REEL LIFE / FILM & VIDEO FILE : Chaplin Gives Olivas Adobe the Silent Treatment : The annual cinema night features the comedy legend’s debut movie, ‘Tillie’s Punctured Romance,’ which also introduced the Keystone Kops.

The Charlie Chaplin classic “Tillie’s Punctured Romance” is the centerpiece for this year’s silent film night at the Olivas Adobe.

Mack Sennett directed the 1914 film--Chaplin’s first feature-length comedy. It’s also the silent film that planted the Keystone Kops into the American vocabulary.

Richard Senate, historian at the Olivas Adobe, said there was a silent film actually shot at the historic building.

“We believe it was called ‘The Gringo Strikes’ and was filmed around 1911,” Senate said. “That film is still lost, but I did find one at the Library of Congress that was shot in Santa Paula by the same company.”

Senate said that the $500 cost for obtaining a copy from the Library of Congress means the film is unlikely to appear at the adobe unless someone comes up with the money.

Before the feature, several comedy shorts will be screened and KVEN’s morning team of Dave and Bob will test the audience’s knowledge of movie trivia. Tickets are $3 for adults and are available at Ventura City Hall and the Olivas Adobe, 420 Olivas Park Drive. For more information call 658-4728.

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Is there a doctor in the house?

Evidently there wasn’t on the set of “The Client.” The legal thriller based on John Grisham’s novel had a scene in which an ambulance-chasing lawyer was soliciting an accident victim seated in a wheelchair.

The patient, recounting his injuries, lists various cuts and contusions concluding with a broken collar bone. When the ambulance chaser expresses delight that the broken clavicle could mean several thousand dollars in additional damages, the patient becomes disgusted and, using the supposedly injured shoulder, briskly wheels himself out of the room.

“Highly unlikely,” said John Hill, an orthopedic surgeon in Ventura. “People have lots of difficulty moving the arm on the involved side. I can’t imagine someone being able to use a wheelchair.”

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The Woodstock juggernaut rolls on.

Salzer’s Video is offering a recut version of the Academy Award-winning documentary on the Aquarian festival. The new cut includes 30 minutes of previously unseen performances, including those of Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and Canned Heat.

In addition, the film has been remixed, remastered and restored, all to take advantage of Woodstock’s 25th anniversary hoopla.

“I like nostalgia,” said Salzer, who was heavily involved in the late ‘60s music scene. “The thing I find interesting is nostalgia seems to be less about how things were and more about how they should have been.”