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With Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell. Charlie is an overworked labourer at a film studio who helps a young woman find work even while his coworkers strike against his tyrannical boss.

For short-lived 1980s soap opera of the same name, see Behind The Screen (TV series).
Behind the Screen
Theatrical poster to Behind the Screen
Directed by
Charles Chaplin
Edward Brewer (technical director)
Produced by
Henry P. Caulfield
Written by
Charles Chaplin
Vincent Bryan
Maverick Terrell
Starring
Charles Chaplin
Edna Purviance
Eric Campbell
Cinematography
Roland Totheroh
George C. Zalibra
Editing by
Charles Chaplin
Distributed by
Mutual Film Corporation
Release date(s)
November 13, 1916
Running time
15 minutes
Country
USA
Language
Silent film
English intertitles
Behind the Screen is a 1916 short silent film written by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin, and also starring Eric Campbell and Edna Purviance. The film takes place in a movie studio; Chaplin plays a stagehand named David while Campbell, a large man, plays Goliath, his supervisor. Much of the film is slapstick comedy involving Chaplin manhandling large props, but other plotlines include a strike by the stagehands, and Purviance, who is unable to become an actress, dressing as a man and becoming a stagehand.
Chaplin kissing Purviance in "Behind the Screen"
The film is significant to the history of homosexuality in the cinema, as it contains a joke about the subject, which was relatively unusual at the time. After Chaplin learns that Purviance is really a woman, he kisses her while on the set; at this point, a male stagehand enters and, thinking that Chaplin has kissed a man, starts acting in an overtly effeminate way until Chaplin kicks him.
The documentary series Unknown Chaplin revealed previously unseen footage from this movie, including an alternate take where Purviance's character is shown playing a harp, an outtake in which Edna, playing the guitar, starts laughing (the documentary supports the belief that Purviance and Chaplin were romantically involved at the time), and several takes of a scene in which Chaplin's character narrowly misses having his feet chopped off by an axe (accomplished by filming the scene backwards) -- this scene was never used in the final film.