Stubs - Making a Living

Making a Living (1914) Starring: Charles Chaplin, Henry Lehrman, Emma Bell Clifton, Chester Conklin. Directed by Henry Lehrman. Written by Henry Lehrman. Produced by Mack Sennett. Run Time: 13 minutes. U.S.A. Black and White, Silent, Short, Comedy

Fred Mace might not be a name that you’ve ever heard of before but if it wasn’t for his desire to leave Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios, Charles Chaplin may not have ever gotten into films. He was on his second U.S. tour with Fred Karno’s comedy troupe when he was approached by a representative of Keystone who saw his performance and thought Chaplin could be a good replacement for Mace, who would appear in more than 150 films from 1909 and 1916 and was at the time the big star at the studio and wanted to leave. Though Roscoe Arbuckle would take over the roles Mace would have played, Chaplin was signed to a $150 a week contract in September 1913. He arrived in Los Angeles in December and began work for Keystone on January 5, 1914.

Almost immediately he began working on his first film that was written and directed by Henry Lehrman, who would also appear in the film. Chaplin was used to rehearsing parts was also not used to films which are made out of sequence. There are stories that he and his director butted heads early on.

Edgar English (Chaplin) swindles a reporter (Lehrman) out of money and a ring.

The short film opens with Edgar English (Chaplin), described as a swindler is in conversation with a man on the street who later turns out to be a newspaper reporter (Lehrman) whom he is apparently trying to convince him to give him money, as Edgar is down on his luck. Somehow during their talk, Edgar manages to steal a ring from the man.

The reporter is not happy to find that his sweetheart (Minta Durfee) is now engaged to
 Edgar. The girl's mother (Alice Davenport) looks on.

Edgar goes almost immediately to a mother (Alice Davenport) and daughter (Minta Durfee) who are standing out in front of their mansion. Edgar comes on to the daughter and they become engaged when he gives her the ring he’d taken from the reporter.

The butler moves to break up the ensuing fight.

The reporter, who had stopped to buy the daughter flowers, soon arrives to not only find out that his girl is engaged, not only with the ring he intended to give her but the bum on the street who asked him for money. The two get into a fight, which is eventually broken up by the butler, who gives the reporter the old heave-ho.

Edgar sees a help wanted sign outside what was the old
LA Times Bldg. The Bum is played by Chester Conklin.

Later, Edgar is looking for work and sees a sign looking for a writer on the local newspaper. Before he goes in to apply, he has some interplay with a Bum (Chester Conklin) who is hanging around outside. When he goes in to apply to the manager, he finds the Reporter works there. The reporter gets the Editor of the paper (Charles Inslee) to throw Edgar out.

The Editor of the paper throws Edgar out.

Later that day, the Reporter is out on the street when he sees a car lose control and go over the edge crashing down a hill, pining the driver under the car. The reporter is the first on the scene and takes photos with his camera and interviews the victim. He is about to leave the scene when others arrive and try to right the car and free the driver. The reporter is encouraged to help and he puts down his notes and camera.

The reporter interviews and photographs the victim of a traffic accident.

Edgar, who happens to be walking by, sees the accident and goes to investigate. While there he sees the reporter's notes and camera, which he scoops up and runs away. When Edgar sees a Keystone Kop policeman (Chester Conklin), he runs up the stairs to hide in a house where the woman living there (Emma Clifton) tries to throw him out. However, the reporter takes chase and follows him into the house. Edgar manages to get away but the reporter ends up in the bed with the woman and is discovered there by her husband (Billy Gilbert).

Husband (Billy Gilbert) finds his wife (Emma Clifton) in bed with the reporter.

Edgar takes the story and camera back to the newspaper. An extra is issued based on his story and the paper is on the street almost before the reporter realizes his things are missing.

Edgar's story rates an Extra edition of the paper.

He chases Edgar down and the two get into a fight on the street, ending up in the cow-catcher of a passing trolley car.

Edgar and the reporter take their fight out into the streets.

Chaplin was apparently disappointed in the finished film, feeling that his best performances were left on the cutting room floor. Supposedly, Lehrman would admit to having done just that out of spite for Chaplin.

The film was released on February 2, 1914 and despite his own misgivings, he received very positive reviews from Moving Picture World, an influential early trade journal for the American film industry, which wrote, "The clever player who takes the role of the nervy and very nifty sharper in this picture is a comedian of the first water, who acts like one of Nature's own naturals. It is so full of action that it is indescribable, but so much of it is fresh and unexpected fun that a laugh will be going on all the time almost. It is foolish-funny stuff that will make even the sober-minded laugh, but people out for an evening's good time will howl."

