A Burlesque on Carmen
About A Burlesque on Carmen
Carmen is sent to talk Darn Hosiery, a clumsy officer at a gate in Sevilla, into letting a smuggling run through. She bribes him and he still refuses. At Lillas Pastia's inn she gets him to give in. After a fight at the tobacco factory he arrests her, then lets her go. He kills an officer who wants her, joins the smugglers, and hides. Carmen takes up with the toreador Escamillo and goes to the bullfight. Darn Hosiery stabs her with a fake knife. Both of them smile at the camera.
Cast & crew
More about A Burlesque on Carmen
Chaplin wrote it, played Darn Hosiery, and directed the original two-reeler. Edna Purviance plays Carmen. Roland Totheroh photographed it. Jess Robbins produced it for Essanay. It opened on December 18, 1915, under the title Carmen, and runs 31 minutes in that version. It parodies Cecil B. DeMille's Carmen (1915) and Prosper Mérimée's novella.
Themes
Making
Essanay's recut is the version that circulated for years. Chaplin said the added scenes broke the pacing he had cut for two reels.
Reviews
Ted Okuda ranks the two-reel cut as the best film of Chaplin's Essanay period and the four-reel reissue as the worst.
Look
Roland Totheroh shot the two-reel version, including the gate at Sevilla and the inn.
Music
The 1915 release was silent. The 1928 Quality Amusement reissue added a synchronized score and effects.
Preservation
The two-reel original and the longer Essanay reissue both circulate. The 1928 sound reissue is the soft, recut copy found on some budget discs.
Notes
- It was Chaplin's thirteenth film for Essanay.
- Jack Henderson plays Lillas Pastia. Leo White plays Morales. John Rand plays Escamillo. May White plays Frasquita. Bud Jamison is a soldier.
- In 1916, after Chaplin had left for Mutual, Essanay stretched the film to four reels, added cut footage, and shot new scenes with Ben Turpin as a smuggler named Remendados.
- Chaplin sued to stop that version and lost.
- In 1928 Quality Amusement Corporation issued a synchronized-sound cut of the 1916 reissue, with a new introduction written by columnist Duke Bakrak. That cut runs 44 minutes.
- Historian Ted Okuda calls the two-reel original the best of Chaplin's Essanay films and the longer cut the worst.
Scenes
- Carmen works on Darn Hosiery at Lillas Pastia's inn.
- He lets her go after the arrest at the tobacco factory.
- The knife is a fake, and both of them smile at the camera.
Influenced by
- Carmen (1915, Cecil B. DeMille)
- Carmen (Prosper Mérimée)
Also available
- Internet Archive (CC_1915_12_18_ABurlesqueOnCarmen)
- Wikimedia Commons (A Burlesque on Carmen (1915) by Charlie Chaplin.webm)
