A Woman (1915)

A man disguises himself as a lady in order to be near his newfound sweetheart, after her father has forbidden her to see him.

Director:

Charles Chaplin (uncredited)

Stars:

Charles Chaplin, Billy Armstrong, Marta Golden

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Charles Chaplin	...	Gentleman / 'Nora Nettlerash'

Storyline

Mother, Father and Daughter go to the park. The women dose off on a bench while the father plays a hide-and-seek game with a girl, blindfolded. Charlie leads him into a lake. Both dozing ladies on the bench fall for Charlie and invite him for dinner. The father returns home with a friend. Charlie rushes upstairs and dresses like a woman, shaving his moustache. Both men fall for Charlie.

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Plot Keywords:

father | park | hide and seek | female impersonator | cross dressing | 

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Genres:

Short | Comedy

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Certificate:

TV-G

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the last time Chaplin appears on screen without a mustache (because he is in drag), until Limelight (1952).

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Connections

Edited into Chaplin's Art of Comedy (1968)

User Reviews

"Your wife will never know what I know"

The Essanay short pictures were for the most part a period of development and experimentation for Charlie Chaplin, but every now and then he just liked to do a bit of old fashioned mucking about. A Woman, his ninth film at this studio, begins with a mischievous, Keystone-ish farce-in-the-park, followed by a sequence based around one simple but very memorable gimmick.

In spite of its basic outline, A Woman does show the advances Chaplin had made and the professionalism with which he now crafted his pictures. He sets up the location and the main characters in a couple of economic introductory shots before having his tramp character invade the scene. Charlie himself then appears in the distance, his now-familiar silhouette all that is needed to announce that the mayhem can now begin. Throughout, Chaplin uses a lot of close-ups of faces, something he was doing a fair bit around this time, which perhaps shows a lack of confidence in the impact his gags had in full body shot. Here however I feel all these close-ups act as a build up to that startling (and I must say absolutely gorgeous) shot of "Nora's" feminised face.

Because of the set-up, we see the tramp at his cheekiest, perhaps a step back for the character, but an enjoyable step back. A Woman lacks the pathos and commentary of the more story-orientated Chaplin shorts that were starting to appear around this time, but it shows how much fun and funniness Charlie could create out of the simplest of elements.

… which brings us to that all-important statistic –

Number of kicks up the arse: 3 (1 for, 2 against)

Details

Official Sites:

Instagram

Country:

USA

Language:

None English

Release Date:

12 July 1915 (USA)

Also Known As:

Charlie the Perfect Lady

Filming Locations:

Lincoln Park, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

26 min 17 min (theatrical)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1