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(Figure 3)
41(Figure 4)
42(Figure 5)
43A Case: The Criticism of Chaplin’s film, A Woman
On July 13, 1915, Chicago Daily Tribune published an article ‘Is Charlie Killing the Golden
Goose?’ This article criticized the Chaplin’s film, A Woman, which released on July 12, 1915.
People desiring to see either phase of him may do so in this latest Essanay release,
“The Woman”. It outrage the decency of decent people, for its vulgarity is of such an insidiousness that frequently it compels laughter, even while the laughter is angry at himself. Not that it is entirely vulgar, for there are some stretches of a delightfully honest slapstick funniness showing what Chaplin can do with himself when he stays on the levels of respectability, and demonstrating the legitimacy of slap-stick fun.44
The author criticized Chaplin’s new release as a vulgar film. In the next paragraph, the writer thought that Chaplin would lose his audiences because he did not have a limit of fun in his comedy.
41 J.B Hirsch, The New Charlie Chaplin, Motion Picture Magazine, Jan., 1916, p116.
42 Motion Picture Magazine, December, 1914, p26.
43 Cover design, Motion Picture Magazine, July, 1915.
44 ‘Is Charlie Killing the Golden Goose?’, Chicago Daily Tribune, Jul. 13, 1915, pg. 12.
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That is the sad thing about this very funny man. He is killing his own game just because he doesn’t realize that limits of permissible fun.…… for the picture audience is one of growing intelligence and it is not going to roar when Charlie loses his trousers, even though he affects the most abject chagrin, nor when he misapplies a pin cushion, nor at a good many other things that he does. Wise parents will keep their children away from his picture as from the plague,
grownups will grow disgusted, and the name of Chaplin will become but an echo from the dusty caverns of the past.45
For the author of Chicago Daily Tribune, Chaplin loses pants in the film is a vulgar thing and can’t be accepted in the film. However, it is still not much enough to explain that what kind of scenes in this film let the Chicago Daily Tribune’s author felt so disgusted? For analyzing this film, let us take a look at the brief plot of A Woman. In the following introduction of A Woman, I will narrate every action which Chaplin and other actors do in this film.
A family (husband, wife and their daughter) sits on the chair in the park; the “husband” flirts a passing lady when his wife and daughter are napping. When he is going to store to buy a drink for this lady, Chaplin is passing and hook the lady’s skirt with his cane. The lady feels angry at the first moment, but Chaplin attracts her, and she also attracts Chaplin. When the “husband”
found Chaplin flirt with his object after he bought the drinks, he punches Chaplin and takes the lady away, but the lady cheats the “husband” to play “hide and seek,” blind his eyes with a handkerchief and run away.
At the same time, Chaplin stays in the same chair, two-man pass and sit near Chaplin. Chaplin sips one of men’s drinks sneakily, but very soon the man found that, so he and his partner fight with Chaplin, and Chaplin win the battle.
When Chaplin finish the fight and walk away, he found the “husband” was being blinded, for the revenge, Chaplin leads the “husband” to near a lake, push him into the water when the
“husband” takes off the handkerchief and recognize Chaplin. The police found Chaplin push a
45 ‘Is Charlie Killing the Golden Goose?’, Chicago Daily Tribune, Jul. 13, 1915, pg. 12.
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man into the water and try to arrest him, so Chaplin also puts the police into the lake and run away. During the man leave the water and try to find Chaplin, Chaplin meets the “wife” and
“daughter,” flirts with them, and they invite Chaplin to their house.
When the man tries to find Chaplin, he meets his friend whom Chaplin sips his drink sneakily.
During the “husband” are drinking with his friend, and invite his friend to his house, Chaplin is eating a doughnut and flirting with “wife” and “daughter.”
After the “husband” back home, he let his wife entertain his friend in the living room, but his wife flirts with his friend when the “husband” still stands in the hall. Moreover, his “husband”
calls his daughter and found Chaplin when his daughter tries to introduce Chaplin to him, so the
“husband” and Chaplin fight again.
The “daughter” calls her mother to save Chaplin, and the “wife” request her husband’s friend to help. The friend recognizes Chaplin is the guy who sips his drink in the park, so he also tries to attack Chaplin, and he tore Chaplin’s pants during the fight. In the next two minutes, we can see Chaplin show his underwear until he hides to the cabinet and picks a skirt to wear.
When Chaplin tries to wear a skirt, the “husband” is fighting with his wife because she invites Chaplin as a guest, his friend tries to stop him from attacking his wife, but the “husband” punch his friend accidentally, so the “friend” also involves this fight.
