A Woman

Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Billy Armstrong, Charles Inslee, Edna Purviance, Jess Robins
Directed by: Charlie Chaplin (uncredited)
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Short, Comedy
Length: 26 minutes
1915

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A man (Charlie Chaplin) goes to extreme lengths to woo a pretty girl.

Review:

Tim: A Woman is a decent Charlie Chaplin short film, but to be honest, there's not enough here to warrant interest of any but the strongest Chaplin fans (or fans of early, silent films). It's never a bad movie, but doesn't have a whole lot to distinguish it from other, similar films.

I'm always excited to see the great Charlie Chaplin up to his brand of hijinks, so I did derive some amount of enjoyment from that. This is very much a Chaplin film, as he wrote (uncredited), directed (uncredited), and starred in the film. Chaplin's humor and style are evident in every scene and there's no doubt this is his film. The vision of the movie is a bit obscured and it feels more like a collection of scenes, held together by only the thinnest of threads. This definitely feels like an early career work of Chaplin's. Now, that being said, it's true and it's not true. His first film was in 1914, so this film was released with fewer than 2 years of movie experience. However, he did something like 30+ short films that first year, so he definitely had some level of experience. You have to believe some of the film's shortcomings come from the time period and the limitations of the technology of the day.

I was a bit surprised by some of the subject matter here and it didn't surprise me to see this film was controversial and banned in several countries. One of the main themes of the film involves the married father trying to commit adultery with a much younger woman. The film's big climactic scene involves Charlie Chaplin in drag, impersonating a woman. These seem mild today, but would certainly have been viewed differently by audiences in 1915. You have to give Chaplin some credit for his courage in bringing this controversial film to the screen.

The film itself is decently entertaining. Chaplin doesn't quite get the most out of every minute of the film, which surprisingly makes this 26-minute short feel a bit too long. Some of the gags are a bit repetitive and I wished for a little more momentum in the story. Still, there's a lot of good slapstick humor. Chaplin was absolutely such a wonderful physical performer and it's fun seeing him in his element.

Although I didn't love A Woman, I'm really glad I watched it. It's the first film released in 1915 that I've ever seen. It helped give me more insight into Chaplin (this is only his second short film I've seen, after the great, iconic The Rink) as well as more insight into this time period.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Rink