Charlie works at a hotel in the town of Sunnyside. His boss treats him like crap, and Charlie gets into a few mildly amusing situations. Charlie is also smitten with Edna, but then a stranger arrives in town and gives Edna the eye. Who will win out?
I'm not a big fan of Chaplin, although I don't dislike him. He just doesn't make me laugh in this, unless you enjoy seeing him kicked in the butt over and over.
I sat through this fairly short film (it runs around 32 minutes) and didn't change my expression the whole time. In one scene, Charlie falls off a cow, gets knocked unconscious, then dreams he is dancing with four fairies. I had no idea how this tied in with the plot.
Edna Purviance does a nice job as the romantic interest, and her serious scenes with Charlie are touching. The film could have used more of this, and less of the wacky situations.
This was not a bad film by any means; just not my cup of tea. Along with the copies on YouTube, there is also about an eight-minute sequence, with Charlie shaving someone. At least one contemporaneous reviewer mentioned seeing a version over 40 minutes, so the scene was probably included in 1919 and cut later. Some newspapers reported that Chaplin spent seven months and $1,000,000 making the film, and had actually filmed sixteen reels before whittling down the released product.
For trivia fans, there is a scene showing a man reading a Hebrew newspaper. The newspaper is the Jewish Daily Forward, which was published in Chicago. When newspaper officials discovered their paper was highlighted in the film, they were delighted and decided to cash in. They printed thousands of advertising cards, with the movie scene recreated on one side. The other side of the card featured the phrase "In Reel Life as in Real Life, The Forward, a Jewish newspaper, takes part in Charlie Chaplin's latest hit, 'Sunnyside.'" Supposedly this sparked some interest in Chicago's Jewish community, boosting attendance for the film.
I'm not a big fan of Chaplin, although I don't dislike him. He just doesn't make me laugh in this, unless you enjoy seeing him kicked in the butt over and over.
I sat through this fairly short film (it runs around 32 minutes) and didn't change my expression the whole time. In one scene, Charlie falls off a cow, gets knocked unconscious, then dreams he is dancing with four fairies. I had no idea how this tied in with the plot.
Edna Purviance does a nice job as the romantic interest, and her serious scenes with Charlie are touching. The film could have used more of this, and less of the wacky situations.
This was not a bad film by any means; just not my cup of tea. Along with the copies on YouTube, there is also about an eight-minute sequence, with Charlie shaving someone. At least one contemporaneous reviewer mentioned seeing a version over 40 minutes, so the scene was probably included in 1919 and cut later. Some newspapers reported that Chaplin spent seven months and $1,000,000 making the film, and had actually filmed sixteen reels before whittling down the released product.
For trivia fans, there is a scene showing a man reading a Hebrew newspaper. The newspaper is the Jewish Daily Forward, which was published in Chicago. When newspaper officials discovered their paper was highlighted in the film, they were delighted and decided to cash in. They printed thousands of advertising cards, with the movie scene recreated on one side. The other side of the card featured the phrase "In Reel Life as in Real Life, The Forward, a Jewish newspaper, takes part in Charlie Chaplin's latest hit, 'Sunnyside.'" Supposedly this sparked some interest in Chicago's Jewish community, boosting attendance for the film.