| A Busy Day | |
| Director: | Charlie Chaplin |
| Producer: | Mack Sennett |
| Starring: | Charlie Chaplin |
| Cinematography: | Frank D. Williams |
| Studio: | Keystone Studios |
| Distributor: | Mutual Film |
| Runtime: | 6 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
A Busy Day is a 1914 short film starring Charlie Chaplin and Mack Swain.[1]
In A Busy Day, a wife (played by an energetic Charlie Chaplin) becomes jealous of her husband's interest in another woman during a military parade. On her way to attack the couple, the wife interrupts the set of a film, knocking over a film director and a police officer. Finally, the husband pushes the wife off a pier and she falls into the harbor.
According to the 1965 book The Films of Charlie Chaplin, A Busy Day is the first of three films in which Chaplin plays a woman. The other two were The Masquerader (1914) and A Woman (1915). Chaplin used the wardrobe of fellow Keystone player Alice Davenport.
It was typical for Mack Sennett to shoot Keystone comedies using real events—such as a parade—as the background for comic mayhem. This short film (about half a reel) was shot near San Pedro Harbor in less than two hours. In it, one can see interesting glimpses of First World War-era American naval ships in the background. The other part of the reel is an educational short titled The Morning Papers.
A reviewer from Bioscope noted, "[Chaplin] gives an amazing exhibition of acrobatic humor."