Charlie Chaplin said the happiest he had ever been during his career was with his third film studio, Mutual Film Corporation. Film historians claim his best and most innovative movies Chaplin produced came out of his 18-month association with Mutual. The comedian was appreciative of the one-month period he was allowed to create each of his movies, a luxury he wasn't afforded with his previous employers.
Chaplin produced three classic films in the summer of 1916, with his August 1916's "One A. M." one of those rare movies he had acted for the most part alone. (There's a brief beginning sequence where he's with a cab driver who is dropping him off at his door.) Chaplin plays a drunk (not his usual Tramp character) who makes a 25-minute effort of coordinating himself in his apartment and his bedroom before he goes asleep. The premise would appear to be one fat yawner, but as one reviewer at the time wrote, "When I thought perhaps Chaplin was milking a scene too much for comedy, he switched to another prop and kept my interest. Funny, well-made and memorable -- this is one of Chaplin's best slapsticks."
One biographer claimed Chaplin fell a total of 46 times before reaching slumberland. The inanimate objects in his apartment appear to confront the inebriated man in his mission to simply go to his bed and sleep. Another biographer felt that "One A. M." was "the cleverest and conceivably the funniest film Chaplin made for Mutual."
