On the occasion of her birthday, a young woman sends out invitations to her many admirers: she wants to marry the one of them who gives her the best present. While the numerous suitors appear, Ernst Lubitsch's character is almost too late: having lost a button on his shirt, he has to roller-skate to his beloved in order to arrive on time. The effort is worth it, as he gives her the best present of all: a quarter of a pound of butter. Lost.
Ernst Lubitsch
Verehrer
On the occasion of her birthday, a young woman sends out invitations to her many admirers: she wants to marry the one of them who gives her the best present. While the numerous suitors appear, Ernst Lubitsch's character is almost too late: having lost a button on his shirt, he has to roller-skate to his beloved in order to arrive on time. The effort is worth it, as he gives her the best present of all: a quarter of a pound of butter. Lost.
The hero, a janitor played by Chaplin, is fired from work for accidentally knocking his bucket of water out the window and onto his boss the chief banker (Tandy). Meanwhile, one of the junior managers (Dillon) is being threatened with exposure by his bookie for gambling debts unpaid. Thus the manager decides to steal from the company.
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
A man attempts to evade observation by an all-seeing eye.
Pierre and Jacques are working as waiters at a restaurant where the cooks go on strike. When the two are forced to work as bakers, the striking cooks put dynamite in the dough, with explosive results.
Buster and a woman are mistakenly married and her initially unfriendly family begins to treat him nicely when they come to believe he has a large inheritance awaiting him.
Roscoe and Buster give a bullying Strongman the what-for, but after the performance troupe quits it's up to Fatty and Buster to keep the show going.
On a whim, a greedy tycoon decides to corner the world market in wheat. This doubles the price of bread, forcing grain producers into charity lines and others further into poverty. The film contrasts the differences between the lives of those who work to grow the wheat and the life of the man who dabbles in its sale for profit.
A shipowner intends to scuttle his ship on its last voyage to get the insurance money. Charlie, a tramp in love with the owner's daughter, is grabbed by the captain and promises to help him shanghai some seamen. The daughter stows away to follow Charlie. Charlie assists in the galley and attempts to serve food during a gale.
Charlie is released from prison and immediately swindled by a fake parson. A fellow ex-convict convinces Charlie to help burglarize a house.
Three Chaplin silent comedies "A Dog's Life", "Shoulder Arms", and "The Pilgrim" are strung together to form a single feature length film. Chaplin provides new music, narration, and a small amount of new connecting material. "Shoulder Arms" is now described as taking place in a time before "the atom bomb".