Laughing Gas (1914 film)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Laughing Gas (1914 film)

Laughing Gas is a 1914 American silent short comedy directed by Charlie Chaplin. It was produced by Mack Sennett for Keystone Studios and distributed by Mutual Film. The film stars Charlie Chaplin as a dental assistant in Dr. Pain’s office. It runs about 16 minutes and is one of several titles used for this film, including Busy Little Dentist, Down and Out, Laffing Gas, The Dentist, and Tuning His Ivories. It was inspired by a 1907 film of the same name. It is a silent film with English intertitles.

Plot
Charlie is a dental assistant at Dr. Pain’s dental office. He starts the day with a squabble in the back room, then a contest of mishaps as he cleans the waiting room and deals with a chaotic patient. The dentist administers nitrous oxide to his first patient, who eventually laughs uncontrollably; Charlie tries to wake him, leading to a series of slapstick fights and dental mishaps. The action moves outside to a drugstore and a newsstand, where more brawls and comic chaos ensue. Back at the office, Charlie flirts with a patient and continues clumsy misadventures, culminating in a final scramble with the dentist’s patients.

Cast
- Charlie Chaplin – Dental assistant
- Fritz Schade – Dr. Pain, the Dentist
- Alice Howell – Mrs. Pain, the Dentist’s Wife
- Joseph Sutherland – Short Assistant
- Slim Summerville – Patient
- Josef Swickard – Patient
- Mack Swain – Patient
- Frank Opperman – Patient
- Gene Marsh – Patient (uncredited)

Reception
A reviewer for Motion Picture News noted that Chaplin’s antics mostly involve fighting with patients but still generate loud laughter from audiences.