The Kid
1921 · Directed by Charlie Chaplin
Original language: English
- comedy
- drama
The story
A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.
What it’s like
Soft, grainy black and white with the hard contrast of early silent cinema: sun-washed alley cobbles, a rooftop of laundry lines, a shabby lodging house lit by a single window. Chaplin frames his scenes with patient, mostly static wide shots that let the gags and glances play out in full, then cuts to a close, slightly tender image when feeling needs room. The score is a gentle, ambling accompaniment with sweet melodic swells, and the silence between title cards has a soft, theatrical hush. The mood is bittersweet and warm, with comic slapstick, a few tumbling fistfights, and a dreamy angel-in-the-clouds interlude that brightens the mood. Violence is cartoonish and brief (scuffles, a shove off a roof, a tumble through a window), with a suicide attempt handled quickly and without graphic detail, though the threat of separation and poverty runs under much of it. Pacing is leisurely, with comedy arriving in set pieces and quiet stretches between them. Best for people who want tender, old-fashioned storytelling about a scruffy outsider and a child, with laughs that come from physical timing rather than dialogue.
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