Very well executed

The greatest movie ever!

The greatest movie ever made..!

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Although it is hard to follow the story of Carmen opera in this spoof (it is quite confusing), that is a very funny short from genius Charles Chaplin. Charlie does not play his tramp here, but a military called Darn Hosiery, a tramp-like version of Don José. There are numerous hilarious situations, making the fans not to miss the little tramp. Chaplin's slapstick is brilliant as usual. Just imagine comedian like Chaplin with military costumes, weapons, and making their gestures... It is as if the comedian were in an amusing park! The fencing (judo?!) scene is excellent! Intertitles make as laugh a lot too. Edna Purviance had one of her best performances in my opinion, as Carmen. Great end!

It's surprising how many films Chaplin made out of his tramp character in his earlier years. Here, in a parody of the famous opera (hence the highly original title), Chaplin plays a soldier in charge of the guard detailed to prevent smuggling onto its country's shores. The ne'er-do-wells who want to bring in their goods employ Carmen, a voluptuous young lady who is rather free and easy with her favours, to entice Chaplin away so that they can go about their business as usual. This one's a bit of a mess, with only a few scattered laughs found amongst a fairly turgid attempt at lampooning high(ish) art. Definitely not one of Chaplin's best, but then he was churning out so many films during this period that I suppose he was bound to produce a turkey every now and then.

Burlesque on Carmen (1916) is Charles Chaplin's parody of Georges Bizet' famous opera.Chaplin isn't the famous tramp this time but a Spanish officer Darn Hosiery who falls for the beautiful and dangerous gypsy temptress Carmen.Chaplin's number one girl Edna Purviance plays Carmen.One good reason to watch this movie is to see those two working together.Together they created magic.And there's also the fantastic cross-eyed comedian Ben Turpin playing the part of Remendados.Even though Chaplin could do much better than this it still isn't a bad movie.He was incapable to make a bad movie.For me it would be hard, if not impossible to give less than eight stars to a Chaplin movie.Chaplin was not only a fine movie maker but he was also a talented writer of books.I own his autobiography and at the moment I'm reading 'My Trip Abroad (1922)'.So he could do much more than act the clown on films.The ending of this movie is dramatic but I was happily surprised to see Charlie and Edna get up after he's stabbed them both.Like a knife could ever kill Chaplin and his girl!

I must admit, I don't find Charlie Chaplin as funny as Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy and The Little Rascals. What says more to me about Chaplin is his pathos rather than comedy. His genius was in his pathos, depicting the grim reality of working class Victorian and Edwardian life. His comedy was merely a vehicle to communicate his pathos. Therefore, I did not find this funny, but I struck a chord with his pathos.