Henry Lehrman may not be a name that gets a lot of attention today, but back in the beginnings of silent films, he was very prominent, working with not only Mack Sennett but also D.W. Griffith. The next year, he would leave Sennett to start his own company, the L-KO Kompany, making two-reelers for Universal. He had a bad reputation for putting his actors in precarious and dangerous situations, earning the name "Mr. Suicide." One more connection to silent films is that Lehrman was engaged to Virginia Rappe, the actress whose death in 1921 led to the downfall of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's career.

The film also features Chester Conklin, a film comedian, and one-time Keystone Kop. He would go on to co-star with Mabel Normand in a series of films, including  Mabel's Strange Predicament (1914), Mabel's New Job (1914), Mabel's Busy Day (1914) and Mabel at the Wheel (1914). He was also teamed with Mack Swain and became known for his Walrus-like mustache. In 1920, he left Sennett and went to work at Fox Film Corporation. Conklin would have a significant role in Erich von Stroheim's acclaimed Greed (1924). However, his part was cut from the finished film and lost. Conklin would also appear in Chaplin's films Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940).

Minta Durfee was married to Arbuckle at the time the film was made with whom she would appear in several films. A close friend of Mabel Normand, Durfee would be best remembered for her role in Normand's Mickey (1918).

Just a quick note, the Billy Gilbert in this film is not the same Billy Gilbert from The Music Box (1932) or His Girl Friday (1940). Even though they were acting at about the same time, the two only share a name.

But the star of the film is Charlie Chaplin. This is certainly not the best work Chaplin would ever do but it does show certain glimpses of what was to come. Chaplin would be a quick study and it wouldn’t be long before he was one of the most famous people in the young fledging film industry, becoming a worldwide phenomenon.

Making a Living is one of the few films when Chaplin is not seen as his trademark Little Tramp. That character would appear in his next film, also directed by Lehrman, Kid Auto Races at Venice. Here he is dressed in a long grey coat and a large mustache with a more villainous look.

As far as should you watch this short, the answer would be a qualified “yes” though I would not say it would be for everyone. If you’re a fan of Chaplin’s already, you owe it to yourself to see all of his films that you can. If you’re not a fan then there are other films I would suggest, like City Lights (1931), which may be my favorite of his.

Stubs - A Dog's Life (1918)

A Dog’s Life (1918) Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Syd Chaplin, Henry Bergman, Charles Reisner, Albert Austin, Tom Wilson. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. Screenplay by Charlie Chaplin. Produced by Charlie Chaplin. Run Time: 33 minutes USA Black and White, Silent, Comedy

An article in the January 26, 1918, issue of the Los Angeles Times heralded the opening of a movie studio on the corner of La Brea and Sunset in Hollywood, next to what had been a lemon orchard. Flush with a million-dollar contract from First National, Chaplin had spent about half of it, according to the story, to build his own studio.

In the article, written by Grace Kingsley, who was the LA Times’ motion picture editor from 1914 until her retirement in 1933, Chaplin discusses the first film he plans to make. "All about a dog!" Chaplin had apparently been thinking about the comic possibilities of working with a dog and felt that time was right.

But before he made A Dog’s Life, Chaplin wrote and produced a short called How Movies Are Made, which gave the audience a brief tour of the new facilities disguised as a day in the life of Charlie Chaplin, movie mogul. We see him arrive at his new studio, receive the morning fan mail, working with his crews, applying makeup on an actress and then giving her a screen test, rehearsing with his actors, editing his film, etc. We’re also shown how negatives are processed and the film dried on giant drums. A fairly interesting slice of life, but for whatever reason, never released.

In his effort to find the right dog, Chaplin looked at several breeds, including a dachshund, a Pomeranian, a poodle, a Boston bull terrier and an English bulldog before deciding what he needed was a mongrel. To find the right one, Chaplin picked up 21 dogs from the Los Angeles pound and brought them to the set. When neighbors complained, he cut back to 12 dogs before settling on one, Mutt. In her article, Kingsley refers to “a scrap of a mongrel” that was at Chaplin’s feet during the interview. She refers to the dog as Bingo, but it’s not clear if that is the same dog that made it into the film.

Chaplin films were not written in the usual way that we think films are written. Routines were worked out, sometimes on the set, with a trial and error to find the right bit. At the time of the Kingsley article, all that was known for sure about the movie was that it included an employment bureau in it.

