Chaplin's 'Face on the Barroom Floor'

2007-02-18 22:49:42

Face On The Barroom Floor (1914, USA, Chaplin)

The title apparently is derived from a poem of the same name by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy that Chaplin was satirizing. Chaplin is a painter who loses out on a woman to the subject of one of his portraits: a middle aged, fat, slightly balding man. Chaplin gets ripped at a bar and draws a smiley face on the floor of the bar (which was meant to be hers) and ends up getting belligerent and physically kicking people out of the bar. Meanwhile, "2 Months Elapsed," and Chaplin's sitting on a park bench when the big man and woman stroll by him with a baby carriage and four small children in tow, Chaplin is relieved and struts off.

Although much of the humor in Chaplin films is repetetive in way or another, he manages to put a fresh spin on it but in 'Face on the Barrom Floor,' he seems to have fallen flat on his. The funniest moment for this reviewer was the look of exaggerated relief he gives after the man, woman and five children go by him in the park. Otherwise, it's a series of a little tripping here, a little paint brush in the mouth there and a whole lot of falling down while drunk out of his mind. And he keeps drinking! Chaplin is obviously a funny guy but this is hardly worth his effort or ours.

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