BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

lugonian ONE A.M. (Mutual, 1916), Written and Directed by Charlie Chaplin, is definitely a departure from the usual comedy shorts from this period. Being his fourth for the Mutual Studio, it's his one and only one-man show captured on film. Abandoning his tramp character with derby, baggy pants and cane for well-dressed debonair top hat character, there's also no usual stock players of Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell or Charlotte Mineau to support him. There is, however, Albert Austin in the opening minutes playing a taxi driver waiting for his fare with his hand out, but getting something quite unexpected. Virtually plot less, ONE A.M. is basically a twenty minute skit reminiscent from old-time vaudeville shows or forerunner to variety television programs as "The Red Skelton Show," where Red Skelton himself has made pantomime one of his notable works of art, no doubt inspired by Chaplin himself.ONE A.M., casts Charlie as a drunk returning home by taxi. Whether coming home from an all night party or a neighborhood bar is never fully detailed. It's for the audience to decide for themselves and what his background is. After leaving the taxi, he begins a series of struggles and tribulations starting with getting inside his home before further complications ensue while trying to go to sleep for the night.Though Chaplin is virtually a sole attention here, the cast support in brief bits might have helped add to the hilarity, such as casting the big and burly Eric Campbell as a good natured butler, or Edna Purviance as a girlfriend attempting to telephone Charlie but not being able to get connected, or some girl constantly getting the wrong number. Instead, props as liquor bottles, cigarettes, sliding floor mats, fish bow, staircase, giant pendulum from a clock or wall bed with mind of its own taking precedence in Charlie's troubles. Following this solo performance, Chaplin continued experimenting what comedy techniques work best for him in his future short/feature-length efforts for many years to come.ONE A.M. is one of the twelve Mutual shorts starring Charlie Chaplin to be available in various formats, with certain prints with missing or added inter-titles of dialog or description acts. Scoring differs, depending on distributors of either home video or DVD formats. Older prints formerly broadcast on public television or syndicated channels during the sixties and seventies usually from 1930s reissues with orchestration of ragtime compositions and sound effects. Current digitally remastered prints of clear visuals and accurate silent speed extension to 22 or more minutes (often from Kino Video) often consist of more modern or poor scoring (depending on taste) with violin playing that usually takes away the pleasure in watching silent comedies such as this. The scoring from the old Blackhawk/Republic distribution company in the 1990s makes it far more enjoyable, in spite of some edits. Interesting note about the title, ONE A.M. If it's lead to assume the Chaplin character returning home at that late hour, then why is the opening taxi segment appear to have daylight setting with noticeably passing cars and pedestrians seen in the background? Looks for it the next time there's another Charlie Chaplin festival on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 13, 1999), whether it be on prime time, daytime or at one a.m. Next Chaplin Mutual comedy: THE COUNT (1916). (***)

Tom Gooderson-A'Court Charlie Chaplin's forth film for the Mutual Film Company is a unique two reeler in which he is almost the only person on screen for the film's entirety. Apart from an establishing scene featuring Albert Austin as a disgruntled cab driver, Chaplin has the film to himself as he struggles to get up to bed whilst drunk. Chaplin arrives home at 1am to find numerous inanimate objects in his way in his quest for a nights sleep.In this twenty-six minute short a drunken Chaplin is scared by stuffed animals, baffled by a revolving table, constantly defeated by a flight of stairs before being bested by a fold away bed. Chaplin takes inspiration from the drunken character that made him famous in England with the Fred Karno Company, the very same character that drew the attention of Mack Sennett and gave him his break in the movie industry.The genius of this film comes from Chaplin's ability to keep on finding objects to hamper his attempts to get to bed when you think he won't be able to find anything else. Sometimes you will think he has done all he can with a particular object before going back to it several minutes later. This is the case with the revolving table in the middle of the room. Having chased his whisky around it early on in the film, the actor comes back to it later on in a brilliant scene in which he climbs upon the table and chases after the oil lamp hanging from the ceiling in order to light his cigarette. This was an excellent idea which actually made me feel a little dizzy. Another item which Chaplin constantly goes back to is the stairs. It takes him around ten or so attempts to actually get upstairs, each time being thrown back down due to loss of balance or bumping into something. The way he finally gets up is wonderfully surreal and clever.One thing I noticed about the stairs was how cushioned they looked. It was obvious that there was a lot of padding beneath the carpet and the rug at the bottom also resembled more of a crash mat than thin rug. It's not surprising that Chaplin chose to give himself a little padding given the number of times he came cascading down the stairs and I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't more than a little bruised by the end of filming. In a later scene I actually flinched when a bed stand came crashing down close to his head at high speed. One small misjudgement in positioning and he could have been seriously injured. Although Buster Keaton gets a lot of credit as being the daredevil of the silent comedians, this film shows that Chaplin wasn't afraid to perform dangerous stunts himself.My favourite scene in the film came late on when Chaplin finally finds his bed. This scene typifies Chaplin's comedy for me. While most comedians may be able to find one or two funny things to do with a collapsing bed, Chaplin takes over five minutes to play around with ideas, each one funnier than the last. Every time he did something new I thought to myself "Right, well that's it. There's nothing more that can be done with that", but each time I was wrong until we get to a fantastic payoff at the end. I loved the collapsing bed scene so much that I actually got my girlfriend (someone who likes Chaplin films when she sees them but otherwise isn't too fussed) to watch it with me a second time. In the end I actually showed her about two thirds of the film and she laughed even more than I did. I even heard her cry "Oh no, his hat!" Then she went back to watching Britain's Next Top Model though so you win some, you lose some.One A.M. is a film that really surprised me. I was unsure how this one man show could keep the laughs coming but if anything it gets funnier as it goes along. While it doesn't contain the depth of his later work or even the proceeding film The Vagabond, it is a master class in comic timing and also shows off Chaplin's underrated stunt skills.www.attheback.blogspot.com

