A Woman

The king of comedy Charles Chaplin is hilarious in this 1915 silent short comedy.Once again Charlie gets in trouble.He is chased by two men and they go in a house.Chaplin goes upstairs as a man and comes down as a woman.And the chasers find him very attractive.Edna Purviance finds this situation very amusing.Man as a woman has been seen very many times in movies and many times it's funny.Chape certainly proves it in this movie.Chaplin makes a perfect lady.This movie is 20 minutes of fun.A Woman is a very lovable comedy flick from the master.I recommend it for everybody who likes to see Chaplin as a woman.And this was made long before Tootsie.

Let's be serious, it's not funny, I did not laugh. Chaplin is the same as in all his short films, before his great masterpieces. It is charming, indeed, but all we see are the same "gags", a lot of kicks in the ass, hat-pins that are also stuffed in the ass, again and again. Grimaces, exaggerated gestures and punches galore. The end!

While much of this is fairly simple comedy, it's interesting and worth watching for a couple of reasons. The first half is a slapstick sequence that could have come from any number of Chaplin's early short features, but it is a little better than average for knockabout slapstick, because the timing is generally pretty good and the situation is developed enough to make it amusing. The second half, for which the movie is better known, focuses on Charlie's appearance as "A Woman", and it is carried off pretty well. Unlike many such sequences, it doesn't try to get more out of the situation than is there, so it works pretty well. Overall, this movie is a little better than average among Chaplin's earlier short comedies.

'A Woman' is a simplistic but not a simple movie. An easy premise whose only purpose is for Chaplin to dress up as a woman. He makes a quite convincing and gorgeous one (I couldn't help but notice how much Geraldine Chaplin looked and smiled like her father). The plot is simple and it can't hold much criticism - it can raise some serious questions when to think about it too deep. The physical stunts played in the park are clever. The build-ups are as amusing as the punchlines. Of course, when Charlie finally gets dressed as a woman, the jokes become a little bit riskier (but not less clever). It's easy to see why this film was forbidden in some countries.

Some other reviewer wrote: not a perfect Chaplin short - to which I want to replay: how many perfect Chaplin shorts are there? Anyway, 'A Woman' is worthy to see because of cleverly staged physical comedy (and gorgeous Charlie). Although, I agree, far from Chaplin's greatest, it is a joyous watch.

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.