When the film opens, The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) is sleeping in a vacant lot. When a traveling hot dog vendor stops to service a customer, Charlie reaches through the broken down fence to fish a hot dog out while the vendor isn’t looking. As he goes back for mustard, The Tramp is spotted by one of several cops on foot patrol. The Tramp avoids capture by rolling in and out of the lot through the missing bottom of the fence, while the hapless cop runs back and forth. When the Tramp sees his chance, he kicks the officer’s backside, when he gets stuck halfway under. The arrival of a second cop causes The Tramp to take off.

The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) gets caught stealing a hot dog from a vendor.

Meanwhile, we see a lonely Scraps (Mutt) who is also hungry and looking for food on the streets.

Things are much better for Scraps (Mutt).

The Tramp, with best intentions, goes to an Employment office where there are openings for strong men to work in the sewers but there are also openings for work at a brewery. Even though The Tramp is the first one in, he gets knocked off the bench, twice and gets cut on by others in line for the jobs. He runs back and forth between windows and clerks (Charles Reisner and Albert Austin) until all the openings are filled.

Charlie's attempt to find work gets thwarted at the Employment Bureau.

Back out on the street, The Tramp spies Scraps, who gets attacked by a pack of feral dogs over scraps she’s found. The Tramp rushes out to save her, fighting off dogs, one of which attaches itself to The Tramp’s backside.

Finally clear of them, The Tramp tries to find something to feed the dog. There is a bottle of milk on the porch, awaiting collection, the remnants of which Charlie lets the dog drink. To get to the bit on the bottom, The Tramp inserts the dog’s tail into the bottle and lets her lick the excess milk off of her own tail.

The Tramp steals muffins from a lunch wagon run by his half-brother Syd.

Later, the two happen by a lunch wagon and harass the owner (Syd Chaplin). First, Scraps steals two hot dogs the owner was preparing to cook. And then The Tramp helps himself to a plate of muffins set out for the paying trade. With the owner’s attention elsewhere, The Tramp steals and eats all of them. Things get harder when the owner grows suspicious. They play around with double and triple checks as The Tramp uses any opening to steal one.

At the Green Lantern, the Tramp and Scraps are escorted out.

From there, the two venture over to a street café, the Green Lantern. Despite a large sign saying No Dogs Allowed, The Tramp tries to walk in with the dog on a leash. However, The Tramp is not to be undeterred. Stuffing Scraps into his pants, The Tramp re-enters. And except for the dog’s tail sticking out of a hole in the back of his pants, he might get away with. Finally, he lets Scraps out of his pants.

The Tramp sticks Scraps in his pants and goes back in.

The Green Lantern is part bar and part nightclub. We see the patrons dance and see a girl dancer perform on stage. Then a new singer (Edna Purviance) comes to the stage and delivers a song that brings everyone, literally everyone including the musicians, to tears. Some cry so hard and so much that it is almost surreal.

The Bar Singer (Edna Purviance) is not good at flirting.

Despite her talent as a singer, she is encouraged by the Dance Hall Proprietor (Granville Redmond) to flirt with the clientele to get them to buy her drinks. Edna is not a natural flirt and it takes her telling The Tramp that she’s flirting with him for anything to happen. They dance a frenetic and awkward step together. The band seems to have only one speed, fast. Afterward, when The Tramp can’t afford to buy her a drink, the barkeep throws him to the curb.

The Tramp and the Singer dance while she holds Scraps' leash.

Meanwhile, a rich drunk is mugged by two assailants who steal his wallet. The cops are close by and take up the chase. One of the robbers buries the wallet in the same vacant lot Charlie lives in. The thieves escape and later we see the drunk rich man get up and stumble away.

Scraps makes a good pillow.

Later, when The Tramp and Mutt return to get some sleep, Scraps digs up the wallet. With his newfound wealth, The Tramp returns to the Green Lantern to look for the bar singer. He has money now and wants to marry her.

The Tramp shows the Singer the money he has.

Back at the bar, her failings as a flirt don’t go unnoticed by the owner. A rather large man at the bar (Alf Reeves) is very aggressive with her and when she resists, the man walks away but the owner fires her.

The Green Lantern also just happens to be where the thieves plan to rendezvous. They are there when The Tramp flashes the money to the Singer and they recognize the wallet. When they take it back by force, The Tramp and The Singer are escorted out.

Determined to get the wallet back, The Tramp sneaks back into the bar and gets in behind the crooks in their booth. He smacks one of the men on the back of the head, through a curtain, with a mallet. 

Reaching through holes in the curtain, he sticks his arm up behind the unconscious crook, assuming his identity. The Tramp does various gestures as if he were the Crook, straightening his tie, lifting a glass of beer for a sip, wiping his mouth and holding out his hand for a cut of the loot. His partner gives him half without question. The Tramp then waves the other Crook forward and hits him over the head with the bottle of beer when he leans in.

