His Favorite Pastime

One of the few farcical comedies in photoplays that gets continuous laughter. The comedian, whose favorite pastime is drinking highballs, is clever, ia fact the best one Mack Sennett has sprung on the public. He is a new one and deserves mention. The situations in this offering are finely handled. This is a real comedy. - The Moving Picture World, March 21, 1914

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.

Everybody has to have at least one misfire in their careers, even the best directors and actors have not so good films or films they regret. From his early still evolving period before he properly found his stride and fairly fresh from his vaudeville background, 'His Favourite Pastime' shows that Chaplin is not immune from this. While an important milestone period for him, his Keystone years/films were watchable and interesting enough overall but patchy, none being among his best work.

'His Favourite Pastime' has a few good points. While a little primitive and not exactly audacious, the production values are far from cheap. Fatty Arbuckle does bring some zest to his role.

There are also a few amusing moments, the highlight being Chaplin's saloon toilet door fight which is actually very funny and in a different league to the rest of the material.

Where 'His Favourite Pastime' falls down is that mostly it's not particularly funny. The timing feels limp and there is very little, if any, freshness or originality apart from that aforementioned scene with the saloon toilet door. There is not much charm here and there is not much to be emotionally invested by. The story is flimsy, so much so things feel over-stretched, there are not many Chaplin short films where a short length feels very dull but 'His Favourite Pastime' is one of them.

Found myself uncharacteristically disappointed by Chaplin, which was not expected because generally even in lesser efforts he was one of the better things about them. Here he does not look interested and goes through the motions, there is none of the comedy/directing genius that he is deservedly hailed for. Arbuckle aside, the rest of the cast are not much to write home about.

In conclusion, an early career misfire. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This Charlie Chaplin short was the first I watched on the 2 DVD collection of his courtesy of the Platinum Disc Corporation. In this one, he's the familiar Tramp character who's drunk the whole time so anything he does here is the result of his inebriation. As a result, I actually found most of it funny especially early on when one of the people he encounters is fellow comic Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle as a fellow bar patron who tries to get his drink without Chaplin looking. Since Arbuckle wasn't yet a star, that's all we see of him though he makes a good impression here. Most of the time, it's just Charlie as he stumbles through missing punches or getting punched, going into someone's house and getting the residents' reactions, or scaring some dark-skinned servants (obviously caricatured by Caucasian humans though not as offensively portrayed since there's no white lips or other stereotypical characteristics). Quite funny for an early effort so on that note, I recommend His Favorite Pastime.

Although Charles Chaplin played the alcoholic convincingly and there were a couple of funny and clever moments (when the drunkard falls over the railing, lands on the couch and so very elegantly lights his cigarette), 'His Favorite Pastime' wasn't my favorite at all. There are loveable drunkards and then there are those annoying creepy ones. Chaplin, unfortunately, managed to be the latter one. I never felt sympathy towards his character and was waiting when he gets the proper beating as the bully deserved. This is actually quite a pity because 'His Favorite Pastime' is one of the best structured and logical of the early Chaplin's movies. 'Fatty' Arbuckle's appearance at the beginning was quite joyous though.

It appears this is unpopular, even compared to other early Chaplins.

I found it funnier and more advanced than a number of Chaplin's films from this period.

It suffers compared to later films of his, of course, because I find these early films are rather primitive. However, several of his films before and after this are less funny and less interesting.

Chaplin's drunk act is excellent throughout. Fatty Arbuckle does a decent performance too. The sequence where Charlie fights with a saloon toilet door is funny and much copied. When he jumps onto a moving vehicle it is well done and interesting,

All in all, not a bad little film.