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THE KID
Charlie Chaplin, USA, 1921
Saturday 4 October 2003 8.25pm-9.15pm
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A single mother abandons her baby in a car parked outside an opulent house, but when the vehicle is stolen the thieves dump the infant in the slums. He is found by a passing tramp who, after initial reluctance, raises the child. Cut to the kid aged five years old and he is already helping his surrogate father with confidence tricks, avoiding the police and generally learning a degree of slum savvy. In the meantime, his mother has become a rich movie star, and as she searches for her son, the authorities are closing in on the tramp…
The Kid should be compulsory viewing for anyone deterred from Chaplin due to his reputation of overt sentimentality. Unfortunately, this misconception is enforced with the opening intertitle, but thereafter Chaplin invests the work with a grittier quality than detractors may acknowledge. There is nothing remotely mawkish, for example, about the Tramp's reaction to finding a baby in the streets as he rapidly tries to abandon the child and momentarily considers drowning it. As the boy grows older he is not above enlisting his help in criminal activities and the life he offers of poverty, doss houses and dodging the thuggish police force holds no sentimental allure. Nor does Chaplin ignore the plight of single parents, highlighting the ignominy and social injustice which the 'crime' of motherhood entailed.
Chaplin's first feature film as a director lacks the amount of comedy found in many of his later movies, but the darker tones contrast well with moments of inspired humour. The scene where the kid becomes embroiled in a fight with another child whose brother wants to exact revenge by beating up the tramp forms an fantastic example of the why so many term Chaplin a genius.
Jackie Coogan's delivers a superb performance as the eponymous child and the film's comparative brevity, wit and daring ensure The Kid is able to offer a superb introduction to Charlie Chaplin.
Gavin Collinson
Previous films
on BBC Four
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Jackie Coogan who played The Kid later played Uncle Fester in the TV comedy, The Addams Family.
