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The Kid (1921)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
Charles Chaplin (writer)
Release Date:
6 February 1921 (USA)
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Tagline:
This is the great film he has been working on for a whole year more
Plot:
The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put that relationship in jeopardy. full summary | add synopsis
NewsDesk:
(3 articles)
Classic Ten - Best of the Big-Screen Brats
(From amctv - Future of Classic: Classic Ten. 24 March 2009, 10:00 PM, PDT)
I'm Not a Huge Charles Chaplin Fan but...
(From Rope Of Silicon. 2 February 2009, 12:41 AM, PST)
(From amctv - Future of Classic: Classic Ten. 24 March 2009, 10:00 PM, PDT)
I'm Not a Huge Charles Chaplin Fan but...
(From Rope Of Silicon. 2 February 2009, 12:41 AM, PST)
User Comments:
Pretty Good Sentimental Comedy
more (52 total)
Cast
(Complete credited cast) | Carl Miller | ... | The Man |
| Edna Purviance | ... | The Woman |
| Jackie Coogan | ... | The Kid (as Jack Coogan) |
 | Charles Chaplin | ... | A Tramp (as Charlie Chaplin) |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
68 min | 50 min (1971 edit with new Chaplin score) | Germany:54 min
Country:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Certification:
Spain:T |
Portugal:M/6 |
South Korea:All |
Argentina:Atp |
Australia:G |
Denmark:7 (2003) |
Norway:A |
Sweden:Btl |
UK:U |
West Germany:o.Al.
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The production company tried to cheat Charles Chaplin by paying him for this six-reel film what they would ordinarily pay him for two-reel film, about half a million dollars. Chaplin took the unassembled film out of state until they agreed to the one-and-a-half million he deserved, plus half the surplus profits on rentals, plus reversion of the film to him after five years on the rental market.
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Goofs:
Continuity: During the fight scene with the Bully, the unconscious police man on the ground changes position in between shots.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Zampo y yo (1966)
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FAQ
A NOTE REGARDING SPOILERSmore
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They say Chaplain is a cultural icon and all that but I'm not so sure anymore. There has been a generational discontinuity, at least in the USA, that seems to have happened about 20 or 30 years ago. I suspect that most people over the age of 40 could identify Charlie Chaplin, and most people under that age would have to stretch a bit. Just one more item in the cultural data base gurgling its way through the age structure towards extinction.
Generally I disapprove of kids in movies as straightforward objects of a particularly putrid kind of manipulation, but Jackie Coogan is an exception.
Sentimental manipulation there is, but it's mainly limited to one or two scenes. The comedy is pretty acerbic. Saddled with possession of an abandoned baby, Charlie holds it in his lap and sits on the curb to think about how to get rid of it. He notices a sewer grating in the gutter and lifts the lid thoughtfully for a second before glancing around and lowering it again. That's not what passes for sentimentality.
Besides, Coogan is cute when he's 5 or 6 years old, a ragamuffin dressed in floppy over-sized bags of clothing, so that when he runs at high speed he looks like a little football with tiny feet on it. And the kid can act too.
Charlie demonstrated every move the kid was supposed to make and Coogan did a good job of imitating him, which was all he had to do. Coogan is also refreshing when compared to all the adult actors in the film because he's too inexperienced to know how to overact.
Chaplain is good too, of course. How could one person be so inventive? It's said that TV "eats up" talent because of the constant demand for new material. One of the better series, "Twilight Zone," had about three good years of collaborative effort in it. Chaplain in the same period of time appeared in 62 films and directed something like 28 of them, and he was just getting started.
I'll give one example of a joke, without an iota of sentiment in it, to illustrate how well Chaplain and Coogan worked together. Coogan gets into a street fight with another kid, a big bully, who knocks him about. Chaplain spots this, interrupts the fight, and takes Coogan to a neutral corner where he gives him a quick lesson on boxing -- go for the belly, keep your guard up -- and sends him back into the fight. At this point the bully's hugely muscular big brother swaggers over to Chaplain and says, "If your boy beats my boy, I'm going to beat you." Coogan begins beating hell out of the other kid, knocking him down again and again while Chaplain sweats and twitches with fear. Finally Coogan lands a tremendous blow on the bully's chin and flattens him. But he swings with such force that he himself twirls around a couple of times and falls flat on his back. Chaplain dashes over, puts his foot on the Coogan's chest to hold him down, quickly counts to ten, rushes to the befuddled bully and raises his hand -- the winner!
A rather tight rein is kept on the pathos and the comic material is edgy. You'll enjoy it. Especially if you're one of those rare folks under 40 with the patience to sit through a movie in black and white that has no dialogue.