Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

TheLittleSongbird Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors. Everybody has to have at least one misfire in their careers, even the best directors and actors have not so good films or films they regret. From his early still evolving period before he properly found his stride and fairly fresh from his vaudeville background, like 'His Favourite Pastime', 'A Busy Day' shows that Chaplin is not immune from this. While an important milestone period for him, his Keystone years/films generally were watchable and interesting enough overall but patchy, none being among his best work.'A Busy Day' has a few good points. While a little primitive and not exactly audacious, the production values are far from cheap.There are also a few amusing moments, a little zest on occasions and it was interesting to see Chaplin in drag.Where 'A Busy Day' falls down is that mostly it's not particularly funny. The timing feels limp and there is very little, if any, freshness or originality. There is an over-reliance on slap-stick and it is very broad and very repetitive. There is not much charm here and there is not much to be emotionally invested by. The story is flimsy, so much so things feel over-stretched, there are not many Chaplin short films where a short length feels very dull but 'A Busy Day' is one of them.Found myself uncharacteristically disappointed by Chaplin, which was not expected because generally even in lesser efforts he was one of the better things about them. Here he does not look interested and goes through the motions, there is none of the comedy/directing genius that he is deservedly hailed for. The rest of the cast are not much to write home about.In conclusion, an early career misfire. 4/10 Bethany Cox

CitizenCaine Although Chaplin edited this film and it does move at a nice pace, it is certainly one of his lesser efforts. He is also credited with directing it, but that seems unlikely given the aforementioned reasons by one of the other reviewers. Chaplin dresses in drag and plays the wife of a parade spectator and ends up kicking and fighting several spectators, including a policeman of course. This is one of the many incidences in early silent films where experimental films were done on location unbeknown-est to the real spectators of this parade. Chaplin was fairly well known already and it's possible he dressed in drag in this film to go unnoticed by the public during shooting. As it is, he appears to be just some obnoxious woman who may be trying to interfere with the parade; this film echoes the Auto Race In Venice film in that respect. Chaplin edits between what appears to be two different locations in the film as well. Other than that, this film has little to recommend itself. * of 4 stars.

Michael_Elliott A Busy Day (1914) ** (out of 4) Chaplin plays a woman(!) who gets tired of her husbands and decides to fight with him in public. This here really doesn't have a single funny moment but it's still interesting to see Chaplin playing a woman.Caught in a Cabaret (1914) *** (out of 4) Chaplin is mistaken as a Greek Ambassador and must keep a girl's family from finding out. This one here is a real riot with some wonderfully funny fight scenes but the real highlights are the title cards, which feature some very funny one-liners. Also of note is that this storyline would play a big part in future Chaplin films.Fatal Mallet, The (1914) *** (out of 4) Chaplin, along with two other guys, fights for the affection of a woman. Instead of using their fist the guys instead throw bricks at one another. This is a very funny film that has some outrageous violence that makes for a good time.Knockout, The (1914) *** (out of 4) To show off his braveness, Fatty Arbuckle challenged a professional boxer to a fight. Fatty is funny as usually and like the above film, this one here gets the laughs from violence ranging from punches to items being thrown. Chaplin has a small but funny cameo as the referee.

Michael DeZubiria Not much is the same about A Busy Day and Kid Auto Races at Venice except that for the early scene in this film where Chaplin is causing a disruption at a parade, where a camera crew are attempting to film. He begins as a member of the audience (a female member, as it were), and almost immediately begins kicking and punching everyone in sight, and repeatedly being thrown into the same policeman, who seems each time to find the incident surprising and annoying but otherwise unimportant.As was the case in The Masquerader, Charlie is oddly convincing as a woman, and it is not until he starts throwing punches and kicks that it becomes clear that he is Charlie and not a woman. His diminutive stature and effeminate demeanor (not to mention the absence of close-ups and the help of almost 100 years of deteriorated film stock) help to pass him off as a woman, but his behavior is so familiar from so many short comedies full of punching and kicking that once the comedic violence starts, it's just Chaplin in a dress doing the same thing that he did in so many other films at the time.Of course, I say all of this in retrospect, because I am sure at the time audiences found the idea of a man dressing up like a woman and starting fights was endlessly hilarious, but the content of the comedy has not fared quite as well as Chaplin's later work. (spoiler) But at least since he insists on ending another film by falling in the water, he puts something of a spin on the idea here.I did, however, also find this film a bit interesting because it was filmed on location, so it shows a little of what Los Angeles looked like almost 100 years ago. I only wish I knew where exactly in LA it was filmed, just because I know the city so well and I love to think about Chaplin shooting his films on the same streets where I have been so many times. In A Day's Pleasure, for example, the opening scene is shot right next to his studio on La Brea Avenue, where I have been countless times, and I find it to be fascinating to look at that film and then go look at what the exact same spot looks like today.