Sunnyside *** (1919, Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Tom Wilson, Albert Austin, Henry Bergman, Tom Terriss, Loyal Underwood) – Classic Movie Review 11,752

Director Charles Chaplin’s 1919 Chaplin three-reeler silent comedy short Sunnyside is a deliciously sunny, effortless silent movie, in which farm handyman worker Charlie is in love with the local lovely Edna Purviance, and dreaming lyrically of dancing in the meadow with girls (Helen Kohn, Olive Burton, Willie Mae Carson) in Greek nymph costume.

Chaplin is sending up D W Griffith’s rural melodramas in this amusingly satirical and charming film, with the star gloriously balletic and carefree, even though in life he was undergoing marriage problems.

Chaplin provided the score for the sound reissue.

Also in the cast are Tom Wilson, Albert Austin, Henry Bergman, Tom Terriss, Loyal Underwood, Tom Wood, J Parks Jones, Granville Redmond, A D Blake, N E Hendrix, Lulu Jenks, and David Kohn.

Chaplin described the making of this film as ‘like pulling teeth’ because of the mental block he suffered over his unhappy marriage to Mildred Harris. It is his third film for First National Pictures.

It runs 41 minutes and is shot in black and white.

A cut scene with Chaplin, who also serves as the Evergreen Hotel’s inept barber, attempting to shave the Village Doctor (Albert Austin) is preserved on the 2003 DVD and can also be seen in the 1983 documentary Unknown Chaplin.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,752

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