In the Park (1915)

A tramp steals a girl's handbag, but when he tries to pick Charlie's pocket loses his cigarettes and matches. He rescues a hot dog man from a thug, but takes a few with his walking stick. ... See full summary »

Director:

Charles Chaplin (uncredited)

Stars:

Charles Chaplin, Leona Anderson, Billy Armstrong

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Charles Chaplin	...	Charlie

Storyline

A tramp steals a girl's handbag, but when he tries to pick Charlie's pocket loses his cigarettes and matches. He rescues a hot dog man from a thug, but takes a few with his walking stick. When the thief tries to take some of Charlie's sausages, Charlie gets the handbag. The handbag makes its way from person to person to its owner, who is angry with her boyfriend who didn't protect her in the first place. The boyfriend goes to throw himself in the lake in despair. Charlies helps him.

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Plot Keywords:

bulimia | bowler hat | kicked in the butt | striking a match | knocked unconscious | 

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Genres:

Short | Comedy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 March 1915 (USA)

Also Known As:

Charlie in the Park

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

14 min (1999 TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin (2003)

User Reviews

Some Good Moments, But Only Fair Overall

This short feature was apparently thrown together pretty quickly, or at least more quickly than were most of Chaplin's features at this point in his career, and it shows. "In the Park" is generally muddled, and despite a couple of good moments, overall it is rather mediocre or at best only fair.

The story, such as it is, has Chaplin wandering around in the park and getting involved in a series of scrapes with a variety of characters, including a policeman and some romantic couples. While most of it is connected together in one way or another, however implausibly, too much of the action makes little sense, and it just looks kind of clumsy. There was enough basic material to work with here, and they might have been able to make a better picture if they had taken more time on it. As it is, there are only a couple of real highlights. It's worth watching for these, but overall it's just not all that good.