The Tramp takes the wallet and hurries out the way he had come in, as the Crooks revive and take chase. Out on the street, the Tramp takes refuge in the lunch stand, with the proprietor and him taking cover while the Crooks fire on them. Scraps relieves The Tramp of the wallet and takes it back to the Singer, as the cops move in and arrest the thieves.

The idyllic ending with Scraps as a new mother.

Now with the money, the Tramp and the Singer can live out their dream lives. As the film ends, the Tramp is shown planting seeds in the soil. Inside, the Singer is making dinner and brings him his robe at the end of the day. Together, they gaze down lovingly on a layette, within whicha reScraps and a lovely litter of puppies.

The film is notable for several things. This is the first film in which Charlie and his elder half-brother Sydney appear together on film. The two have had a working relationship going back to the English music halls. Syd had worked hard to get Charlie into the Fred Karno’s comedy troupe that would ultimately lead to him being discovered by Mack Sennett. Charlie, in turn, got Syd signed by Keystone where he starred in A Submarine Pirate (1915), the second most financially successful comedy that studio ever made, behind Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), which starred Charlie.

After leaving acting, Sydney was the one who negotiated Charlie’s contracts with Mutual and First National. A Dog’s Life was Syd’s return to acting, though he would still handle his brother’s business affairs. Following his appearance here, Syd would also appear in films like Shoulder Arms (1918).

The film also represents a step forward in his own filmmaking. Not only was it his longest film to date but according to Chaplin, it was also the first in which he seriously considered comic plot construction. Chaplin’s next film, Shoulder Arms. would indeed be his first feature-length film. Released on April 14, 1918, A Dog’s Life would also be his biggest hit to date and was advertised as his "First Million Dollar Picture".

A Dog’s Life is often times more poignant than laugh out loud funny. Chaplin was in the process of taking the Tramp from his slapstick past into a more of a sentimental character. To quote John McCabe’s biography Charlie Chaplin, “It was clear to Chaplin that Charlie now needed a deeper dimension. Roguish tricks as such would no longer sustain such a character. The problem was that as a slapstick comedian his farcical plots did not easily accommodate sentiment. This conflict Chaplin helped resolve by making Charlie increasingly more of a Pierrot, that wistful mischievous clown who so artfully combines tears and laughter.” Chaplin was taking steps towards making films like City Lights (1931), that successfully married comedy and sentiment in what was perhaps one of his greatest and most memorable silent films.

All that said, A Dog’s Life is not all that great. The humor is never laughing out loud and in some cases, hasn’t aged all that well. That is not to say there are not funny moments, but they are not anything you haven’t seen before in a Chaplin film.

The speed at which the romance moves between the Tramp and the Bar Singer is lightning fast. In fact, it wasn’t all clear that they had shared more than a dance, let alone fallen in love until Charlie obtains the wallet. The money seems to propel them together. It is never clear how much money there is in there, but it must have been enough to buy a farm and start a new life. Talk about a gap between the wealthy and the downtrodden, as our wealthy drunk was carrying that much on him and doesn’t seem to be all that bothered about losing it.

While there are moments in A Dog’s Life, I can’t say that I would necessarily recommend it. This definitely points to better films to come and I would recommend you seeking those films out.

Be sure to check out other silent film reviews at our Silent Cinema Review Hub.

Stubs - The Adventurer

The Adventurer (1917) Starring Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Henry Bergman, Albert Austin, Marta Golden, May White. Directed by Charles Chaplin. Written by Charles Chaplin, Vincent Bryan, Maverick Terrell. Produced by John Jasper. Runtime 31 minutes. U.S.A. Black and White. Silent, Comedy

By the time his contract with Essanay ended, Charlie Chaplin knew his worth. Perhaps the most famous man on the planet and the first International star of Hollywood films, there was merchandise in the stores and Chaplin was celebrated in cartoons, comic strips, and songs. Chaplin wanted a $150,000 signing bonus and negotiated with several studios including Universal, Fox, and Vitagraph, before settling on Mutual, which provided him with a salary of $10,000 a week and carte blanche to make any movie he wanted. At the ripe old age of 26, Chaplin became one of the best-paid people in the world.

Beginning in 1916 he wrote, directed, produced and starred in 12 films, including The Floorwalker, The Fireman, The Vagabond, One A.M., The Count, The Pawnshop, Behind the Screen, The Rink, Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant and his final film at Mutual, The Adventurer.

