Outdoor Pajamas

Charlie Chase's early series of one-reel "Jimmie Jump" one reelers can almost be seen in retrospect as auditions for his more developed later two and three-reel comedies. However, in them he demonstrated a mastery of the gag and comic form that he could suit to a ten-minute film just as easily as a longer film. The is one of the best of the Jimmie Jump shorts, and it's extremely hilarious.

In a few simple strokes, Chase starts the outlandish-but-plausible wheels in motions -- he has slept through the start of his own wedding and arrives in his pajamas, leading to an ingenious series of gags that revolve around the public's outraged reactions to his indecent dress (including a wonderful tracking shot in which is is followed walking down the street and followed by a gradually increasing number of shocked onlookers), then a complication in which he is pulled into helping a strange woman into fending off an encyclopedia. Here the minute or so of setup material from the beginning is perfectly dovetailed in, with Charlie becoming entangled in a confusion of identity involving an enraged brother out to kill -- he thinks -- Charlie.

It's all very, very funny and admirable, leading to a surprise meta- movie ending that lets the filmmakers of the hook for closing the movie. There's enough plot for a two-hour movie in this nine-minute short, plus a lot of great gags for good measure, and it never feels rushed or crammed. That's tough to do.