The Face on the Bar Room Floor is a 1914 short film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin stars in this film, loosely based on the poem of the same name by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy.
Plot A devastated tramp visits a crowd-filled bar and recounts the story of how he fell in love with a woman and then had her taken by a friend of his. Drunk, he keeps trying to draw the woman's picture on the floor with a piece of chalk, and gets into fights with other men in the process. He eventually passes out “dead drunk” (thus deviating from the poem, where the protagonist actually falls “dead”) at the end of the film.
According to Chaplin expert Gerald D. McDonald, "The subtitles of the film were lines from the poem, but the original verses were altered to match the Keystone credo that life is a funny game at best."
Cast Charlie Chaplin - Artist/Tramp Cecile Arnold - Madeline Fritz Schade - Drinker Vivian Edwards - Model Chester Conklin - Drinker Harry McCoy - Drinker Hank Mann - Drinker Wallace MacDonald - Drinker Edward Nolan - Bartender
Reception A reviewer for The Moving Picture World gave the film a favorable review, writing "Chas. Chaplain [sic] wins new laurels in the leading part. This is bound to please.""Comments on the Films", The Moving Picture World, August 29, 1914, p. 1241-1242
See also The Face on the Barroom Floor (poem) List of American films of 1914 Charlie Chaplin filmography
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