Review of A Day's Pleasure

It's probably not fair to gauge Chaplin's work by some of his early film shorts, though this one was written and directed by him with over sixty under his belt already. It's got it's individual funny moments with a series of vignettes strung together as Chaplin's character, 'The Father' gets his family together for a day's excursion. Some of the bits are overdone, like the car rattling scene that opens things up, while the swaying boat sequence is enough to get you seasick just watching it on dry land. For 1919, I was somewhat surprised but amused by a title card during the 'crossroads' sequence in which another driver commented on Father's automotive skills, calling him a 'Stupid Ass'. Far be it for me to disparage a comedy genius like Chaplin, however this short is nowhere near the caliber of his later output, and probably served as a brief interlude just to get something down on film.