Long Lost Charlie Chaplin Film to Debut at Virginia Film Festival

A Thief Catcher is a one-reel 1914 American-made motion picture, produced by Mack Sennett for Keystone film company, directed by Ford Sterling, and starring Sterling, Mack  Swain, Edgar Kennedy, & Charles Chaplin. The film was believed lost and Chaplin's appearance unknown until a print was discovered in 2010 at a Michigan antique sale.

ARLINGTON, VA (AP).-A short silent comedy that was lost for decades
holds a big surprise for film buffs and historians when a familiar face emerges
from the bushes in police uniform and that unforgettable mustache. The 1914
film, “A Thief Catcher,” was missing for so many years that everyone forgot
Charlie Chaplin made a brief cameo as a buffoon Keystone cop, with all his
familiar twitches and gestures.

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