Movies - The Kid

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	Movies - The Kid

The Kid is a 1921 Charlie Chaplin film. It featured Jackie Coogan as his adopted son and sidekick. It was a huge success, and was the second-highest grossing film in 1921, behind The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The Kid is about a Tramp (Chaplin) that finds an abandoned baby in an alley and takes care of him. As the baby gets older, they are perfect together and they form little schemes to scam people.

The Kid is notable as being the first feature length comedy film to effectively combine comedy and drama, as one of the opening titles says: "A picture with a smile, and perhaps a tear..." The most famous and enduring sequence in the film is the Tramp's desperate rooftop pursuit of the welfare agents who have taken the child, and their emotional reunion. Audiences of the time were deeply affected by the film and the relationship of the Kid with the much-loved Tramp character, from whom they had not previously seen such emotional depth.

Chaplin and Coogan both give remarkable performances in The Kid. The film made Coogan, then a vaudeville performer, into a major child star. Many Chaplin biographers have attributed the genuinely close and touching relationship portrayed in the film to have resulted from the death of Chaplin's firstborn infant son just before production began. The portrayal of poverty and the cruelty of welfare workers are also directly reminiscent of Chaplin's own London childhood. Lita Grey, who portrays a tempting angel in the film, was Chaplin's second wife from 1924-1927.

Chaplin reissued the film in 1972, and composed a new musical score to accompany the film. As well as composing a new score, Chaplin also made a series of cuts to the film which reduced the run time to 50 minutes.

Chaplin and his co-star Coogan met for the last time that same year, during Chaplin's brief return to America for an Honorary Academy Award.

Cast and Credits

Charlie Chaplin
... Tramp
Edna Purviance
... Mother
Jackie Coogan
... The Kid
Tom Wilson ... Cop
Henry Bergman
... Empresario
Lita Grey
... Angel of Temptation

Written and Directed by Charles Chaplin
Photographed by Roland Totheroh

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