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A Busy Day (1914)

Not Rated | | Short , Comedy | 7 May 1914 (USA)
A Busy Day Poster
A jealous wife is chasing her unfaithful husband during a parade, after he starts to flirt with a pretty woman.

Director:

Mack Sennett

Stars:

Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Phyllis Allen | See full cast & crew »
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Cast

Complete credited cast:
Charles Chaplin ... The Wife
Mack Swain ... The Husband
See full cast »
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Storyline

Charlie plays a woman, jealous over her husband's interest in another woman. She gets in the way of a cameraman, knocks over a director and a policeman, and gets thrown into a crowd of spectators at a military parade. She attacks her husband and his new flame. The husband throws her off the pier into the harbor. Written by Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

parade | actor playing female role | suffragette | falling into water | band | See All (5) »

Genres:

Short | Comedy

Certificate:

Not Rated | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 May 1914 (USA) See more »

Also Known As:

Busy as Can Be See more »

Company Credits

Production Co:

Keystone Film Company See more »
Show more on IMDbPro »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1
See full technical specs »
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Did You Know?

Trivia

Released as a split reel along with the comedy The Morning Papers (1914). See more »

Connections

Featured in Chaplin's Goliath (1996) See more »

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User Reviews

 
Not a great comedy, but great for historical purposes
17 April 2001 | by zetes – See all my reviews

A Busy Day is probably one of Chaplin's first comedies (it's at least in his first year of screen acting, 1914). He is not the Tramp, but actually playing a woman, a henpecking wife who drives her husband to another woman. Alas, film comedy had not matured yet, so, like many of its kindred films, A Busy Day contains only the broadest slapstick comedy: woman hits man, man hits woman, woman kicks man in butt, repeat. However, scrolling through this film's alternate titles, I came upon something utterly interesting: one of those alternate titles was The Militant Suffragette!!! I'm not exactly sure when women got the vote (I know that the first presidential election they voted in was 1920), but, judging from that title, this film may have been criticizing (humorously, not seriously) women who wished to have political rights! Now how's that for history!
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