Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914)

Directed by: Mack Sennett | 72 minutes | comedy | Actors: Charles Chaplin, Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, Mack Swain, Charles Bennett, Chester Conklin

Charlie Chaplin – without a bowler hat!? – hooks up with a rich farmer’s ugly and naive daughter Tillie. Not because she’s so cute, but because she wants to steal her father’s money for him. Soon, Tillie is caught by the police. Charlie loses interest and moves on with his great love Mabel. Then a rich uncle of Tillie dies. Tillie inherits all his money. When Charlie reads that in the paper, he quickly leaves his Mabel to try again with Tillie. With little success, of course.

In the feature film ‘Tillie’s Punctured Romance’, the well-known comedian plays Charlie Chaplin under the direction of director Mack Sennett. He has worked with this director before, but this is the last time in this film. After this film, Chaplin wrote and directed all his films himself. He wanted more freedom and had the need to express his views on a variety of subjects. He does the same in his later short films.

‘Tillie’s Punctured Romance’ is a pretty boring movie. Some scenes are definitely fun. For example, the conflicts between the two ladies are very comical. Tillie (Marie Dressler) is also very laughable in the first ten minutes. That rude behavior and those horrible manners: very funny. But overall, this movie has little substance. The story is very cliché – men are always after women’s money – and the film is just too long. Too much repetition and too low a tempo make the film very boring at times. After twenty minutes it was really nice. Charlie Chaplin is certainly not bad. He is the only one who keeps up the pace and, as always, has peculiar traits. Still, it’s hard for a Chaplin fan to believe that the honest bum has suddenly turned into a manipulative womanizer. ‘Tillie’s Punctured Romance’ is simply not recommended. If you still want to enjoy Charlie Chaplin: his own films are definitely worth watching.