The Face on the Barroom Floor

Let's be honest, 'The Face on the Barroom Floor' is not much of a comedy. That doesn't necessarily mean that it is a bad movie. No! It is more a tragic story with some nice visual gags. It stands above most of The Keystone's farcical slapsticks but not only because it is so different. Here we can see Chaplin shine without relying too much on heavy slapstick. The movie is based on the poem by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy 'The Face Upon the Barroom Floor', which I also recommend reading. The movie follows the story from the poem quite accurately. Of course, there are many different cuts out there and some of them are quite botched up so the story is disfigured and some scenes don't make any sense.

The low score here, in IMDb, is probably due to the fact, that people expected the usual early Chaplin farce, but instead, they got rather a thoughtful movie without any raunchy slapstick.