Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

From his post-Essanay period when he was working for Mutual, 'One A.M.' is not one of his very best. His Essanay and Mutual periods show a noticeable step up in quality though from his Keystone period, where he was still evolving and in the infancy of his long career, from 1914, The Essanay and Mutual periods were something of Chaplin's adolescence periods where his style had been found and starting to settle. 'One A.M.' is among the best of his early work and for me it is one of the best of his output under Mutual.

Certainly other efforts of his have more pathos and a balance of that and the comedy than 'One A.M', which is very comedy-oriented.

On the other hand, 'One A.M' looks pretty good, not incredible but it was obvious that Chaplin was taking more time with his work and not churning out countless shorts in the same year of very variable success like he did with Keystone. Appreciate the importance of his Keystone period and there is some good stuff he did there, but the more mature and careful quality seen here and later on is obvious here and preferred.

'One A.M' is one of his funniest from this period and does it without being over-reliant on slapstick. Some very impressive stunts here. It moves quickly and there is a more discernible and busier story to usual, even if at times it could have had more variety.

Chaplin directs more than competently, if not quite cinematic genius standard yet. He also, as usual, gives a very funny and expressive performance and at clear ease with the vast physicality of the role. It was essential for him to work, being a one-man show and he succeeded brilliantly, for me it was one of his best performances up to this point of his career.

In summary, very well done indeed. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Except the train driver right at the beginning, this short film "One A.M.", which will be 100 years old in 3 years, is a complete one-man show by Charlie Chaplin. And while I can't deny, he delivers all his comedic talent, expresses his actions as clear as it gets and shows the world what a great entertainer he is, I still was a bit disappointed as the humor worked only once in a while for me. I love my Chaplin the most with a female playing his sweetheart or at least with an antagonist, who's two heads taller than Chaplin. When he interacts with these characters, that's when he's at his funniest for me.

Here, he returns home after a night at the pub and faces all kinds of struggles when all he wants is get ready for bed. Oh poor Charlie. maybe you should just have laid down on the floor the moment you entered the door. He runs a.o. into slippery doormats, (allegedly) stuffed animals a giant pendulum straight from hell and finally the most stubborn bed I've ever witnessed. I'd recommend to watch the first five minutes maybe and then decide if you want to keep going. The humor is pretty much the same for the remaining 15 minutes. I personally think there's better Chaplin shorts out there.

1914 was Chaplin's first year in films and he starred in 25 movies in just this first year alone. However, many of these films were pretty bad--with practically no plot and just a lot of improvisation that sometimes worked and often didn't. Despite the quality of these films, by 1915 he was probably the #1 star in the world and was lured away from Keystone Studios--with promises of more money and even greater autonomy. Instead of just doing the same old comedies, Chaplin improved upon his "Little Tramp" character and begin carefully scripting his films, and so naturally the quality improved greatly.

ONE A.M. is a great example of his newer and more thought-out scripts for Mutual Studios. While Chaplin is the only person who appears in the film (other than a very brief scene with a cabbie at the beginning),the film is not simply improv or mugging for the camera, but well-choreographed and using complicated props made specially for this film. Several examples would include the spinning taxi meter, the clock with the dangerous swinging pendulum and the amazing and almost intelligent bed.

At first, I thought this whole drunk act theme would become tiresome. After all, at almost 17 minutes, that's a long time to do a drunk "schtick". However, when I thought perhaps Chaplin was milking a scene too much for comedy, he switched to another prop and kept my interest. Funny, well-made and memorable--this is one of Chaplin's best comedy shorts and translates well to viewing in the 21st century.