Sunnyside
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About Sunnyside
Charlie is the handyman at the rundown Evergreen Hotel in the village of Sunnyside, on his feet from 4 a.m. and kicked around by his boss. He loses the cows, they turn up in church, and a fall from a bridge leaves him dreaming of dancing nymphs. He courts the village belle while her father is out, until a city man wrecks a car and is carried into the hotel. The stranger's spats, cane, and cigarette lighter win her over. Charlie copies the outfit, fails, and gets her back only when the slicker checks out and drives off.
Cast & crew
More about Sunnyside
Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, and edited this, his third short for First National. Roland Totheroh photographed it. First National released it on 15 June 1919.
Themes
Reviews
The New York Times of 16 June 1919, with the short at the Strand, said audiences would laugh, praised the pantomime, and complained of too much slapstick: 'There is cleverness in Sunnyside and good pantomime, but, also, too much slap-stick.'
Look
Roland Totheroh photographed the farm chores, the church full of cows, and the nymph dance that follows the fall from the bridge.
Preservation
The short survives. A deleted barber scene is preserved in the documentary Unknown Chaplin (1983).
Notes
- Edna Purviance plays the village belle, Tom Wilson the boss, Henry Bergman her father, Albert Austin the doctor, and Tom Wood the fat boy. Olive Ann Alcorn is one of the nymphs.
- A title card in the hotel lounge reads 'Lounge lizards,' an early printed use of the phrase.
- The 1983 documentary Unknown Chaplin includes a cut scene of Charlie as the hotel barber, with Albert Austin in the chair.
- The nymph dance has been compared to Vaslav Nijinsky's ballet L'après-midi d'un faune.
Scenes
- Charlie milks a cow into his coffee and holds a hen over the pan to get an egg.
- He tries to match the slicker's cane-top lighter with a homemade version, and the village laughs him down the road.
