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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 829

Behind the Screen

191623 minUnited States

Video edition: Wikimedia Commons
Original language: No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: English.
This copy runs: 25:26
Subtitles: No subtitle track in this language

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

Wikimedia Commons · Charlie Chaplin · Public domain

Synopsis

An overworked stagehand carries the physical burden of a film studio while his supervisor claims the authority. A young woman rejected as an actress disguises herself as a male worker and joins him behind the sets. Labor unrest, mistaken assumptions and a pie fight turn the business of making orderly screen illusions into a threat to the studio itself.

Cast

Charles Chaplin

Edna Purviance

Eric Campbell

DirectorsCharles Chaplin

Behind the scenes

Chaplin returns to the working world of silent filmmaking, using cumbersome props and studio mechanisms as comic equipment. The pie-throwing sequence spills across productions, making one film's comedy invade another's solemn historical setting.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Wikipedia — film reference Wikidata — film identity and credits

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The public-domain references concern the original films in the United States. Rights can differ for other countries, editions, restorations, music or translations. Sources are listed on each film page.

Availability checked on September 12, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

Charles Chaplin — Strauss-Peyton Studio, 1921; published in Photoplay no. 3 (1922); National Portrait Gallery / Wikimedia Commons. · Public domain in the United States (PD-US-expired)
Edna Purviance — Unknown photographer, 1923; J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, University of Washington Libraries, SAYRE 8372 / Wikimedia Commons. · Public domain in the United States (PD-US-expired)
Eric Campbell — Unknown photographer, by 1917; The Moving Picture World (1918), p. 53; Internet Archive / Wikimedia Commons. · Public domain in the United States (PD-US-expired)

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