Following the release of The Immigrant, Charlie and his brother Sydney went to San Francisco on vacation. Since the release of The Floorwalker on May 15, 1916, and the release of The Immigrant on June 17, 1917, Chaplin had released 11 films in 13 months. Chaplin took his time making this next one, releasing it four months later on October 22, 1917. It would up until then the longest time period between films in his short career.

The Convict (Charlie Chaplin) burrows out the sand next to
 one of the prison guards (Frank J. Coleman) chasing him.

The film opens with a manhunt for an escaped prisoner. In the mode of the Keystone Kops, the police are inept and lazy. The Convict (Charlie Chaplin) literally burrows out of the ground, ala Bugs Bunny, next to one of the prison guards (Frank J. Coleman), who decides to take a snooze. Soon the guards are chasing after Charlie over, under and through the rough seacoast. He manages to not only get the drop on them but manages to escape out to sea. When the prison guards take chase, their boat gets overturned by waves.

Charlie avoids capture by outmaneuvering the guards.

Not far away, at least according the geography of the film, The Girl (Edna Purviance) and her Suitor (Eric Campbell) are dining at a seaside café when they hear the cries of Mrs. Brown (Marta Golden), the girl’s mother, who has fallen into the ocean off the pier. Edna begs Eris to help her, but he refuses, instead, he stands on the end of the pier, yelling for help.

The Girl (Edna Purviance) and her Suitor (Eric Campbell) are dining at a seaside cafe.

Edna can’t wait for help and jumps in the water to save her mom. Turns out, Edna is not much of a swimmer and ends up treading water near her mom.

Meanwhile, Eric’s yells attract the attention of a heavy set seaman who stands next to him and yells along with him. In the process, they break through the railing and both men end up in the water and neither can swim.

Having just swum to shore, Charlie hears the cries for help and he swims out to help. He comes across Edna’s mother first and is about to save her when he hears and sees Edna. He saves the beautiful girl first before going back for her mom. The last one he helps out of the water is Eric, whom he tows to the pier by his beard. The heavyset sailor who went into the water with Eric must have made it out or drowned, as he is never again mentioned.

Back up on the boards of the pier, Charlie is aided by the women’s chauffer (Toraichi Kono) carrying them on a stretcher to their car. Charlie mentions that he heard their screams from his yacht before he dove in to save them.

Charlie saves the Girl's mother, Mrs. Brown (Marta Golden), from the ocean.

When it comes to Eric, Charlie is left alone to pull the stretcher and accidentally dumps the big man back into the water. Charlie dives back in to save him, but this time Eric foils the rescue, kicking Charlie off the ladder at the pier and back into the water.

It is only Edna who insists on finding their savior and sends their driver to look for him. Charlie is found lying unconscious on the beach. The chauffeur then picks him up and carries him back to the car. (Note: the “actor” playing the chauffeur probably had a lot of experience picking up after Chaplin, as he was the actor/director’s own man servant.)

Charlie is carried out of the water by the chauffeur (Toraichi
Kono), who happened to be Chaplin's own man servant.

Charlie wakes up in a strange bed with bars on the headboard and dressed in someone else’s striped pajamas, making him think that he’s back at the prison. That is until a butler enters the room carrying clothes for him.

Charlie wakes up at the Brown's thinking he's back in prison.

Downstairs in the house, a party is underway. Charlie enters and is hailed as a hero. He introduces himself as Commodore Slick. Edna introduces him to her father, Judge Brown (Henry Bergman), who looks suspiciously at their guest.

Judge Brown (Henry Bergman) gives Charlie the once over at a party at the Browns.

Charlie is equally enamored with Edna and the free drinks at the party. He gets into an open rivalry with Eric and it escalates into covert kicking and seltzer squirting. Then Eric finds Charlie’s photo in the paper and the article about his escape from prison. Before Eric can confront Judge Brown with the paper, Charlie manages to draw an elaborate beard on the photo, matching Eric’s own. But Eric isn’t through and calls the authorities to report Charlie.

Charlie draws an elaborate beard on his photo in the paper to make him look like Eric Campbell.

Meanwhile, Charlie enjoys himself as he dances with Edna and eats ice cream out on the veranda.  While he’s eating it, Charlie accidentally drops ice cream down his front and lets us know, through facial expressions, just exactly where the ice cream is. When it finally exits Charlie’s trousers, it falls down on the neck of a well-dressed woman at a table. She shrieks and dances about in reaction to the cold lump now on her.

Charlie accidentally knocks ice cream down a woman's dress.