Chaplin not only wear the skirt, but he also wears women coat, hat, and shawl; he also uses a purse as a fake breast. The “daughter” finds Chaplin’s disguise and tell him “Get out of that mustache and into a pair of my shoes, and you will be perfect.” Chaplin takes her advice, he cut his mustache and wear a woman’s shoe, disguise himself as a woman. Moreover, the “daughter”
suggest Chaplin to fool her father, she tells her father “My college chum.” The “husband” does not find Chaplin’s disguise, and be attracted by Chaplin. Chaplin flirts with the “husband,” try to
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fool him. The “friend” also be attracted to Chaplin, so the “husband” and the “friend” compete for each other, try to win the Chaplin’s love, and the “husband” win, but when he kneels to show his love to Chaplin, he takes off Chaplin’s skirt accidentally, so he finds out Chaplin’s disguise finally. In the end, the “husband” punch and expel Chaplin from his house.
After watching this film, it can find out several Chaplin’s fun-makings in A Woman: the husband flirts with a passing woman, a fake woman who disguised by Chaplin, the wife flirts with Chaplin and her husband’s friend, and Chaplin flirts all women whom he meets, especially he disguises as women to flirt two men as a prank. So, we can assume that these kinds of stuff were unacceptable to 1910s critics. The following sources also show that some audiences did not like this fun-making, too.
After ‘Is Charlie Killing the Golden Goose?’ published, Chicago Daily Tribune published several letters from readers on July 16, 1915:
Allow me to congratulate you on your article on Charles Chaplin. In my judgment Chaplin descends to the lowest depths of vulgarity in almost every case. — Harry Hamill Chicago46
You are surely to be congratulated on your remarks concerning Mr. Chaplin’s latest creation. ‘Even the men’ will no longer think him funny or clever if he continues in his vulgar attempts.…… I regret to see him resort to methods that with surely relegate him to the has been. It is surprising that S. & A. allow such pictures as ‘The Woman’ to appear on their list. — A.C.F. Chicago47
In my opinion the keynote has been struck in this production of ‘The Woman.’ It certainly does outrage the sense of decent people. I surely agree that wise parents will keep their children away from such picture as from a plague as well as refrain attending themselves. Why cannot the producers of these films exercise a keener censorship upon their productions and maintain a standard that will prove up their implied intentions. — William E. Hamilton. Milwaukee48
Will you permit a mere man to tell you that you have written for Charlie Chaplin a most wonderful ad? Charlie Chaplin is ‘placed’ in the estimation of the public and what you or any one else may say, can serve but to reminds a reader of his name. Charlie Chaplin is an institution. Charlie Chaplin is a credit to some of very
46 Chicago Daily Tribune, Jul. 16, 1915, pg12.
47 Chicago Daily Tribune, Jul. 16, 1915, pg12.
48 Chicago Daily Tribune, Jul. 16, 1915, pg12.
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things you have praised… Because you got peeved at Charlie Chaplin don’t ever go on record again in a sentence like this…… the world will laugh at you for saying. — C.S. Seymour. Ind.49
I want to commend you for your recent article in THE TRIBUNE condemning Chaplin’s latest release, ‘The Woman.’ While the film is funny and will appeal to many. It lacks cleverness and novelty and is about as coarse a film as I have ever seen and reminds me of a course burlesque show. — Charles R. Wilhelm,
Chicago50
All published reader letters agreed that Chaplin’s film A Woman was vulgar. On July 24, 1915, the Chicago Daily Tribune published an article about the censor of A Woman, ‘Chaplin
Film Mystery Solved’ said that: “The plot center around the Charlie Chaplin comedy ‘A Woman.’
The opening scene showed Fixo taking the film to the city hall to be passed on by the censors.
Only a slight cut is ordered, and Fixo hurries away.”51 From this short news, we cannot know which scenes were cut. However, Brian J. Robb’s article listed scenes of A Woman which were censored:
Local Chicago censor Major Metillus L. C. Funkhouser (yes, really) of the Chicago police was responsible for the cutting of various elements from A Woman, including (according to a list published contemporaneously in the Chicago Tribune): ‘Woman kicking man; Woman picking man’s pocket in park;
All scenes of man minus trousers; All scenes of man in bedroom showing him dressing up as a woman; All scenes showing extraction of hatpin from man’s anatomy; Man pulling skirt off woman and subsequent vulgar sections; Picture with father giving couple blessings.’52
According to Robb’s article, these following scenes were censored: Woman kicking man;
Woman picking man’s pocket in the park; man is token off pants; a man dressed women cloth;
extraction of hatpin from man’s anatomy; the man pulls skirt off woman and father giving couple blessings. It can prove that for film censorship in 1915, these scenes were unacceptable and inappropriate.
49 Chicago Daily Tribune, Jul. 16, 1915, pg12.
50 Chicago Daily Tribune, Jul. 16, 1915, pg12.
51 ‘Chaplin Film Mystery Solved’, Chicago Daily Tribune, Jul. 24, 1915, pg. 10.
52 https://chaplinfilmbyfilm.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/a-woman-12-july-1915/ Oct. 30, 2015