This romantic drama from Charlie Chaplin is certainly a departure for him, and aside from a brief cameo as a porter at the train station early on, he doesn't appear in this film. It centers on a couple who love one another (Edna Purviance and Carl Miller) and plan to elope, but fate intervenes. The pair actually separate twice over the course of the story, once because she doesn't trust him (not knowing he can't come to the train station because his father has died), and the second, because he doesn't trust himself (foolishly telling his mother than he won't marry him which she overhears). Both times, she ends up in the arms of a rich playboy (Adolphe Menjou), though she grows disillusioned there as well, because he plans to wed and keep her on as a mistress.
It's a decent enough story but gets a tad melodramatic, making it not particularly noteworthy. My enjoyment came more from the little moments in the film, like a waiter cooking a big basket of black truffles in champagne table-side (goodness how decadent!), Purviance's character spanking her friend (Betty Morrissey) for staying out all night, and a woman (Bess Flowers) wrapped up like a mummy and slowly unwound until she's naked at a party. The scenes of revelry and excess seem particularly well informed, and there are lots of visual details in the sets and clothing that make it a pleasing film to watch, the Jazz Age being in full swing and all. Adolphe Menjou makes a debonair rascal, and according to Jacqueline Stewart at TCM, said he learned more about acting from Chaplin while making this film than he did any other director. Overall, not a masterpiece, but held my interest and worth 82 minutes.
It's a decent enough story but gets a tad melodramatic, making it not particularly noteworthy. My enjoyment came more from the little moments in the film, like a waiter cooking a big basket of black truffles in champagne table-side (goodness how decadent!), Purviance's character spanking her friend (Betty Morrissey) for staying out all night, and a woman (Bess Flowers) wrapped up like a mummy and slowly unwound until she's naked at a party. The scenes of revelry and excess seem particularly well informed, and there are lots of visual details in the sets and clothing that make it a pleasing film to watch, the Jazz Age being in full swing and all. Adolphe Menjou makes a debonair rascal, and according to Jacqueline Stewart at TCM, said he learned more about acting from Chaplin while making this film than he did any other director. Overall, not a masterpiece, but held my interest and worth 82 minutes.