292 - The Kid, United States, 1921. Dir. Charles Chaplin.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

292 - The Kid, United States, 1921.  Dir. Charles Chaplin.

Charlie Chaplin is the filmmaker of love.

Consider the silent slapstick comedians of his day--Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle, Harry Langdon, Charlie Chase, Ben Turpin, Stan Laurel, and the Keystone Cops.

They are known for physical comedy.  Sight gags.  Elaborately orchestrated set pieces.  Dangerous stunts.  Chase scenes.

So is Charlie Chaplin.  In fact, in most cases even more so.

But who else wears his heart on his sleeve the way Chaplin does?  Who else longs so deeply for people to be together and not be alone?  Who else is so openly and unashamedly Romantic?

Frank Capra?  Woody Allen?  Nora Ephron?  Richard Linklater?

It is a short list.

And can he do it without falling into sentimentalism?  Meaning unearned emotion.  We shall see.

The Kid is Charlie Chaplin's first feature film.  Made in 1921.  When he was under contract to First National to make eight two-reelers for a million dollars.  This is his fifth film under that contract.  He made it six reels rather than two.

One might say he waxed creative.

Jackie Coogan plays The Kid.  Jackie Coogan is the child actor for whom Coogan Accounts are named, the bank accounts now required for child actors to protect their assets from money-spending parents.  At least a portion of their assets.

Charlie Chaplin plays the Tramp.  And the writer, the producer, the director, the editor, and the composer.  Before Orson Welles, he was the filmmaker who did it all.

Do you remember where you were when Jermaine Jackson sang the song "Smile" at his brother Michael Jackson's funeral?

Did you remember that "Smile" was written and composed by Charlie Chaplin?

The Kid begins with a woman leaving a charity hospital.  She is alone with a baby.  The father has abandoned her.  She is distraught and forlorn.  She goes to a park and sits on a bench trying to decide what to do.

Title card:  The Woman.  Whose sin was motherhood.

Insert:  Christ carrying the cross.

What other silent slapstick comedians began their films this way?  Christ carrying the cross.  The Woman carrying her baby.  Suffering.  Sacrifice.  Selflessness.

In her despair she places the baby in a rich man's car.  In front of a mansion.  With a note.

"Please love and care for this orphan child."

This note will drive the story.  Twice.

But the car owner does not return to the car.  Car thieves do.  And when they find the baby in the back seat, they abandon it in a rundown part of town.

Enter the Tramp.  He finds the baby.  He tries to return it to the rightful mother.  Or any mother.  While a cop looks on.

He succeeds in getting rid of the baby only to have it come back to him.

And in a moment of harsh realism, he considers placing it in the gutter drain.  He opens the grate and looks inside.

Then he finds the note.  And reads it.  And the note turns the plot for the first time.

"Please love and care for this orphan child."

He makes a choice.  He says Yes.  He turns his heart outward, away from himself and towards another human being.  He opens his heart to love.  He cares for someone else.

He becomes a father.

Five years later the Tramp and the Kid have their adventures together, trying to survive, trying to avoid the cops, trying to make ends meet.

Meanwhile, the Woman has become a great stage actress.  And she has fame.  And money.  If only she had a child.

If only she had her child.

Will fate step in?

What do you think?

Maybe that note will come into play a second time.

Chaplin returns to his spiritual themes several times during the film.

At one point the woman intervenes in a brawl and demands the men stop and make up.  She states, "Remember, if he smites you on one cheek, offer him the other."

Chaplin also inserts a dream sequence where he and the Kid are angels in a world of angels.  Then the devil comes and introduces temptation and follows it up with jealousy.  The Tramp will have to learn how to fight the devil.

Jackie Coogan had a natural affinity for acting with Chaplin and Chaplin enjoyed working with Coogan.

Have you ever heard the old "rule" that says, "Never work with animals or children"?  It was a direct quotation from W. C. Fields.  People have come to treat it as a universal law.

Well, Charlie Chaplin never heard of it.  He said the opposite.

In his autobiography Chaplin stated, "They say babies and dogs are the best actors in movies."

He felt this way because their hearts were open and pure, and they were willing to do whatever was asked of them without hesitation or baggage.

So there you have two opposing concepts.  Which one will you believe?  Fields?  Or Chaplin?  People tend to quote Fields.  But Chaplin had a different concept and it produced different--and better--results.  Chose the concept that produces better results.

If you have never seen a Charlie Chaplin movie, choose to do so.  Then watch all of them.  You will become a lifelong fan.  He is everything that made the movies the movies.  The magic.  The dreams.  The hope.  The wonder.  The laughter.  The pathos.  The heartache.  The joy.

And the next time you hear someone criticize a Hollywood ending for being a happy ending, look him in the eye and ask, "What's wrong with that?"

In the world of theatre, and film, there are two masks.  One is smiling.  One is frowning.  They are not all frowning.

Some of them smile.

Some of them smile after they frown.

Some of them smile because they have frowned.