By the Sea (1915)
Chaplin's Essanay Comedies (1915) • 14m
The second of two one-reel comedies Chaplin made for Essanay, the film was photographed along Ocean Front Walk and Abbott Kinney Pier in Venice, California, in just one day. It is a film that reverts into the old Keystone pattern (beaches, parks, or motion picture studios as locales for fast-paced action and humor but little plot). This extended improvisation includes Chaplin's first use of the flea routine, which he would develop further for his feature film Limelight (1952).
Up Next in Chaplin's Essanay Comedies (1915)
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His Regeneration (1915)
Chaplin made a guest appearance in this one-reel G.M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson drama, as the Tramp in the film’s dance-hall sequence. That the main title states
that Anderson was “slightly assisted by Charles Chaplin” suggests that Chaplin may have had a hand in the construction and direction of... -
Work (1915)
The havoc created by incompetent laborers had always been prime slapstick material. In this comedy, Chaplin plays a paperhanger's assistant hired to paper a mansion (the imposing home was the Bradbury Mansion at 147 North Hill Street in Los Angeles). The job quickly devolves into anarchy, culmina...
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A Woman (1915)
Chaplin had twice previously donned female attire at Keystone, in A Busy Day (1914) and The Masquerader (1914). A WOMAN was Chaplin's last and finest female impersonation, a then-popular device among comedians (Julian Eltinge built a career and fortune on it).
The first half of the film is a ...
