good sequences; second, because of Charley Chase's involvement, and third, for confirmation that even the best Chaplin impersonator of his day wasn't nearly as good as his subject. At the end of the day there's no getting around the fact that there was only one Charlie Chaplin, and Billy West was definitely not him.
helpful•40
- wmorrow59
- Aug 20, 2006
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