By the Sea Movie

By the Sea
Rating:
Run Time: 20 min
MPAA Rating:
Released: 1915
Directors: Charles Chaplin
Genre/Type: Comedy
Comedy of Manners
Screwball Comedy
Producers: Jessie T. Robbins
Plot Synopsis by Phil Posner
Charlie Chaplin's last one-reeler (with the exception of The Bond), is an impromptu film shot on the beach at Crystal Pier in Los Angeles, his first film shot there since leaving Keystone. It is superior to similarly made Keystone's in that the timing and gag ideas are much better realized. The film opens with couple Billy Armstrong and Margie Reiger at the beach on a windy day. Margie goes off, telling Billy to stay put. Charlie comes walking down a seaside street eating a banana and, after tossing the peel away, he slips on it. He encounters Billy when both men's hats, attached to them by elastic, get blown off and entangled. This causes a fight between them in which Charlie gets Billy in a headlock and knocks him unconscious, but fleas from Billy's head jump onto Charlie's arms, at which point Charlie performs a precursor of the flea circus routine that is featured in Limelight and the never released The Professor.

Just then Edna Purviance passes by and Charlie flirts with her. She is amused by his antics despite herself. She goes off and sits down by her boyfriend, Bud Jamison, who has been waiting for her on a nearby bench. Charlie and Billy make up, and Billy offers to buy them refreshments at a nearby ice cream stand operated by Snub Pollard. They again begin to fight as Billy refuses to pay. During the fight Bud gets hit by flying ice cream and joins the fray. The fight is broken up by a cop, who drags Billy off. Escaping, Charlie sits down next to Edna, bouncing her up and down by sitting down heavily. He's chased off by the returning Bud and joins Margie (who has been looking for Billy) on another bench until all the others arrive, whereupon Charlie tips over the bench and makes his getaway.

Back to the top Images of By the Sea

Videos of By the Sea

Back to the top Top Questions about By the Sea

The Loch Ness Monster, also known as Nessie, is the sea monster in Loch Ness,...
The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of about 1,000 documents and fragments discovered between 1947 and 1979 in eleven caves near the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. The texts have religious and histori...
Ocean water is a complex solution of mineral salts and of decaying/decayed biological matter that results from the abundance of life in the seas. Most of the ocean's salts were derived from gradual processes such the breaking up of the cool...

Cast

Actors Character Born
Charles Chaplin Stroller Apr 16, 1889 in London, England
Billy Armstrong Holidary-Maker Jan 14, 1891 in Bristol, UK
Margie Reiger Wife
Bud Jamison Her Husband Feb 15, 1894 in Vallejo, CA
Harry "Snub" Pollard Ice Cream Vendor Nov 9, 1886 in Melbourne, Australia
Carl Stockdale Policeman
Henry Bergman
Edna Purviance Young Wife Oct 21, 1894 in Lovelock, Paradise Valley, NV
Paddy McGuire Refreshment Stand Proprietor

Back to the topReview

Not yet reviewed
Table of Contents
Plot
Images
Videos
Top Questions
Cast
Review