When the prison guards arrive, another chase sequence starts, as a bookend to the movie. Charlie is chased upstairs and down and through a sliding door. One of the guards manages to catch Charlie just as he’s making his apologies to Edna for his earlier deception. But when the guard loosens his hold on Charlie to shake Edna’s hand, Charlie escapes and the picture ends.

As his follow-up to The Immigrant, The Adventurer is much more in the slapstick vein of Chaplin’s earlier Keystone films. The chase sequences are inspired and frantic, but it doesn’t have the heart that The Immigrant had. While we knew Edna and Charlie would end up together in that film, there is no promise of the same here, and in fact, it is doubtful the two will ever see each other again. Still, the film was popular, and reports say it was his most popular of the Lone Star/Mutual films.

Location filming took place in Malibu and Venice. If you’re familiar with the beach at Malibu, Chaplin comes out of the sand near Castle Rock and Haystack Rock. At the time of the filming, Malibu was privately owned by May Rindge, widow of wealthy ranch owner Frederick Rindge. The road that would eventually become the Pacific Coast Highway only went as far as Topanga Canyon before the public would be forced back inland. Contemporary stories state that during the filming, Chaplin rescued a seven-year-old girl from drowning after she had been swept into the waters from a rock as she watched.

Ms. Rindge fought California’s eminent domain in court for decades, ultimately going bankrupt in the process. In 1923 the US Supreme Court would uphold California’s eminent domain powers, and the Roosevelt Highway (later Pacific Coast Highway) opened in 1929.

The other location was the Abbot Kinney Pier in Venice. Chaplin had been filming in Venice since his second short, Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), was shot there three years earlier. The Abbott Kinney Pier, originally built in 1904 and rebuilt in 1905, at one time or another contained a dance hall, a one and one-half mile scenic railroad, an aquarium, an auditorium, an ostrich farm, a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster, aerial rides and various concessionaires. On December 20, 1920, the pier would disappear thanks to a fire that started when a gas heater in the dance hall burst into flames.

While the humor might seem ad-libbed, it really isn’t. Chaplin would play with ideas for long periods of time before he got them right. The outtakes of his Mutual films supplied the evidence of this in the BBC documentary, Unknown Chaplin, which is a fascinating series for anyone interested in the filmmaker’s genius.

Chaplin was also capable of analyzing his own work and wrote a detailed analysis of the ice cream scene in an article “What People Laugh At” published in American Magazine in November 1918. He wrote:

“One of the things most quickly learned in theatrical work is that people as a whole get satisfaction from seeing the rich get the worst of things. The reason for this, of course, lies in the fact that nine-tenths of the people in the world are poor, and secretly resent the wealth of the other tenth.

“If I had dropped the ice cream, for example, on a scrub woman's neck, instead of getting laughs, sympathy would have been aroused for the woman. Also, because a scrub woman has no dignity to lose, that point would not have been funny. Dropping ice cream down a rich woman's neck, however, is, in the minds of the audience, just giving the rich what they deserve.”

Edna Purviance and Eric Campbell each play sort of archetypal characters of the type often seen in Chaplin’s films. She is the pretty girl, the one who catches Chaplin’s romantic eye and Campbell is the heavy that stands as the barrier between them even though he is more bluster than bark.

L to R, Eric Campbell, Marta Golden, Edna Purviance, Charlie Chaplin in The Adventurer.

Chaplin, again, plays a version of his famous Tramp character. Proverbially the outsider; here he is an escaped prisoner mixing it up with the upper crust, or what Chaplin himself referred to as the wealthy ten percent. Who can’t help but laugh when the tables get turned on them and they get knocked down a peg or two along the way by our hero Charlie?

The Adventurer is a throwback of sorts for Chaplin. This is not necessarily a signpost towards his greater works, like City Lights (1931) or Modern Times (1936), which mixed in ethos and pathos with their comedy. But that wasn’t Chaplin’s aim every time out. He was a comedian who knew what his fans wanted. He is certainly funny in this film. It is easy to see why the film was so popular. If you’re a fan of Chaplin’s work or someone who enjoys laughing, then you should definitely see The Adventurer.

Be sure to check out other silent film reviews at our Silent Cinema Review Hub.

Stubs – The Immigrant (1917)

The Immigrant (1917) Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. Written by Charlie Chaplin, Vincent Bryan, Maverick Terrell. Produced by John Jasper. Run Time: 20 minutes. U.S. Black and White. Comedy, Silent

By the time Charlie Chaplin was 26, he was one of the most famous people in the world and arguably the biggest film star. Having started in film only three years earlier with Making a Living (1914) and Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), he had gone from making $150 a week to an offer by the Mutual Film Corporation to make $670,000 a year in 1916. The films he made that first year include The Floorwalker, The Fireman, The Vagabond, One A.M., The Count, The Pawnshop, Behind the Screen and The Rink. But in 1917, Chaplin demanded more time and produced only four shorts in the next 10 months, including Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant and The Adventurer. Chaplin would later consider this to be the happiest period of his career.

