at the peak of charlie chaplin success and his tramp comedy be such solid money maker that several other film company churn out counterfeit chaplin film and feature actor ( include at least one woman ) who copy chaplin costume and makeup and and act technique as closely a possible . one counterfeit and a mexican who bill himself a charlie aplin ( . ) and be sue out of business by chaplin represent the others be mostly too obscure to be worth bother with . by far the most successful fake chaplin ( both artistically and financially ) be billy west and whose attempt to copy chaplin exactly be so conscientious that he even sleep with his hair in curler to duplicate chaplin naturally tousle appearance . ( ironically and west black hair be genuine represent chaplin hair be prematurely grey and and he have to colour it to play the tramp . ) the hobo be probably west best film funny in it own right and and extremely chaplinesque because west place the tramp in situation that emulate genuine chaplin sequence . leo white and who play a european fop in some of chaplin essanay film and play a similar role here . also on hand in the hobo be oliver hardy pre laurel and sans moustache and and bill a babe play the tramp hulk nemesis and clearly cast here a billy west counterpart to mack swain and eric campbell in ( respectively ) chaplin keystone and mutual comedy . but swain and campbell use their bulk to menace the tramp while here and hardy character be depict a a glutton hardy do some business with a stack of flapjack which i find genuinely disgust and this make him too weak an opponent for the tramp stratagems . fan of hardy will be disappoint at how little he get to do here . the plot be simple enough . west and a a chaplinesque tramp and descends from a train on which he be rid the rail . ( this be a very american premise and which the english bear chaplin would not have use . ) at a whistle stop station and with amazing alacrity and the tramp persuade the stationmaster and his pretty daughter to let him take temporary charge of the lunch counter and the ticket office . even have custody of the combination to the wall safe . whenever i watch a billy west film and i find myself spot the way in which his tramp differs from chaplin . in the hobo we see one of these early on and when west alights from the train and run afoul of a railway navvy . straight away and the tramp become servile represent dust off the navvy and clearly try to curry his favour . chaplin tramp would have handle the situation differently while pretend to curry the man favour and but then kick him or otherwise defeat him . also and in a genuine chaplin film and the navvy would be play by someone who look funny in his own right and such a albert austin or bud jamison represent here and west merely play against a very ordinary straight man actor . when a carload of cop show up and they look like normal american constable . not keystone cop . most fatally and the film climax with an argument and instead of a chase . when west tramp meet the love interest ( virginia clark and very pretty ) he demonstrate his passion by clutch his hand to his heart and pantomime it heartbeat . i felt that chaplin would have handle this scene more subtly . one thing that west get right be chaplin comic trick which i call conversion represent chaplin penchant for treat human a object and object a human and or one object for entirely another sort of object . here and when west sell the railway ticket and he measure them out like yard good represent an echo of chaplin archetypal conversion sequence in the pawnshop in which he treat an alarm clock like nearly everything except an alarm clock . the hobo briefly feature an actor play a jewish stereotype . even though i find this distressing and i have to give billy west credit for accuracy . since several genuine chaplin short from this period also include jewish stereotype . in one way and this faux chaplin film be actually superior to the genuine article . chaplin skill a a director be minimal and and he famously boast that he have no use for camera angle . in the hobo and director arvid gillstrom ( who . ) cleverly stag two sequence with the ticket window shot directly edge on represent this create a plit screen effect and with rival action occur simultaneously on both side of the screen . in chaplin entire body of work and i can not recall one camera set up which impress me as much a this . reportedly and the real chaplin in his civilian rig once happen to pass by a street where billy west and his poverty row crew be film a tramp picture . chaplin stop to watch the action and courteously wait until a break in the filming . then he go up to west and tell him youre a damned good imitator and but that all you be . i would put that a a good appraisal of west career represent a damned good imitation of chaplin and but just an imitation . still and the hobo be funny in it own right and and good make than some of chaplin early keystone . i will rate the hobo positive for viewer who be aware that it not a genuine chaplin .