Charlot et la somnambule

Just caught this, one of the earliest films directed by star Charlie Chaplin, on a DVD collection called "American Slapstick". In this one, The Tramp runs afoul of a married couple, first at a park bench, and then at a hotel. The wife of this couple turns out to be a sleepwalker. Also, The Tramp is drunk during much of this. That's all I'll say except while I found much amusing in the beginning and I liked Charlie's constant slipping down the stairs nearly every time he tries to go up them, it just lost steam after that for me. Good thing he'd get much better later on. Oh, and there's also a man whose foot is heavily bandaged and that Chaplin keeps stepping on that was also good for a few laughs. So on that note, Caught in the Rain is worth a look.

Chaplin really starts breaking out in this directorial debut for Keystone, and one sees glimmers of the greatness already in this 1914 short. Worth seeing for the comedy bits especially at the beginning, with his physical comedy on stairs, park benches, etc. Apparently, Chaplin was made of rubber. You'll be scratching your head wondering how he did those stunts, they seem pretty dangerous.

The early films of Charlie Chaplin just haven't aged well. Despite his well deserved reputation as a comedy genius, most of his very early shorts from 1914-1916 or so are just dreadful by today's standards. They are just too short and amateurish to be or any interest except to film historians or to strange people like me who are trying to see every available Chaplin film.

This film is all to familiar material for the early films with themes involving Charlie being drunk, making passes at married women and Mabel Normand sleepwalking. There is really nothing very original here, but for what it is it is a fairly decent film.

Without being disrespectful, I want to say there is not anything worth mentioning in this 16 minute short.

People falling from stairs is not funny. Not at all. There is not anything funny in this whole film. But it's better than his other short films I have watched till now.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

He did do much better than the first film he directed and wrote on his own 'Caught in the Rain', still made very early on in his career where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'Caught in the Rain' is a long way from a career high, but has a good deal of decent things about it.

'Caught in the Rain' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and some other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. Things feel a little scrappy and confused at times and Chaplin's directing does betray inexperience.

For someone who was still relatively new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'Caught in the Rain' is not bad at all.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later (some very familiar elements here for Chaplin), 'Caught in the Rain' is mildly amusing, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves reasonably quickly, though not without its dull spots, and doesn't feel too long or short.

Overall, far from one of Chaplin's best and patchy but not bad. 6/10 Bethany Cox