Sunnyside

Sleepy farmhand (Charlie Chaplin) works hard to stay in bed. He mows the grass in the lobby of the Hotel Evergreen. He prepares breakfast the natural way. He's walking the cows when he loses them causing havoc in town. He falls under a bridge and awakens to find four beautiful nymphs. It's actually a dream. He woos the town beauty (Edna Purviance) getting rid of her brother. A well dressed city chap crashes his car and brought into the hotel where Chaplin is working. Purviance and the city chap go off together. Chaplin decides to imitate him. When she still rejects him, he tries to commit suicide but he's still dreaming. He wakes up at the Hotel with his boss kicking him. This time he gets the girl and the city chap leaves town.

For all the good comedic work, one moment delivers a truly hilarious moment for me. Chaplin finally sees that he lost the cows and as he walks back to town, he double checks a man walking along the road. It's Chaplin making sure that the man isn't a cow. It's gloriously ridiculous and fun. The movie is mostly slapstick. Chaplin does do a Tramp imitation when he dresses in city garb. This may not be one of his iconic movies but it's a good second tier work.

While this is certainly not a bad film and is entertaining to watch, compared to other Chaplin shorts, it's a bit of a let-down. Part of this is because there aren't as many laughs as usual and part of it was that the characters just didn't seem that engaging--something a little unusual for a Chaplin short made this late in his career. Plus, for me, it was a little hard to accept the Little Tramp as a farm hand--he just seemed really out of place and a bit lost. Later, when the rich guy appears and Charlie thinks he's going to lose his girl to this dandy, the movie seems a little more familiar, but still it failed to grab hold of my attention. Not a bad film, but Chaplin certain did better.

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.

From his period after Mutual, 'Sunnyside' is not one of his very best and not even among the best of this particular period. As said with many of his post-Keystone efforts, it shows a noticeable step up in quality though from his Keystone period, where he was still evolving and in the infancy of his long career. The Essanay and Mutual periods were something of Chaplin's adolescence period where his style had been found and starting to settle. After Mutual the style had properly settled and the cinematic genius emerged. Something that can be seen in 'Sunnyside' though other efforts do it better.

The story is slight and a bit too busy and manic in places. It does get bogged down at times by padding and a few scenes that don't serve a lot of purpose. Not all the sequences work either.

It is agreed that the nymphs scene in particular is bizarre and doesn't fit with the rest of the content and story, that was a scene that could easily have been left out and it would not have affected anything at all.

On the other hand, 'Sunnyside' looks good, not amazing (though the opening shot for early Chaplin is remarkable) but it was obvious that Chaplin was taking more time with his work and not churning out countless shorts in the same year of very variable success like he did with Keystone. Appreciate the importance of his Keystone period and there is some good stuff he did there, but the more mature and careful quality seen here and later on is obvious.

'Sunnyside' is very funny and charming, if not one of Chaplin's substance or pathos-filled. Its best moments (like with the horse doctor) are hilarious with some clever, entertaining, remarkably inventive and well-timed slapstick and the charm doesn't get over-sentimental. It generally moves quickly and there is little dullness in sight. The second half is both hilarious and enchanting and the message isn't laid on too thick and has more potency than one would think.

Chaplin directs more than competently and the cinematic genius quality is emerging. He also, as usual, gives a playful and expressive performance and at clear ease with the physicality and substance of the role. The support is good and the chemistry charms.

Overall, good but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Sunnyside reminds me of some of the early films in Alfred Hitchcock's career, like Rich & Strange or The Skin Game, which are curiosity pieces both because they come from such massive directors and are still so empty and disappointing. Like some of Hitch's early films, Sunnyside for Charlie Chaplin represents to me a point in his early career when he was testing the waters and still trying to find out what he is really best at doing.

Some people were disappointed that Chaplin forced the Tramp into the unlikely role of a farmhand, forgetting that the very nature of the Tramp is that he is such an everyman that he can be placed in virtually every different kind of situation, from brick-layer to World War I soldier, and Chaplin can use his particular brand of comedy to deliver his clever political themes and brilliant slapstick.

Some of the situations and sequences don't work so well or run as smoothly as many of Chaplin's more famous ones, and there is a bizarre sequence involving some dancing nymphs, but it is interesting to consider how this early, experimental film foreshadows the work that Chaplin did later in much more famous and highly superior films like City Lights and The Kid. Throughout the film are what may be taken as examples of the exasperation that Chaplin has admitted to having during the production of the film, but to call is a total loss is missing the mark completely. Certainly not the best of Chaplin's early short films, but I don't think Chaplin ever made a real failure.

Charlie works on a farm from 4am to late at night. He gets his food on the run (milking a cow into his coffee, holding an chicken over the frying pan to get fried eggs). He loves the neighbor's daughter Edna but is disliked by her father.

All I know about this film comes from two things: one, watching it. And two, the work of legendary professor Wes Gehring. From watching it, I find that the film is good, with a few amusing bits, but far from Chaplin's best work and it is no surprise that this is not one of his championed films.

From Gehring, I learn that this film (and "A Day's Pleasure") were made while going through a nasty divorce (something Chaplin would do a few times). So if it is not his best work, it may be because he was far from in the best of moods.