Like many of Chaplin’s films at this time, he would start filming with only an idea and see what would develop from there. In this case, he started to make a movie set in an artist’s café. He quickly abandoned that idea and started to work on a film still set in a café, but about a man who had never been in a restaurant before, displaying poor table manners until he meets a girl played by Edna Purviance and shapes up almost immediately.

Realizing he needed more plot, he developed the idea of them both being immigrants and shot a sequence about arriving in America. He then reshot the café scenes to make it more consistent with the new plot line. Once filming was completed, Chaplin stayed awake for four straight days to edit the film for release on June 17, 1917.

The short has three acts. The film opens on board a steamer on its way to America. The opening sequence features several misadventures of an unnamed immigrant, the Tramp (Chaplin). We’re introduced to the backside of the Tramp as he is leaning far over the rail.

Our first view of the Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) in The Immigrants.

From the convulsions his body is going through, we assume he is having a bout of seasickness, but he’s not. He’s been trying to catch a fish, which he pulls on board, only to have it land next to a sleeping man on the deck.

The Tramp catches a fish off the side of the ship.

The Tramp tries eating in the mess, but the pitching of the ocean has the bowl of food sliding across the table to the Tramp and then to another unnamed immigrant. Each takes a bite of food when the bowl is in front of him. It is in this sequence that we’re first introduced to the unnamed immigrant portrayed by Edna Purviance. The Tramp notices her as soon as she enters the hall and offers up his seat at the table for her.

When Edna enters the room, the Tramp notices her right away.

Out on deck, the Tramp seems to win easily (and a little showy) at dice, ending up taking another immigrant’s money. The gambler (Tom Wilson) looks more like a reject from a western than a European, but he wants to try and win his money back. And when he sees an ailing woman (Kitty Bradbury) with an envelope of money around her neck, he is not above robbing her, so he does.

But he doesn’t want to play dice anymore, rather poker. The Tramp is nervous, especially since the man has a gun. The Tramp shuffles the cards after a fashion and two other shipmates join in. When the man with the gun can’t match the Tramp’s ante, the man sells his gun to the Tramp. And when the Tramp wins he uses the gun to ward off the angry gambler.

The Tramp is forced into a game of cars with gambler with a gun (Tom Wilson).

We find out that the money belonged to Edna’s mother and it is their life’s savings. The Tramp realizes perhaps that the money he’s won was taken from them and he slips some money into Edna’s coat pocket. Then he thinks about how much he’s giving and takes a few back; then reconsiders that amount.

Realizing the money he's won has been stolen, the Tramp returns some
of it to its rightful owner, Edna's mother. (Kitty Bradbury).

All the time he’s got his hand in and out of her pocket, he’s being observed by one of the ship’s officers (Frank J. Coleman), who accuses the Tramp of being a pickpocket. The official calls Edna over and tells him what he’s seen, but she knows there was no money in her pocket to steal. All is forgiven and a hint of blossoming romance is shown.

But the ship is about to land in America and after a panning shot across Lady Liberty, immigration officials board the boat and process everyone. Edna and her mother are the first off and even though the Tramp is processed right after them, we get the feeling they’ve been, perhaps forever, separated.

The Tramp, Edna Purviance and her mother all glimpse the Statue of Liberty as the ship arrives in New York City.

The second act picks up the Tramp’s story later when he is now broke and hungry. Outside a restaurant, he finds a coin on the street and goes inside to eat. He orders a plate of beans, which comes with a yard long piece of bread. While he’s eating he sees Edna who is now all alone. He has her join him and orders beans for her as well.

His burly waiter (Eric Campbell) patrols the restaurant floor like a vigilante. When a patron (John Rand) is short 10 cents on his bill, Campbell and the other waiters wail on him before forcibly ejecting him from the restaurant. It is about now that the Tramp realizes he has a hole in his pocket and the coin he was going to use to pay for dinner is gone. The Tramp is terrified of getting the same fate as the other patron.

When another patron pays for his dinner, the same coin the Tramp had found. He tries to be nonchalant about picking it up, but Campbell returns and stands on it. The Tramp makes many failed attempts at picking up the coin before retrieving it. However, when he pays the waiter, the coin turns out to be a fake.

