The Face on the Barroom Floor

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

He did do better than 'The Face on the Barroom Floor', still made very early on in his career where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'The Face on the Barroom Floor' is a long way from a career high, but has a lot of nice things about it and is to me one of the better efforts in the 1914 Keystone batch.

'The Face on the Barroom Floor' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and some other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. Occasionally, things feel a little scrappy and confused and the more satirical elements are not quite sharp enough.

For someone who was still relatively new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'The Face on the Barroom Floor' is not bad at all and there are flashes of his distinctive style, meaning that he was showing signs of evolving.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. He plays it straight too and it is effective.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'The Face on the Barroom Floor' is humorous, sweet and easy to like. It is one of Chaplin's earliest attempts at pathos, and it doesn't get too sappy, while not inducing sobs some may find themselves misty-eyed. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

Overall, pretty decent. 6/10 Bethany Cox