Year: 1919
Director: Charles Chaplin
Country: US
Language: N/A
After The Immigrant (1917). Shoulder Arms (1918) and The Bond (1918) Charles Spencer Chaplin had likely temporarily burnt himself out in regards to providing riveting social commentary in his short works. In addition, having battled the media for years, the stress of the war, the stress of his crumbling marriage and the beginnings of United Artists meant the tramp had a lot on his plate. Considering all this he went ahead with A Day's Pleasure.
A father (Charles Chaplin) takes his family for an outing, which turns out to be a ridiculous trial.
A Day's Pleasure is not one of Chaplin's best works. It has very little, if any, social commentary and doesn't have the strongest narrative structure. Considering everything Chaplin had been going through at the time, including the loss of a child with Mildred Harris, it's hard to blame the man for one lackluster picture. In addition, Chaplin was far more focused on a feature length film, which would eventually be The Kid.
Chaplin was still working for First National at the time, and even though he was disinterested in this short, they demanded he finish it quickly. A Day's Pleasure is an acceptable comedy for Laurel and Hardy, but makes for mediocre Chaplin. It does get quite a bit of mileage over a few sight gags and is certainly well choreographed, even if the humor runs dry before the end of the runtime.
A Day's Pleasure is a passable picture that sadly seems terrible in comparison to many of Chaplin's greater shorts. In addition the black characters in the film are cringe-worthy; to see a beloved icon use racist stereotypes is a little sad to see, albeit one may give him a pass because it is 1919. Watch only if you're a Chaplin completionist.
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