We want to get to know you more to help improve our service. Please take 2 minutes to fill out our survey here. Thank you! test2

Discover content and watch films on our latest and improved iOS app. Download it here!

This film is currently unavailable

The Floorwalker U rating

Chaplin’s first comedy for Mutual Films features the first film use of an elevator as a source for slapstick.

Comedy 1916 28 mins Silent

Director: Charles Chaplin

Overview

In Charlie Chaplin’s first comedy for Mutual Film Corporation he plays a variant of his Tramp persona who shares a likeness to the floorwalker of a department store. The resemblance leads to confusion, chaos and much hilarity.

As well as being Chaplin’s debut for Mutual, The Floorwalker is a significant film comedy in other respects; it contains the first known instances of two popular tropes in screen comedy – the use of an elevator as a source for slapstick, and a ‘mirror’ scene in which two participants ape each other’s movements (most famously used in the Marx Brothers’ film Duck Soup).