A Day's Pleasure

Written, directed, edited, scored, and starring Charles Chaplin, A Day’s Pleasure is the story of the Tramp and a family trying to spend a day together where everything goes wrong. The film is a simple slapstick comedy where Chaplin plays the role of the Tramp as he tries to get his wife and children a chance to have a good day. Also starring Edna Purviance and Jackie Coogan. A Day’s Pleasure is a delightful film from Charles Chaplin.

The film is a simple story of a family spending the day together where a lot of things ensue in the course of an entire day. All of which involves the Tramp in a series of gags relating to his car as well as being on a boat with his family as Charles Chaplin explores everything that could go wrong on a family outing. All of which told in a simple manner as Chaplin’s direction keep some of the compositions to the point while creating some inventive gags in the process. Even as it involves a scene with a car that doesn’t really work or how someone would get seasick as the sequence in the latter is among one of the finest presentations of humor ever. Especially in the way Chaplin would create the idea of what it would be like on a boat as he would capture some of that humor through his rhythmic approach to editing. Chaplin’s score would also maintain that sense of humor as it’s often exuberant and bouncy which plays into the many misadventures of the Tramp. Overall, Chaplin crafts a very charming and fun film about a family outing.

Cinematographer Roland Totheroh does fantastic work with the film‘s black-and-white photography to capture the sunny look of a family outing on the sea where the Tramp and his family are on the boat. Production designer Charles D. Hall does superb work with the set pieces from the look of the car as well as the design of the boat when it rocks back and forth. The film’s cast features appearances from Henry Bergman in a trio of roles as a large policeman, a ship captain, and a big man in a car, Tom Wilson as a large husband on a boat, Babe London as the large husband’s seasick wife, Loyal Underwood as an angry little man on the street, Marion Feducha and Bob Kelly as the Tramp’s eldest son, Jackie Coogan as the youngest child, and Edna Purviance as the Tramp’s wife. Finally, there’s Charles Chaplin as the Tramp as it’s another enjoyable performance in the way the Tramp tries to start his car or adjust to being on a boat as it’s one of his funniest performances.

A Day’s Pleasure is an excellent film from Charles Chaplin. It’s among one of his finest shorts as well as one of his most entertaining in the way it explores a family outing and how it can go wrong. In the end, A Day’s Pleasure is a splendid film from Charles Chaplin.

Charles Chaplin Films: (Twenty Minutes of Love) - (Caught in the Rain) - (A Busy Day) - (Her Friend the Bandit) - (Mabel’s Married Life) - (Laughing Gas) - (The Face On the Bar Room Floor) - (Recreation) - (The Masquerader) - (His New Profession) - The Rounders - (The Property Man) - (The New Janitor) - (Those Love Pangs) - (Dough & Dynamite) - (Gentlemen of Nerve) - (His Musical Career) - (His Trysting Place) - (Getting Acquainted) - (His Prehistoric Past) - (His New Job) - (A Night Out) - (The Champion) - (In the Park) - (A Jitney Elopement) - (The Tramp) - (By the Sea (1915 film)) - (His Regeneration) - (Work (1915 film) - (A Woman) - (The Bank) - (Shanghaied) - (A Night in the Snow) - (Burlesque on Carmen) - (Police (1916 film)) - (Triple Trouble) - (The Floorwalker) - (The Fireman) - (The Vagabond) - (One A.M. (1916 film)) - (The Count) - (The Pawnshop) - (Behind the Screen) - (The Rink) - (Easy Street) - (The Cure (1917 film)) - (The Immigrant (1917 film)) - (The Adventurer) - A Dog's Life - (The Bond) - Shoulder Arms - Sunnyside - (The Professor) - The Kid - The Idle Class - Pay Day - The Pilgrim - A Woman of Paris - The Gold Rush - The Circus - City Lights - Modern Times - The Great Dictator - Monsieur Verdoux - Limelight - A King in New York - (A Countess from Hong Kong)

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