A Day's Pleasure
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About A Day's Pleasure
A father cannot get the family Ford started. Once it runs, he takes his wife and children on a ferry outing. He, a large couple, and the boat's ragtime band are seasick. Deck chairs collapse. On the drive home a traffic policeman and a patch of hot tar finish the day.
Cast & crew
More about A Day's Pleasure
Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, and edited this two-reeler, his fourth for First National, and shot it at his own studio while The Kid was in production. Roland Totheroh photographed it. First National released it on December 15, 1919. The opening gag is played with the studio's corner office visible behind the car. A 1973 rerelease carries music Chaplin wrote later.
Themes
Making
Chaplin needed a short on the market while the feature stalled. He built this one from a car that will not start, a boat, and a street intersection, using the studio yard as the first set.
Look
Roland Totheroh shot the studio-yard cranking scene, the ferry deck, and the tarred intersection.
Music
Silent on first release. Chaplin composed a score for a 1973 rerelease.
Preservation
Prints survive, including copies used for the 1973 rerelease with Chaplin's later score.
Notes
- Edna Purviance plays the mother. Jackie Coogan, uncredited, is the smallest boy, during the period he was also shooting The Kid.
- Babe London is a seasick wife. Tom Wilson is her husband. Henry Bergman plays the captain, a man in a car, and a heavy policeman.
- Loyal Underwood is a sandwich vendor on the boat and an angry little man in the street.
Scenes
- Chaplin cranks the Ford in front of his own studio office while the family waits.
- On the ferry, seasickness passes from Charlie to a large couple and then to the ragtime band.
- The drive home sticks in hot tar under a traffic policeman's eye.
