A movie cameraman (Charley Chase) is on the lookout for new material but a rival plans to copy everything he films..


The silent era, frequently mischaracterized as a monolithic epoch of simplistic pantomime, found one of its most sophisticated architects in Charley Chase. In the 1924 short Why Men Work, Chase transcends the typical knockabout tropes of his contemporaries to deliver a meta-textual exploration of the cinematic mediu...

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Comparing the cinematic DNA and archive impact of two defining moments in cult history.

Leo McCarey

Unknown Director
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" The silent era, frequently mischaracterized as a monolithic epoch of simplistic pantomime, found one of its most sophisticated architects in Charley Chase. In the 1924 short Why Men Work, Chase transcends the typical knockabout tropes of his contemporaries to deliver a meta-textual exploration of the cinematic medium itself. Playing a cameraman on an obsessive quest for novel imagery, Chase provides a lens into the burgeoning anxiety of the professional class. Unlike the blue-collar struggles..."

Katherine Grant
United States

