A Dog's Life (film)

Charlie Chaplin is The Little Tramp, a homeless man very down on his luck but trying to make the best of it. We first see him sleeping in a junkyard, plugging a draft in the fence with his handkerchief, and trying to steal himself breakfast, and escaping the cop who catches him doing it.

Scrappy is a purebred mongrel. In the beginning, it just lies around and looks cute.

The Little Tramp tries to get a job at an employment office and, because of horrible timing for line-switching, fails completely. On his way back, he sees Scrappy in the center of a huge dogfight with many dogs. He takes it upon himself to rescue Scrappy, getting a hole in his pants in the process. He then gives it the last trace of milk in a milk bottle, eventually using its tail for this. (Without Scrappy, he'd have tried to drink it himself.)

Cut to a sausage stand. Scrappy steals two sausages; the Tramp sneaks the entire contents of a plate during periods when the cook isn't looking, except for one when a cop is looking.

Cut to the Green Lantern--dancing free, beer 5 cents. The Little Tramp enters; since no dogs are allowed, he hides Scrappy in his pants. (It had already been established that they were extremely loose pants.) Scrappy's tail sticks out of the hole and is wagging, which gets noticed, and gets unavoidable when the tail wags into a large drum. Then, Scrappy is let out; now that the dog is already there, no one wants to boot it.

An attractive singer with a lovely voice sings. (Yes, this is still a silent film, but they still wrote scores for the things, and no human voice is heard.) She moves everyone who hears her to tears. When she is done singing, the owner of the Green Lantern suggests she set herself to flirting to attract customers. She focuses her attention on the Tramp--who really doesn't get that sort of thing...

It turns out that you aren't supposed to hang out at the Green Lantern without buying anything, so the Tramp is given the boot. He heads back to the junkyard. Just about then, a very rich and very drunk fella has his wallet full of cash stolen from him; the thieves bury the wallet in the junkyard before the Tramp and Scrappy get there.

If you thought hilarity was ensuing before...

Do not confuse with the one act play of the same name.


 * Canine Companion
 * Finagle's Law
 * Hilarity Ensues
 * Pet the Dog
 * Silence Is Golden
 * Slapstick