The Kid is a 1921 America silent comedy comedy film, produced by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin, and featuring Jackie Coogan as his adopted son and sidekick. This is Chaplin's first full-length film as a director (he was a movie star in 1914 Tillie Punctured Romance ). It was a huge success, and was the second best-selling film in 1921, behind The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In 2011, The Kid was selected for preservation at the United States National Film Register by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Innovative in the combination of comedic and dramatic elements, The Kid is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in the silent era.
Video The Kid (1921 film)
Plot
An unknown woman (Edna Purviance) leaves a charity hospital carrying her newborn son. An artist (Carl Miller), a clear father, is shown with a picture of the woman. When it fell into the fireplace, he first picked it up, then threw it back to burn. The woman decides to leave her child in the back seat of an expensive car with a handwritten note that begs the seeker to care for and love the baby. However, the car was stolen. When the two thieves found the boy, they left him in the street. The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) finds the baby. Not wanting at first to take responsibility, he finally softens and names the boy, John. Elsewhere, the woman had a clear change of heart and returned to the baby, but was heartbroken and fainted after learning that her baby had been taken away.
Five years passed, and son (Jackie Coogan) became a Tramp partner in a small crime, throwing rocks to break the window that the Tramp, working as a glazier, then can be fixed. Meanwhile, the woman became a rich star. He does charity work among the poor to fill the void left by his lost son. Coincidentally, mothers and children meet, but do not know each other. When the boy was sick, the doctor came to see him. He finds that Tramp is not the boy's father. The Tramp shows him the note left by the mother, but the doctor just picks it up and notifies the authorities. Two men came to take the child to an orphanage, but after a fight and a chase, Tramp got the boy back. When the woman came back to see how the child was doing, the doctor told her what had happened, then showed her the note she recognized.
Now the fugitive, the Tramp and the boy spent the night in a flophouse, but the manager (Bergman), after reading the $ 1,000 prize offered to the boy, took him to the police station to be united with his happy mother. When Tramp woke up, he searched for the missing child, then returned to sleep next to the door that was now locked into their modest home. In his sleep, he enters the "Dreamland," with angels in abode and evil interlopers. He was awakened by a policeman, who put the Tramp in his car and rode with him to a house. When the door opened, the woman and John appeared, reuniting her father and adopted son. The policeman, happy for the family, shakes Tramp's hand and leaves, before she welcomes the Tramp to her home.
Maps The Kid (1921 film)
Cast
- Charlie Chaplin as The Tramp
- Jackie Coogan as The Child ("John")
- Edna Purviance as The Woman
- Carl Miller as The Man Uncredited
- Tom Wilson as The Policeman
- Henry Bergman as Night goalkeeper/Professor Guido
- Charles Reisner as Environmental Bully
- Raymond Lee as Bully's little sister
- Lita Gray as Flirtatious Angel
- Jules Hanft as a village doctor
- Frank Campeau as a Welfare officer
- F. Blinn as an assistant Welfare officer
- Jack H. Coogan Jr. (father of Jackie Coogan) as Pickpocket/Guest/Devil
- Esther Ralston as Extra in the Sky Scenes
- Granville Redmond as a friend of The Man
- May White as Edna's waitress
- Silas Hathaway as Baby Child
- Albert Austin as Man in Shelter/The Car Thief
Production
The Kid is famous for combining comedy and drama. As the opening title says: "A picture with a smile - and maybe, a tear." The most famous and enduring sequence in this movie is the desperate pursuit of the agents of the orphanage who have taken the child, and their emotional reunion.
This film made Coogan, then vaudeville player, became the first star of the first children of the films. Many of Chaplin's biographers link the relationship depicted in the film resulting from Chaplin's first baby death, just ten days before production began. The depiction of poverty and the cruelty of welfare workers is also directly reminiscent of Chaplin's own childhood in London. Several street scenes were filmed on the famous Olvera Street in Los Angeles, nearly 10 years before being converted into Mexican themed attractions.
After production was completed in 1920, the film was caught in Chaplin's first divorce wife, Mildred Harris, attempting to attach Chaplin's assets. Chaplin and his colleagues smuggled negative raw materials into Salt Lake City (reportedly packed in coffee cans) and edited the film in a room at the Utah Hotel. Before releasing the film Chaplin was negotiated and accepted an enhanced financial deal for the film with its distributor, First National Corporation, based on the success of the last film.
Lita Gray, who described an angel in the film, was Chaplin's second wife from 1924 to 1927.
In 1971, Chaplin edited and reissued the film and he composed a new musical score.
Chaplin and co-star Coogan met for the last time in 1972, during Chaplin's brief return to America for the Honorary Academy Award.
Reception
The Kid has been recognized by film critics upon release.
A reviewer from Theatrical Magazine excellently wrote, "The new photo [Chaplin], The Kid , surely outweighed the humor and the special brand Chaplin pathos of any kind that movie stars have enjoyed this popular. There was almost as much tears ridiculed in the first First National release - which proves that Chaplin is almost as good as a tragedian because he is a comedian. The Kid can be counted as a screen work. "
Legacy
Chaplin biography Jeffrey Vance writes, from the legacy of Chaplin's The Kid : " The Kid remains an important contribution to the art of film, not only because of Chaplin's dramatic use of sequences in long comedy, but also because the Revelation The Kid provides about its creator.No doubt, when Chaplin wrote the preface to The Kid , "The picture with a smile - and maybe, tears," he has its own artistic creed - and life - in mind. " Mary Pickford says about the movie, "The Kid is one of the best examples of screen language, depending on the action rather than the subtitle".
In December 2011, The Kid was selected to be retained at the National Library of Congress Film Library. The Registry says the film is "a mellifluous mixture of drama art, social commentary and inventive comedy" and praises Chaplin's ability to "retain his art beyond his ordinary short subject and with great difficulty can create a variety of emotions from his audience by combining slapstick and pathos with skilled. "
In March 2015, The Kid had a perfect 100% rare rating on Rotten Tomatoes' movie review aggregation website and ranked 8.4 users on the Internet Movie Database, placing it at number 95 among the last Top 250 titles.
Remake
In May 2017, it was announced that FilmNation Entertainment is updating The Kid as a sci-fi animated movie. The untitled movie will be directed by Christian Volckman and Rupert Wyatt and is said to be "inspired by the characters and themes in The Kid."
See also
- List of US comedy movies
- List of movies with 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, movie review collecting website
References
External links
- The Kid on IMDb
- The Kid at Rotten Tomatoes
- Scene from The Kid
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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