The_Movie_Cat In 1916 the Mutual Films company released eight Chaplin pictures, highlighting a marked decrease in his output but also a marked increase in the quality. This was a theme that was to continue throughout the rest of his career, as the following year he would release half as many again, though with increased results. Come the mid 20s and Chaplin's down to just one feature every three to five years, though most of them classics.As for the Mutual output in 1916, then despite the increased artistry, many of them are still a couple of steps away from "Chaplin as genius". Indeed, while well staged, shorts like "The Floorwalker" and "The Fireman" are really just an extended series of people being kicked repeatedly up the backside. One A.M breaks that mould, an upturn in quality that would continue into the equally brilliant "The Pawnbroker" and "The Rink" two more shorts that would showcase Chaplin as a tremendously gifted acrobat. "Behind The Screen" was another upturn in quality from this run, a film that combined a witty deconstruction of the slapstick genre along with a daring gay gag, quite shocking for 1916. But it was the stunts that were most notable for the year - if not quite death-defying, then certainly serious injury defying.One A.M. is another foray into Chaplin doing a non-Tramp character, this time a drunken aristocrat. While Charlie's immense physical gifts can be seen in most of the films of the age, many of them are of a type, in particular him falling backwards onto his shoulder blades. By marked contrast, then many of the stunts seen in One A.M. are truly extraordinary, combining both substantial physical danger along with witty innovation. A virtual solo piece, it's basically one joke extended for twenty minutes, yet it's a very good joke given enormous invention and considerable charm. A stand out of the year that culminated in the classic "The Rink".

Andrew Hamilton I was exposed to Chaplin, in depth, for the first time during the screening of this movie. I expected to find schtick and pie-in-the-face comedy that would utterly bore me to tears. This unrealistic idea of Chaplin was what kept me from experiencing one of the great comedic geniuses of our century."One AM", a silent comedy short in which Chaplin played a convincing drunk returning (or attempting to return) home from a night out. I immediately took notice of the writing in that the cab driver remained totally still while his passenger (Chaplin) was a complete drunken mess. I found the unconscious reaching for the cab door handle and trying to find his pants pockets very convincing (I've been there). I laughed out loud as Chaplin goes through inebriated hell to get into his house through the window only to find his key when he gets inside and crawl back out the window to unlock the door. I've seen imitators of this sequence dozens of times, never the less it was still funny to me because it was unexpected.I must be honest and confess that I found the staircase, clock, and bed scenes a bit tiresome after while. The first time or two he fell down the stairs, got hit by the giant clock, or failed to open the bed, etc. I found amusing, beyond that I became a little frustrated and even bored with the situation. In no way do I say that to diminish Chaplin's delightful movie, but rather that may be the result of uninventive comedy styles overplayed in the cartoons of my youth.Chaplin appeared to be made of straw at some points in this movie, very agile and acrobatic (bed scene). He was a drunk trying to convince us he was sober which was great! Actors today try too hard to "act" drunk with their words and they fail miserably. They would be well served to watch "One AM" to see how to "be" drunk with no words at all!