A Woman

The Essanay short pictures were for the most part a period of development and experimentation for Charlie Chaplin, but every now and then he just liked to do a bit of old fashioned mucking about. A Woman, his ninth film at this studio, begins with a mischievous, Keystone-ish farce-in-the-park, followed by a sequence based around one simple but very memorable gimmick.

In spite of its basic outline, A Woman does show the advances Chaplin had made and the professionalism with which he now crafted his pictures. He sets up the location and the main characters in a couple of economic introductory shots before having his tramp character invade the scene. Charlie himself then appears in the distance, his now-familiar silhouette all that is needed to announce that the mayhem can now begin. Throughout, Chaplin uses a lot of close-ups of faces, something he was doing a fair bit around this time, which perhaps shows a lack of confidence in the impact his gags had in full body shot. Here however I feel all these close-ups act as a build up to that startling (and I must say absolutely gorgeous) shot of "Nora's" feminised face.

Because of the set-up, we see the tramp at his cheekiest, perhaps a step back for the character, but an enjoyable step back. A Woman lacks the pathos and commentary of the more story-orientated Chaplin shorts that were starting to appear around this time, but it shows how much fun and funniness Charlie could create out of the simplest of elements.

… which brings us to that all-important statistic –

Number of kicks up the arse: 3 (1 for, 2 against)

A Woman is one of the most sexually charged Chaplin films I've ever seen, and not only because Charlie spends a lot of it dressed as a woman. From the very opening of the film ("Charlie Chaplin in A Woman") to the scene where he's having tea and bagels. He takes a long, phallic knife and skewers the bagels, allowing them to slide down the shaft onto their plates, and then he quips, "I do this trick in my bath - when I have one."

When you have one what, Charlie?

The rest of the film, however, is family friendly fun, even when Charlie is dressed as a woman. Most of the time he is playfully fending off the advances of a man who was furious with him minutes before, but now is completely fooled by the disguise. Charlie slaps and pushes and shoves him, knocking him over backwards and over furniture and whatnot, a lot of the typical slapstick that we have come to expect from Chaplin's short comedies of this era.

This is not the only time Chaplin has dressed up as a woman in one of his short films, and once again he is surprisingly, almost disturbingly, convincing in the costume. A lot of the comedy of his silent slapstick comes from the effeminate nature of his mannerisms, and he puts those to good use here.

The first half also takes place in a park and therefore resembles countless of his other short films that take place in a park, which used to be Chaplin's favorite place to go and set up the cameras and just let a little comedy happen, and it's clear that that was what was happening in this film. But the second half makes up for the unsurprising first half. Not a bad little film at all.

This is one of the most interesting firsts film of Chaplin. In reality, the plot is similar to all the other short films of the great Charlot, with a narrative construction that's just a pretext to generate all kind of gags, mostly based on body and slapstick sketches. But here we can see also Chaplin act as a woman and his ability to understand all the movements and cliché of a comedian mask: if you have never seen this movie and you watch just the scene of woman version Chaplin, you can't recognize him, that looks also really cute! One of the proves of Chaplin acting abilities.

I am very glad I saw this Chaplin film, though it isn't exactly great. That's because it still is a funny film and I was absolutely amazed watching Chaplin in drag. He actually made a rather pretty woman--far more fetching than Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in SOME LIKE IT HOT! The film begins with Chaplin having a run-in at the park and tossing a guy and a cop into the lake. He then meets the man's wife and daughter and charms them. He doesn't know they are related to the man he assaulted so he isn't afraid to accompany the women home (I guess they just forgot about Dad). Well, once home, things seem to be going pretty well for the Little Tramp and he is quite smitten with the daughter and vice-versa. However, Dad finally returns and Charlie dressed as a woman to remain there and be with his new girlfriend. It's really cute when Dad begins making passes at Charlie and the film is a lot of fun.

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.

From his Essanay period after leaving Keystone, 'A Woman' is not one of his very best or even among the best of this particular period. It shows a noticeable step up in quality though from his Keystone period, where he was still evolving and in the infancy of his long career, from 1914, The Essanay period is something of Chaplin's adolescence period where his style had been found and starting to settle. Something that can be seen in the more than worthwhile 'A Woman'.

'A Woman' is not one of his all-time funniest or most memorable, other efforts also have more pathos and a balance of that and the comedy. The story is still a little flimsy, there are times where it struggles to sustain the short length, and could have had more variety and less more of the same repeition.

On the other hand, 'A Woman' looks pretty good, not incredible but it was obvious that Chaplin was taking more time with his work (even when deadlines were still tight) and not churning out as many countless shorts in the same year of very variable success like he did with Keystone. Appreciate the importance of his Keystone period and there is some good stuff he did there, but the more mature and careful quality seen here and later on is obvious.

While not one of his funniest or original, 'A Woman' is still very entertaining with some clever, entertaining and well-timed slapstick. It moves quickly and there is no dullness in sight, it's also very charming and sweet without being cloying.

Chaplin directs more than competently, if not quite cinematic genius standard yet. He also, as usual, gives an amusing and expressive performance and at clear ease with the physicality of the role. The supporting cast acquit themselves well.

In conclusion, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox