A Day's Pleasure is Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

's fourth film for First National Films

First National

First National was an association of independent theater owners in the United States that expanded from exhibiting movies to distributing them, and eventually to producing them as a movie studio, called First National Pictures, Inc. It later merged with Warner Bros.-Early history:The First National...

. It was created at the Chaplin Studio. It was a quickly made two-reeler to help fill a gap while working on his first feature The Kid

The Kid (1921 film)

The Kid is a 1921 American silent dramedy film written by, produced by, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin, and features Jackie Coogan as his adopted son and sidekick. This was Chaplin's first full-length movie...

. It is about a day outing with his wife and the kids and things don't go smoothly. Edna Purviance

Edna Purviance

Edna Purviance was an American actress during the silent movie era. She was the leading lady in many Charlie Chaplin movies. In a span of eight years, she appeared in over thirty films with Chaplin.-Early life:...

 plays Chaplin's wife and Jackie Coogan

Jackie Coogan

John Leslie Coogan , known professionally as Jackie Coogan, was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family...

 one of the kids. The first scene shows the Chaplin Studio corner office in the background while Chaplin tries to get his car started.

Reception

A Day's Pleasure is almost universally regarded as Chaplin's least impressive First National film. Even contemporary critics were muted in their enthusiasm, as evidenced by this mixed review from the December 8, 1919 New York Times:

"Charlie Chaplin is screamingly funny in his latest picture, A Day's Pleasure, at the Strand, when he tries in vain to solve the mysteries of a collapsible deck chair. He is also funny in many little bits of pantomime

Pantomime

Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

 and burlesque

Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...

, in which he is inimitable. But most of the time he depends for comedy upon seasickness, a Ford car, and biff-bang slap-stick, with which he is little, if any, funnier than many other screen comedians."

Cast

• Charles Chaplin - Father
• Edna Purviance
  Edna Purviance
  Edna Purviance was an American actress during the silent movie era. She was the leading lady in many Charlie Chaplin movies. In a span of eight years, she appeared in over thirty films with Chaplin.-Early life:...
  
   - Mother
• Marion Feducha - Small Boy (uncredited)
• Bob Kelly - Small Boy (uncredited)
• Jackie Coogan
  Jackie Coogan
  John Leslie Coogan , known professionally as Jackie Coogan, was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family...
  
   - Smallest Boy (uncredited)
• Tom Wilson
  Tom Wilson (actor)
  Tom Wilson was an American film actor. He appeared in 254 films between 1915 and 1963. He was born in Helena, Montana, and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:* Little Marie...
  
   - Large Husband (uncredited)
• Babe London
  Babe London
  Babe London was an American actress and comedian, most remembered for her onetime-only partnership with Oliver Hardy, in the 1931's Laurel and Hardy's two-reeler Our Wife.-Career:...
  
   - His Seasick Wife (uncredited)
• Henry Bergman
  Henry Bergman
  Henry Bergman was an American actor of stage and film, known for his long association with Charlie Chaplin....
  
   - Captain, Man in Car and Heavy Policeman (uncredited)
• Loyal Underwood
  Loyal Underwood
  Loyal Underwood was an American stock actor for Charlie Chaplin's film studio.Underwood's movie debut was in The Count, a 1916 Chaplin short film created for the Mutual Film Corporation...
  
  - Angry Little Man in Street (uncredited)