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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Brilliant, 19 October 1999 Author: Russell Dodd (ye5.man@tesco.net) from Essex, England
Certainly, in my opinion, the Greatest comedy short of all time. Charlie, an escaped convict, saves life of rich woman and is taken in by her family(and jealous Eric Campbell - who tragically died in an automobile accident a year after). How long will it be till the law catches up with him? There's an absolutely SUPERB sequence as him dodging the law using sliding doors, it will leave you laughing loud. This film alone demonstrates Chaplin's unique and incredible talent. Many people get turned off by Chaplin's shorts as they are silent. It's a shame as some of them represent his best work.
8 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Oh Charlie, how wonderful, 5 October 2003 Author: Michael Open (open.house@ntlworld.com) from Belfast, Northern Ireland
When I was a young boy (about five years old), my parents couldn't afford a TV and, in order to give me entertainment, my dad bought a second hand silent cine projector and showed me some silent westerns (which I have all but forgotten) and - oh joy, oh bliss - the Essanay and Mutual Chaplin films. The greatest of these - by a long way, in my estimation is 'The Adventurer' indeed, it is one of the very few short films worthy of the term 'masterpiece'.The Adventurer is a sonata on the number 3. There are three main locations - the beach, the pier and the house. The cliff location in the beach scene is triangular, Charlie and his two pursuers make an hilarious trio, with every combination of characters and apexes of the triangle being explored...Then we go onto the pier... There we have three sub-locations - the top of the pier, the car and the sea. Charlie explores all of these and then moves onto the house.Here we also have three locations - upstairs, downstairs and the terrace. You can see dozens of other 'threes' in the film, but the coda, in which Charlie is chased three times round the set is like the delirious coda to Mozart's 41st Symphony when the orchestra seem to take off. There is noting like it in all cinema.Of course I had no idea about all this subtlety when I was a kid, I just looked and laughed in wonder and said with a pleading thrill in my voice.... 'Play it again, Dad.'Without these wonderful Chaplin films, I doubt that I would have given my life to the cinema for the last fifty years.
6 out of 6 people found the following review useful: The one with the lampshade, 9 May 1999 Author: Stefan Kahrs from Canterbury, England
Not all the early Chaplin films are classics, but this one is. The best bits are the chasing scenes, especially at the beginning (Charlie escaping from prison) and in the middle. The way Chaplin makes excellent and varying use of a humble lampshade should put many modern filmmakers with their inflated budgets to shame.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: As Good As It Gets For Chaplin's Early Silent Films, 19 April 2000 Author: packofk9s from Portland, Oregon
I've seen The Adventurer well over a dozen times and each time it is just as funny as the time before. I repeatedly find myself thinking during the first scenes (where Charlie is on the beach and on the lamb from the police) that those scenes must be the high of the movie and as such that the movie will progessively sink from the close of those scenes on. Yet each time I watch the film I am pleasantly refreshed to the fact that the whole film is equally great.Chaplin is excellent in the film, and his frequent foil in the early movies, Eric Campbell, is also perhaps at his best.This film is well worth watching (several times).
5 out of 7 people found the following review useful: One of Chaplin's funniest, 30 November 2003 Author: hausrathman
In The Adventurer, Charlie plays an escaped convict who briefly manages to enjoy the good life after rescuing a drowning rich woman before the police find him again.The Adventurer is the last of Chaplin's twelve films for the Mutual Company. Lacking any attempt at the pathos and social commentary that Chaplin injected in some of his previous Mutual shorts, this chase comedy almost appears to be a throwback to his rough-and-tumble roots at Keystone. However, there is one major difference, this film much funnier than anything did at Keystone. While I do not consider this to be his best short, it is arguably his funniest. The chases that bookend the film are hilarious. The middle is hilarious too. The film is a laugh fest through and through. If this film doesn't put a smile on your face, check your pulse.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Very Funny Slapstick Comedy, 25 June 2001 Author: Snow Leopard from Ohio
Although there isn't quite the depth to "The Adventurer" that many of Chaplin's films have, since most of it is just slapstick comedy, on that level it is still quite a success. It is non-stop fun with a lot of good gags, with good work not only from Chaplin but also from his supporting cast.Charlie plays a convict who escapes from prison and tries one thing after another to stay free. Early in the movie, when he happens to save a rich girl (Chaplin regular Edna Purviance) from drowning, he is taken into her home, and from there, some hilarious situations and a lot of frantic activity follow.One of the things that works very well in this feature is the re-use of a couple of the same gags with different details. Chaplin and the rest of the cast also work together well in building up the humor as it goes along. There are also some hints at some of Chaplin's usual social themes. For pure comedy, this is one of the best of Chaplin's short films.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Charlie Chaplin, the super clown, 16 March 2000 Author: Petri Pelkonen (petri_pelkonen@hotmail.com) from Finland
Charles Chaplin plays an escaped convict, who saves a rich girl and her mother, and is treated as a hero.But how long can he hide from the law.The Adventurer is a great short silent comedy movie from 1917.The movie has many funny scenes, like when Charlie is chased by the cops.It is great fun to watch these old silent movies and see how much the movies have changed from those days.
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful: very good, but odd, Chaplin short, 28 April 2006 Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida
Charlie Chaplin made a dozen short films for Mutual Films and this is one of them. It's a very good film, but also very odd because the Little Tramp is in this case the Little Jail Bird! Charlie playing an escaped prisoner is not that unusual in his early years, but those used to the sweeter character he played in his full-length films won't really recognize this characterization.Despite being a wanted man, Charlie seems pretty decent as he helps several people who fall into the sea. As a result of his efforts, he is taken back to the home of one of the rich people he saved. When he awakens, he thinks, initially, he's in prison. But, once he realizes where he is, he relaxes and has a good time--until the police arrive and a series of mad dashes and chases occur--much like the very beginning of the film.Cute, fun and, all in all, pretty insignificant fare from Chaplin.
3 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Chaplin, 22 May 2005 Author: Atavisten from Tellus
Chaplin is a funny man that can do a lot with very little. His humour is slapstick and he is very good at it.Here we follow a convict on the run through diverse escapades in which he amongst other things saves a woman's mother and steals the woman from her suitor.His jokes are very simple and effective, that said they can be a bit repetitious and today obvious.Funniest part is in the beginning when he bumps into police everywhere and repeats his mistakes all the time and also the bit with the sliding doors.
Early Doors, 24 October 2009 Author: JoeytheBrit from www.moviemoviesite.com
This is the one with the sliding doors that allow Charlie to trap the heads of both his nemesis, the portly, heavily-bearded Eric Campbell, and a pursuing prison guard, and it's pretty good. I wonder how many times they rehearsed that sequence before Chaplin was satisfied that they could pull it off in one take. He was a notorious perfectionist, so it's not unlikely that Eric and his mate were getting sore necks by the time it was in the can.Most of the laughs come from the acrobatic chase scenes, and it's incredible how suddenly the film seems to come alive when the chases begin. Chaplin was still a few years from trying to add an element of pathos to his stories and, while it's easy to understand his desire to do so as he developed as a film comedian, when you see those later films you sometimes hanker for these simple, uncomplicated little movies.
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