A Woman (1915)
After some preliminary comic business, Charlie Chaplin is taken home by a young woman, and then discovers that her father is a man whom he insulted earlier. He hides in another room, and his trousers get wet when someone is careless with a soda water siphon. It happens to me all the time.
He takes them off and hides in an upstairs spare room to wait while they dry, and discovers a female outfit on a dummy. (This never happens to me.) In 1915 just being alone in a room with female clothing was probably rather racey, and Chaplin fondles the clothes for a while, and eventually decides to try them on.
He struggles into the clothes, over his own; quite a long time is allocated to this in the short film.
Eventually he is ready; we don't see whether he does anything to pad his chest, though.
His girlfriend comes upstairs and he shows her his new look; she thinks it is hilarious, and she clearly approves. Interestingly he does a lot of swishing his skirts and coquettish behaviour at this stage.
But she tells him to shave his moustache off, and to put on a pair of her shoes, which he does; the close-up of his face is remarkably convincing.
He goes downstairs to meet the relatives, and he is now so convincing and attractive that the father shows amorous intentions.
In fact he soon gets another man competing too; he arranges for them to kiss him on each side when he counts to three; and predictably he ducks at the right moment so that the two men kiss one another instead.
But this is only a thrity minute film, so this sequence needs to be ended; Chaplin's skirt comes away showing his legs and male underwear, and the game is up.
This plot element occupies about half of the film duration; Chaplin's small frame and twinkling eyes let him portray a good female once he had shaved off the moustache. In female mode Chaplin's character is credited as Nora Nettlerash, and the transformation is quite remarkable; only the mannerisms enable the viewer to be sure it isn't a switch actress.
The film is also known as Charlie the Perfect Lady, and The Perfect Lady.
HF March 2002
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A Woman
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