One A.M. 1916
This one could almost be called experimental. It’s essentially a Chaplin one-man show, the only other character being a taxi driver played by Albert Austin, a guy who showed off his impressive mustache in a bunch of these. But the taxi driver is gone after the first couple minutes, and it’s just a drunk Chaplin, playing a rich guy here, trying to get to his bed. There’s great physical comedy as he battles things in his house and performs some mild but impressive stunts, and this one gave me a good chuckle. There’s a good use of carpet, stairs, taxidermied animals, a fish bowl, a pendulum, a spinning table, and one of those beds that folds into the wall. Oh, and a car door. Chaplin makes great use of what is essentially just three sets–the taxi, the front room of his house, and his bedroom–and although a few of the sequences go on way too long (he falls down the stairs more times than I could count and runs atop a table for what seems to be five minutes), it’s all pretty funny.
Initial release: 7 August 1916 (USA)
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Initial DVD release: 25 March 2008 (Czechia)
Distributed by: Mutual Film
Screenplay: Charlie Chaplin, Vincent P. Bryan, Maverick Terrell
