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Charlie Chaplin

 

 

A JITNEY ELOPEMENT

 

Essanay, 1915. Directed by Charlie Chaplin.  Camera:  R.H. Totheroh.  With Charlie Chaplin, Lloyd Bacon, Fred Goodwins, Paddy McGuire, Edna Purviance, Leo White.

Charlie, poor and hungry, is waiting for something to turn up. The beautiful Edna appears on a balcony and he serenades her, twirling a daffodil. The girl's father has offered Count Chloride de Lime a million dollars and his daughter's hand in marriage. She throws Charlie a note which says she hates the Count and wants to be rescued. Charlie, feeling like a million dollars, enters her home and announces that he is the Count. The starving imposter is invited to dinner but the real Count arrives in a jitney auto and Charlie is kicked out.

Later, the Count, the millionaire, and the latter's daughter drive into the country. Charlie is also wandering in this Arcadian scene. He discovers the Count making an impassioned plea for Edna's hand and heart. Charlie throws a well-aimed brick and the Count goes down for the count. Charlie and Edna run to the jitney auto, put a nickel in, and start forward with a jolt. They are soon pursued by the Count, the father, and a policeman. Charlie manages a well-calculated collision at the river's edge and the pursuing car disappears into the water. Charlie borrows a nickel from Edna to start the car again, and the happy lovers drive to the nearest parson.

What was said about A Jitney Elopement:

Moving Picture World
"There is a vein of romance throughout the story which, combined with Chaplin's inimitable comedy, gives the picture general appeal."

Bioscope
"Charles Chaplin, endeavoring to rescue an heiress from her father and a foreign count, has ample opportunity for the display of his very remarkable talents. He fights with the agility of a boxing kangaroo, and with almost as much disregard for the rules of warfare, and his motor car is almost equally gymnastic, rendering Mr. Chaplin great assistance in a riotously funny farce."

Cinema
"Perhaps no more effective tonic has been prescribed than the Essanay release, Charlie's Elopement. It is not only productive of numerous funniosities, but it demonstrates the extraordinary ability of Mr. Chaplin to manufacture about 40 minutes of lively, knockabout comedy on a plot which is practically threadbare. He is admittedly a wonderful bag of tricks."

The Films of Charlie Chaplin,
by Gerald McDonald, Michael
Conway and Mark Ricci
Bonanza Books, New York 1965