The Waiter (Eric Campbell) demands payment from the Tramp.

The Tramp is saved when a visiting Artist (Henry Bergman) notices the couple and comes over to talk to them about posing for a painting he’s doing. The artist seems more interested in Edna and talks to her while the Tramp tries to figure out his next move. The artist offers to pay for their meal, but the Tramp makes a show of refusing the help. The artist offers again, but the Tramp again waves off the offer. This goes back and forth until the Artist withdraws the offer and the Tramp is once again on the hook.

A visiting Artist (Henry Bergman) provides the Tramp with a way to pay his restaurant tab.

The waiter returns and the Artist pays his bill. The change which the Artist meant as a tip, the Tramp notices, is enough to cover his meal. While the waiter is busying attending to another customer and the Artist is chatting to Edna, the Tramp slips the tip off the table and offers it to the waiter to settle his bill, tipping the waiter the much smaller change as a tip.

Outside the restaurant, the Artist thinks everything is settled, but the Tramp asks for a few dollars up front. It is raining heavily now and the Tramp escorts Edna over to the Marriage License office, where the Marriage Registrar (Tom Harrington) is waiting. The Tramp steals a kiss from Edna and apparently proposes marriage. The film ends with the two going into the office to start their new life together in their new country.

The Tramp steals a kiss from Edna as the two start out on their new life in America.

The film shows how far Chaplin had come as a filmmaker from his earliest slapstick Mack Sennett films. The Immigrant has a mixture of comedy and pathos that would characterize his best films including The Kid (1921) and City Lights (1931). We laugh at the antics of the filly and willy Tramp, but we see when he is down on his luck, too. There is nor a promise of a rosy future for the Tramp and Edna, but we're pretty sure they will get by somehow.

Edna Purviance had an entire career just appearing in Chaplin films. In 1915, She was working as a secretary in San Francisco when Chaplin was looking for a lead actress for his second film under his Essanay contract, A Night Out. Discovered at Tate’s Café by an associate of Chaplin’s, he gave her the part. Romantically involved with the director from 1915 to 1917, she would appear in 33 of his short films made under his Essanay, Mutual and First National contracts, including The Tramp (1915) and A Dog’s Life (1918).

She would also appear in The Kid and The Pilgrim (1923). In A Woman in Paris (1923), Edna was the lead and while Chaplin wrote, directed and produced the film, he did not appear in it. The film was not a commercial success and her career was virtually over. She would make another film with Chaplin, A Woman of the Sea, in 1926, but the film was not released and is now considered lost. Purviance is credited with appearing in a French film, Éducation de Prince (1927). Even though she stopped appearing in Chaplin films, she remained on his payroll until her death in 1958.

Eric Campbell, the hulking headwaiter with the severe devilish eyebrows had a similar film career. A fellow member of the Fred Karno act, Campbell moved to the U.S. in 1914. Chaplin saw him in a play in 1916 and asked him to move to Hollywood to join his cast of actors. Campbell appeared in 12 of the Mutual films for Chaplin. His first appearance was in The Floorwalker (1916) and he was prominently featured in Easy Street (1917). Like Chaplin, Campbell had impersonators, including Oliver Hardy. Campbell’s last film was Chaplin’s final Mutual film, The Adventurer. He would die in a car crash in 1917.

Chaplin, who had emigrated from England only four years earlier, never did become a U.S. citizen, even though he lived and worked here until 1952. Despite his support of the Liberty War Bond drives during World War I, Chaplin was accused of being a communist for publicly supporting opening a Second Front to aid the Soviets and various Soviet-American friendship groups during World War II.

Chaplin denied accusations that he was a communist, insisting he was instead a “peacemonger.” Subpoenaed to appear in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, he was never called to testify. But anti-Chaplin feelings got so bad that when he left to premiere his film Limelight (1952) in London, Attorney General James P. McGranery revoked Chaplin’s permit to re-enter the U.S. Chaplin moved to Switzerland and severed all business connections with the U.S. when he sold his last shares in United Artists in 1955.

There is a lot to like in this short and I would definitely recommend it. One of the problems with films from this time period, at least for the modern viewer, can be the over-the-top makeup the actors wear, especially villains. The harsh eyebrows of Campbell’s waiter character seem to be in stride with the sometimes very absurd facial hair that one sees in comedies from the silent era. Men have beards that had to exist only in the movies. I’m not sure if that’s a hangover from vaudeville or a shorthand the audiences at the time understood. But it is worth getting past that and it shouldn’t affect your enjoyment of The Immigrant.

For reviews of other silent films, please see our silent film review hub here.