The Rounders (1914)
Written and directed by Charles Chaplin

A pretty minor, if highly amusing, Chaplin and Arbuckle short in which the two friends hit the town while their nagging wives try to chase them down. It's one joke—they're both just falling-down drunk the whole time —but it's a good joke.

Those more accustomed to Chaplin's masterpieces should be entertained by this rather more anarchic approach, which in some places is almost along the lines of The Hangover. I mean, how can you not like a film where Fatty Arbuckle punches and chokes his wife … for laughs … and the movie ends with the two leads passed out in a sinking rowboat?

Goes to show, the movies have only ever needed a handful of basic plots, and "drunk hijinks" is one of the most enduring.

Review by Lucio Darling