A Busy Day (1914)

Name: A Busy Day
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1914-05-07
Duration: 6 min
Rating: 4.8
Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Mack Swain, Phyllis Allen, Ted Edwards, Mack Sennett

A Busy Day (1914), directed by Mack Sennett, starring Charlie Chaplin and Mack Swain.

L 05/07/1914 BR Comedy 6m

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Synopsis

A jealous wife is chasing her unfaithful husband during a parade, after he starts to flirt with a pretty woman.

Frank D. WilliamsCinematography
Mack SennettDirector, Producer
Charlie ChaplinEditing, Screenplay

About the film

A Busy Day is a 1914 silent comedy short film starring Charlie Chaplin and Mack Swain.

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A Busy Day is a 1914 silent comedy short film starring Charlie Chaplin and Mack Swain.

Plot

A wife becomes jealous of her husband's interest in another woman during a military parade. On her way to attack the couple, the wife interrupts the set of a film, knocking over a film director and a police officer. Finally, the husband pushes the wife off a pier and she falls into the harbor.

Cast

Charlie Chaplin as Wife

Mack Swain as Husband

Phyllis Allen as The Other Woman

Mack Sennett as Film director

Billy Gilbert as Police officer

Ted Edwards as Police officer

Notes

According to the 1965 book The Films of Charlie Chaplin, A Busy Day is the first of three films in which Chaplin plays a woman. The other two were The Masquerader (1914) and A Woman (1915). Chaplin used the wardrobe of fellow Keystone player Alice Davenport.

It was typical for Mack Sennett to shoot Keystone comedies using real events—such as a parade—as the background for comic mayhem. This short film (about half a reel) was shot near San Pedro Harbor in less than two hours. In it, one can see interesting glimpses of First World War-era American naval ships in the background. The other part of the reel is an educational short titled The Morning Papers.