Chaplin's spoof of Cecil B. DeMille's Carmen, released the same year as
the film it mocks. Chaplin plays Darn Hosiery, the Don José figure — a
dim Spanish officer seduced and ruined by the gypsy Carmen (Edna
Purviance) — with Ben Turpin as the toreador Remendado, mangling his
name in the bargain. The parody is affectionate but pointed, and its
mock-tragic ending is a real gag rather than a whimper. Essanay later
padded the two-reeler out to four reels with discarded footage for a
1918 re-release, prompting Chaplin to sue the studio; most surviving
prints derive from that expanded version. As a work published before
1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.
Comedy · Silent
