A Night in the Show
About A Night in the Show
Mr. Pest tries one theater seat after another, fights the conductor, and is thrown out. In the lobby he pushes a large woman into a fountain, then sits down beside a woman in the audience. From the gallery Mr. Rowdy pours beer on them. He heckles the patrons, a harem dancer, the singers Dot and Dash, and a fire-eater.
Cast & crew
More about A Night in the Show
Chaplin's twelfth Essanay film, shot at Majestic Studio in Los Angeles. He plays both Mr. Pest and Mr. Rowdy, parts he had done on stage in Fred Karno's Mumming Birds, billed in the United States as A Night in an English Music Hall. Jess Robbins produced it. Harry Ensign photographed it. It runs about 30 minutes and was released in 1915. Edna Purviance has a small part as a woman in the seats.
Themes
Making
Essanay rebuilt a music-hall interior at Majestic so Chaplin could move a sketch he already knew, with beer, a fountain, and a fire-eater, onto film.
Look
Harry Ensign photographed the house and the gallery so Pest and Rowdy, both Chaplin, can occupy the same performance.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print survives in circulation.
Notes
- Leo White, Wesley Ruggles, Phyllis Allen, Charlotte Mineau, Dee Lampton, and Lloyd Bacon are in the audience and on the stage.
- Chaplin had toured the United States in the Karno sketch before he entered films.
- The two characters let him be the bored swell in the stalls and the drunk in the balcony in the same reel.
Scenes
- Pest is ejected, then shoves a large woman into the lobby fountain.
- Rowdy, in the gallery, pours beer down onto Pest and the woman beside him.
- He breaks up the fire-eater's act from the balcony.
Influenced by
- Fred Karno's sketch Mumming Birds (A Night in an English Music Hall)
Also available
- Internet Archive (ANightintheShow)
