“POLICE” (Charlie Chaplin) — Japanese “tanzaku / speed” poster, unique Japanese artwork, circa 1950s — Size c. 26 × 73 cm

Charlie Chaplin — POLICE (1916)

Japanese “tanzaku / speed” poster, unique Japanese artwork, circa 1950s (see Dating Note)

A striking and scarce Japanese strip-format poster for Charlie Chaplin’s Essanay short Police, presented here under the Japanese release title 『チャップリンの偽警官』 (Chaplin no Nise Keikan — “Chaplin’s Fake Policeman”). In a format designed for maximum impact in the narrowest of display spaces, the image delivers a masterclass in mid‑century Japanese poster graphics: a saturated vermilion ground, a cool teal-black silhouette, and a thunderbolt cascade of lemon‑yellow title lettering that seems to tumble through the frame.

Design and Graphic Power

Few national poster traditions embraced bold typography as pure composition like Japan’s, and this example is exemplary. The designer turns the title into an engineered diagonal “spine,” cutting across Chaplin’s figure with sculptural, almost architectural letterforms. The palette is unapologetically rich—crimson, teal, emerald, ochre and cream—anchored by a stylised portrait that balances humour and severity, mirroring the film’s oscillation between slapstick velocity and unexpected tenderness.

The tall, narrow format—often encountered in Japan as a “tanzaku” / “speed” poster—was intended to catch the eye at street level and in tight theatrical corridors, and survives far less often than standard cinema sizes. 

The Film

Originally released 27 May 1916, Police is among Chaplin’s defining Essanay comedies, built around an ex‑convict trying (and failing) to stay reformed amid swindlers, pursuit, and a burglary that spirals into chaos.
BFI’s filmography notes that the picture was re-cut by the studio after Chaplin left Essanay, underlining the complex afterlives many of these early works experienced in distribution.

More than a century on, the premise still feels contemporary: a comic everyman buffeted by systems of authority and chance, redeemed—briefly—by empathy.

Chaplin in Japan

Chaplin’s popularity in Japan was profound and enduring: he was widely celebrated as “喜劇王” (“King of Comedy”), and his relationship with Japan was not merely cinematic but personal, marked by multiple visits across his lifetime. 

This poster’s specifically Japanese framing—its title choice, its promotional copy, and its “Japanese commentary” credit—sits squarely within that long arc of reception: Chaplin not as imported novelty, but as a figure thoroughly absorbed into Japanese popular culture.

Dating Note

• The film itself is securely dated to 1916 (release: 27 May 1916).

• The poster is not dated on the sheet. Based on the distributor imprint (ニッポン・シネマ (N.C.C.)), the strip-format theatrical advertising style, and the “Japanese commentary” marketing, it is catalogued here as a post‑war Japanese reissue poster, circa 1950s.

Condition

Overall: Excellent for age, with strong colour retention and an especially fresh red field for this format, which often shows heavy handling.

• Pinholes consistent with prior display.

• One tear, reinforced with archival tape on the verso (repair visible on the reverse image provided).