Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan

Director: Charlie Chaplin

Screenplay: Charlie Chaplin

Running time: 53 mins

Genre: Comedy/Silent Film



CRITIQUE:

Remember when cinema was still an innovation, where movies are made without dialogues, yet they still are more capable in entertaining us than Eddie Murphy flicks – that is the magic of silent films. Brilliantly exemplified in THE KID, Charlie Chaplin (the first true worldwide star and the ultimate hero of silent cinema) and a charming little boy named Jackie Coogan team up as the Tramp and the titular Kid, and the result is an agreeable, guiltless entertainment. This was made in the time when movies are actually made for the working-classes, therefore there is nothing highbrow in this endeavour, but Chaplin’s shticks remain iconic. The plot is simply straightforward: a local tramp finds a baby abandoned in the street and succumbed to become the father of the child as he grows up. There are sequences that remain in memory: child and father pair to break-and-repair windows; the two’s daily routines in their bedroom-cum-kitchen; and the laughable separation of the child from the tramp. Because of the amusement and heightened realism of the first half, when the dream-episode comes, it becomes jarring and almost ridiculous to watch.



VERDICT:

There’s nothing more blissful in silent cinema to realise that slapstick, no matter how physical they can be, works better than recent Hollywood attempts. Chaplin does his best, but it’s Coogan that carries the film’s charm.



RATING: A-