Plot summary

Competing simultaneously with Cecil B. DeMille's Carmen (1915), starring the American soprano opera singer, Geraldine Farrar, and Raoul Walsh's identically titled, Carmen (1915), with the silent era vamp, Theda Bara, Charlie Chaplin's "Burlesque on Carmen" was originally intended as a two-reel comedy. Based on Prosper Mérimée's novella, Chaplin's version--which is accompanied by Georges Bizet's score--portrays the zany officer Darn Hosiery's best efforts to guard the city walls of Seville from Remendado's smugglers. As the contrabandist fails to bring in the goods, he enlists the aid of the alluring Gitano girl, Carmen, to seduce him--and before long--intrigue, jealousy, and death stain Hosiery's ill-fated romance. However, is the good officer capable of murder?—Nick Riganas