The March of Time, Vol. 5, No. 12: The Movies March On

Not as funny as Chaplin's later films but a good solid feature

A milestone for film comedy, but not a work for the ages

Worth Seeing For the Cast, Not For the Comedy

Sans Souci Castle, Los Angeles, California, USA

Charles Chaplin in A Burlesque on Carmen (1915)

Sessue Hayakawa and Fannie Ward in The Cheat (1915)

Charles Chaplin, Billy Armstrong, Marta Golden, Charles Inslee, and Edna Purviance in A Woman (1915)

Charles Chaplin and Mabel Normand in Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)

Have you a niece built like a battleship who calls herself Tillie?

Charles Chaplin in Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)

Charles Chaplin, Marie Dressler, and Mabel Normand in Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)

Marie Dressler and Mabel Normand in Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)

Charles Chaplin, Marie Dressler, and Frank Opperman in Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)

Charles Chaplin, Gordon Griffith, and Mabel Normand in Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)

Charles Chaplin

Marie Dressler

Mabel Normand

Hampton Del Ruth

Craig Hutchinson

Mack Sennett

A con man from the city dupes a wealthy country girl into marriage.

Charles Bennett

Tillie&apos;s Punctured Romance

Only So Much Pure Slapstick You Can Take

For today&apos;s audience there are two things that are striking about Tillie&apos;s Punctured Romance. The first is that Charlie Chaplin does not get first billing here. He was not yet the star he would become, he was just another of Mack Sennett&apos;s comedy stars. He does not play the tramp character yet though there are some tramp like aspects in who he does play.

The second is that this is a chance to see Marie Dressler a whole lot earlier in her career than we know her from sound films. Marie was a very big vaudeville star and her character her was a whole lot like her act on stage. The homely big boned girl who seems to be born a total klutz.

There&apos;s not really much to the outrageous plot of this 83 minutes of unadulterated slapstick. It seems like every other minute someone was either tripping or being kicked in the derrière. That was the way it was with Mack Sennett comedies.

Chaplin plays a city slicker who takes Marie off the farm and to the big city. But when he gets there his eye roves towards Mabel Normand. Mabel back in the day was a full figured girl herself and a bit more attractive than Marie.

But when news of her rich uncle falling off Mount Baldy makes her an heiress, Charlie finds his passion for Marie and her money rekindling. Kind of leaves Mabel the odd girl out. And in the climax the Keystone Kops are called in after a brawl develops at a society party that Marie is throwing to introduce herself to society.

Tillie&apos;s Punctured Romance could have told the story in half the screen time it takes. There&apos;s only so much pure slapstick you can take at one time. Still it&apos;s not a bad film and it does display the talents of Chaplin, Dressler, and Normand and a host of other comedy names from the Mack Sennett studio.

For today's audience there are two things that are striking about Tillie's Punctured Romance. The first is that Charlie Chaplin does not get first billing here. He was not yet the star he would become, he was just another of Mack Sennett's comedy stars. He does not play the tramp character yet though there are some tramp like aspects in who he does play.

The second is that this is a chance to see Marie Dressler a whole lot earlier in her career than we know her from sound films. Marie was a very big vaudeville star and her character her was a whole lot like her act on stage. The homely big boned girl who seems to be born a total klutz.

There's not really much to the outrageous plot of this 83 minutes of unadulterated slapstick. It seems like every other minute someone was either tripping or being kicked in the derrière. That was the way it was with Mack Sennett comedies.

Chaplin plays a city slicker who takes Marie off the farm and to the big city. But when he gets there his eye roves towards Mabel Normand. Mabel back in the day was a full figured girl herself and a bit more attractive than Marie.

But when news of her rich uncle falling off Mount Baldy makes her an heiress, Charlie finds his passion for Marie and her money rekindling. Kind of leaves Mabel the odd girl out. And in the climax the Keystone Kops are called in after a brawl develops at a society party that Marie is throwing to introduce herself to society.

Tillie's Punctured Romance could have told the story in half the screen time it takes. There's only so much pure slapstick you can take at one time. Still it's not a bad film and it does display the talents of Chaplin, Dressler, and Normand and a host of other comedy names from the Mack Sennett studio.

bappamtv

Tillie's Punctured Romance

🎭 Top Cast

🎬 Technical Specs

🏷️ Keywords

🎯 Categories

⭐ Featured Review

💡 Did You Know?

🎬 More Like This

📖 Synopsis