At the races in the sixteen minute film Gentlemen of Nerve; aka, Some Nerve (1914), Charlie Chaplin & his tubby buddy attempt to get onto the grounds without paying an entrance fee.

His pal gets stuck in the fence. Charlie milks his friend's predicament for all the sight-gags one can come up with while trying to dislodge his chum.

Though Charlie has the look of the Little Tramp here, he's again not the Innocent. He starts fights, bites a guy's nose, kicks his own chum in the nuts & stubs out a cigarette on his nose, & is just all round cantancerous.

Mabel Norman & her boyfriend are at the races too, & her beau keeps flirting with another woman. So she goes off to flirt with Charlie to get even. Her beau shows up later with his shirt-tail out, wanting his girlfriend back, so Charlie beats him up.

In the end the two guys Charlie has been maltreating get carted off by a policeman but Charlie wins the girl. Without the innocence of the Little Tramp, though, it seems unjust rather than funny.

copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl