A Jitney Elopement

In this film, Charlie Chaplin must break up an undesired arranged marriage for his beloved girlfriend in San Francisco.

Her father wants her to marry a well-to-do count who has requested he make the arrangement for them.

However, she is attracted to Charlie's wit and antics, and asks him to be her knight in shining armour, by whisking her away from this unhappy fate.

At first, Charlie pretends to be the count, wooing both her and her father in the process...that is, until the count shows up and exposes his attempted con.

Run out of the house, Charlie must resort to his back up plan...which involves stealing her away from the count when they go to visit Golden Gate Park.

He puts his plan into action, and it results in a hilarious slapstick chase, as the count, her father and a couple police officers who get caught up in the ordeal, begin to pursue the two lovers as they try to escape through the park.

Culminating with the first filmed car chase sequence in the history of San Francisco...beginning, first, on the speedway, in front of the iconic windmill, and eventually ending up on the Great Highway.

All in all, it's a simple, yet effective, silent romantic comedy...and one of the first films shot in San Francisco, which would later become an iconic filming location for many films to come.

A bit of a prcedent setter, one might argue.

6 out of 10.

A Charlie Chaplin film that starts with a chuckle and ends with a roar. The funny business leading up to the elopement is excellent preparation for the flight of the couple in their jitney auto. Two reels of genuine "touch-and-go" farce. - The Moving Picture World, April 17, 1915

This is one of 5 Chaplin that are on the first DVD of Chaplin's Essanay Comedies. In general, compared to volume 2, the shorts on volume 1 aren't as well-made--because the DVDs are arranged chronologically. Chaplin's skill as a film maker and actor appeared to improve through his stay with Essanay Studios.

The first half of this film consists of Charlie trying to rescue his love from a forced marriage to a rich swell. He impersonates the swell and the film runs smoothly--especially since there is a real plot--something many of the Keystone and early Essanay shorts lack. However, after Charlie's ruse is discovered, the film becomes standard slapstick--with chases and violence, etc. It's like two very different shorts fused together without regard to the whole.

Chaplin at Essany Studios, the one he was at before moving to Mutual studios had Chaplin creating his love for spoofing the upper classes. In this movie, he does not play the tramp. Instead a working class fellow who is in love with a upper class girl but problems ensue when a Count asks for hand in marriage. His beloved asks to be saved and Chaplin comes in to impersonate the Count. The Count arrives while he is there and Mayhem ensues. I cannot pan a Chaplin movie or short. The worst rating I have ever given a Chaplin movie is an 8/10. This is because of his inventive slapstick and physical grueling and innovative comedy routines. In this one, we get a great car chase and a scene where Chaplin holds the camera still while the cars go round and round in circles recalling a scene from the first Pink Panther movie, A Shot in the Dark. Though not perfect, great fun, none the less.

This Chaplin comedy is a combination of the type of unfinished knockabout humor from the Mack Sennett-style comedies along with a couple of the themes that Chaplin would later refine and use to much better advantage in later movies. A lot of the film is routine, but it is made more watchable by a couple of ideas that Chaplin always liked: identity mix-ups, and the attitudes of the upper classes. Both come into play as Charlie's character (not yet the 'tramp', but somewhat similar) has a rich rival for the hand of his girl (Edna Purviance - she and Chaplin always make a likable leading couple). Overall, "A Jitney Elopement" is only fair, but a sign of things to come.