A Jitney Elopement

A Jitney Elopement was Charlie Chaplin's fifth film for Essanay Films. It starred Chaplin and Edna Purviance as lovers, with Purviance wanting Chaplin to take her away from an arranged marriage her father (played by Fred Goodwins) had planned for her. Chaplin does take her away, and they are pursued by a jitney, a type of share taxi popular in the US between 1914 and 1916. Most of the film was made in San Francisco and includes scenes of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and the large windmills still on the park's west side.

A Jitney Elopement
Theatrical poster to A Jitney Elopement
Directed by	Charlie Chaplin
Written by	Charlie Chaplin
Produced by	Jess Robbins
Starring	Charlie Chaplin Lloyd Bacon Ernest Van Pelt Edna Purviance Leo White
Cinematography	Harry Ensign
Edited by	Charlie Chaplin
Music by	Robert Israel (Kino video release)
Distributed by	Essanay Studios General Film Company
Release date	April 1, 1915 (1915-04-01)
Running time	33 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	Silent film English (original intertitles)

A scene filmed in Golden Gate Park

Full film

Synopsis

Edna's father greedily wants her to marry wealthy Count Chloride de Lime whom neither she nor he has ever met. Unknown to Edna's father, his daughter already has a true love: Charlie. Edna drops a note to her Charlie explaining her plight and asking him be her knight and save her. Charlie agrees. He arrives at Edna's home and impersonates the Count at dinner. Charlie humorously consumes beans with a knife, but still manages to keep up the facade of being a count. However, the true Count de Lime arrives and Charlie is roughly escorted away as an impostor. The count takes Edna to a nearby park to woo her, but Charlie is close by, as is Edna's father. Charlie interrupts the Count's romantic plans and begins a fight with the Count, Edna's father and three park policemen.

An automobile chase featuring Edna and Charlie in one car (a two-seater roadster) and the pursuers in another (a four-seater)^[a] ends with a few timely and accurate brick tosses by Charlie and the pursuing vehicle being bumped off a pier. The movie ends with Edna and Charlie shyly kissing in their vehicle.

Curiously Edna's name is given as Edna in an early title card and Edena mid-way. When she throws a note out of her window to Charlie, it is signed Iona Lott (I own a lot).

Review

A reviewer for Motion Picture World wrote, "There is a vein of romance throughout the story which, combined with Chaplin's inimitable comedy, gives the picture a general appeal."

Cast

• Charlie Chaplin as Suitor, the Fake Count
• Edna Purviance as Edna/Edena/Iona Lott
• Ernest Van Pelt as Edna's father
• Leo White as Count Chloride de Lime, Edna's Suitor
• Lloyd Bacon as Young Butler / Cop (uncredited)
• Paddy McGuire as Old Butler/Cop
• Bud Jamison as Cop with Baton
• Carl Stockdale as Cop
• Fred Goodwins as Car owner

Notes

1. Charlie and Edna escape in the Count's Hupmobile Model 20. Their pursuers hijack a Ford Model T, whose driver is sleeping. In the early years of the 20th century, many Model T owners in the US and Canada used their vehicles to provide a regulated or unregulated share taxi or illegal taxi operation.^[1][2] As a result, the Model T was often colloquially known at that time as a "jitney" when used as a cab or taxi.