A Burlesque On Carmen (1915)A Charlie Chaplin Film

‘A BURLESQUE ON CARMEN’ (1915) starring Charlie Chaplin goes like this:

It’s about a gypsy seductress who is sent to sway a goofy officer to allow a smuggling run to go on under his nose.

The smugglers come ashore. Their leader sends the gypsy Carmen to lure Don Jose (called Darn Hosiery) away so they can get the contraband to town. There are grand sword fights, deaths, returns to life.

It’s all a lot of fun with a spice of sensuality throw in for good measure. Of course, it’s not much of a movie with some romance.

Chaplin understood this as many great directors, producers and actors did back then.

In ‘A Burlesque On Carmen’ Chaplin is once again, quite brilliant.

His timing, physicality, sense of humor and intelligence are all on display here.

Chaplin was great at farce and silent satire. So, a shot at one of Cecile B. DeMille’s earliest successes was something Charlie Chaplin aimed for with A Burlesque on Carmen.

Back Then…

People would go back to see a popular movie in the theater many times.

Chaplin mimicked the sets, set-ups and even copied many of the titles of Cecil B. DeMille’s films verbatim. He even bases gags around very minor aspects of the DeMille film. All this provides a rich environment for Chaplin to create is ‘disrespectful mayhem’. Audience’s loved it.

‘A BURLESQUE ON CARMEN’ (1915) doesn’t appear to be an especially popular or well-known short of Chaplin’s.

Fans and followers of Chaplin’s work say it is one his best Essanay pictures, for a number of reasons.

Virtually, the entirety of Chaplin’s act was satirical in nature. Whether he was making fun of the upper class, social norms or fads of the day. ,In general, the bigger and more famous the target the bigger the audience laughed.

With Chaplin’s brand of humorous recreations of contemporary drama of the day, we see you his remarkable acting talent on display along with his impeccable timing.

Chaplin and his leading lady Edna Purviance, who was his leading lady at least 30 times in his early movies, does a great job in this film. Of course, Chaplin was masterful at surrounding himself with very skilled comedic actors. They had to have fantastic timing of their own and tremendous athletic skills to keep up with Chaplin.

‘A Burlesque On Carmen’ (1915) is a unique standout in Chaplin’s career, but also great fun to watch.