British Film Institute

The inebriate is a traditional music hall character and the ability physically to suggest drunkenness was a key skill for the comedian. Charlie Chaplin had specialised in this during his time with Karno, especially in the sketch 'A Night in the Show' (US, 1915). Fred Evans, although not an especially proficient physical comedian, makes a good fist of this and uses the rocking camera and other traditional drunk gags. Interestingly, at the end, when Pimple encounters a loose woman who is flashing her ankles at him, he coyly looks directly at the camera and paints the glass white to obscure our view, in the equivalent of the theatrical 'aside'.

Bryony Dixon

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