100 years ago, Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid was released to great critical and commercial success. It was the second highest grossing film of the year, and represented Chaplin’s very first feature length film. Although Chaplin was one of the most important figures of the silent film era, The Kid is often overlooked and underrated when compared to some of his more acclaimed films like Modern Times, City Lights, and The Great Dictator.
The history of cinema, as we know it, is a relatively recent one. The first full length feature film was released in 1906, and “moving pictures” were still considerably behind the radio as mass entertainment for a long time. It wasn’t until the 1930s that color and sound (“talkies”) were widely used. Many 21st century movie watchers scoff at the idea of watching black and white films, much less silent ones. They might as well be watching plays wearing togas or looking at cavemen paintings.
But once you can get over the mental barrier, silent films can be intensely rewarding. One common misconception is in the name itself – most silent films weren’t actually silent. They were recorded just with music (but no dialogue), or before that, just recorded without synchronized sounds but were almost always accompanied by live music or even an orchestra. In fact, without having to sound mix the dialogue, the score often stood out and played an even more important role for silent films. Instead of subtitles on the bottom of the screen, they would usually have intertitles that would replace dialogue or even voiceovers and narration.
What silent films (and black and white films for that matter) do is force you to engage in a completely different way, one that is far less reliant on words and dialogue. The actors recognize this too – the performances tend to be much more expressive and physical, and the storytelling slightly more limited. The music, too, is lively and mood-reflecting, and is the key for effective silent films like this. Without the dialogue to date the film, there is a certain sense of timelessness that makes The Kid just as effective today as it was when it first came out a century ago.
Chaplin’s “Tramp” is one of the most iconic screen characters of all time – even if you’ve never seen a Charlie Chaplin film, you have some inkling or impression of the moustachio’d, baggy trousered, scruffy-looking chap. Chaplin brings an unmatched slapstick physicality that is hilarious and watchable. In The Kid, he’s ably matched by seven-year-old Jackie Coogan, who is an all-time cute kid. Off the back of this movie, Coogan becomes one of the first child stars in movie history (an unsurprisingly sad story). Coogan, as the orphan kid, has to carry a lot of the film – comedy, drama, cheeky sentimentality – and he does it all with aplomb.
Like most of Chaplin’s films, there is a sentimentality and sweetness that tugs at your heartstrings and tickles your funnybone. It is genuinely, laugh-out-loud hilarious – almost every bit works. As with all great comedies, there is also a lot of heart, and watching the moments when The Tramp and The Kid really connect with each other is like taking a shot of whiskey on a cold night – it warms your whole body. The storyline with The Kid and his mother is so simple in its tenderness and desire that it gives the film an extra level. By the third act, you are fully and irrevocably invested. At a scant 53 minutes of runtime, there is no excuse not to watch The Kid, one of the great father-son films of all time.
