Silent movies - A Dog's Life

Today I got two Chaplins for you. I don't mean two Chaplin movies, but two Chaplins in one movie - Charlie and his brother Sydney.
Let's have a look at "A Dog's Life" from 1918.

Here's the plot with spoilers.

The Little Tramp is trying to make the best of his life in the streets although he's sleeping rough, is sometimes forced to steal food, and has his run-ins with the law.

It's not that he doesn't want to work, but at the agency the others keep pushing him out of the way and in the end there's no job left for him.
Then he meets Scraps. The little stray has found a bone which attracts a lot of other dogs, and Charlie saves Scraps from the fight.

I'll happily admit that this made me feel
all mushy right away. The rest of the
pack raided a grocer's shop in the meantime.

At a coffee stall, Scraps takes the chance to steal some sausages and the Tramp stuffs himself with food every time the proprietor isn't looking.

A hilarious scene. The stall owner is Sydney Chaplin, by the way.

Now that they had something to eat, the Tramp heads for a dance hall. Unfortunately, the "Green Lantern" offers free dancing, but doesn't allow dogs, and they get thrown out.
He won't leave Scraps outside, though, and cleverly hides him. If only the tail wouldn't peek out through a hole in the pants, wagging like crazy.

There's a new singer and hostess in the bar who moves the audience to tears with her sad song.
The bar owner, however, wants his guests happy ... and thirsty! "If you smile and wink, they'll buy a drink."
So she tries her luck with the Tramp. After a bit of confusion, he asks her for a dance which turns out interesting, to say the least.
As the bartender finds out he has no money to buy drinks, however, he throws him out.

Flirting 101.

Outside, two villains mug a drunk gentleman and take his wallet. Being followed by police, one of them buries it in a hole next to the Tramp's favored sleeping spot.
Luckily, Scraps finds the wallet and they head back to the "Green Lantern".
Meanwhile, the singer has got herself sacked for refusing to dance with another customer. She's desperate because the owner doesn't want to pay her, but the Tramp shows her the money he has found and says they will settle in the country.
Too bad that the villains overhear them and take the wallet back. The Tramp doesn't give up that quickly, though, and manages to get the money back. 

"Giving" the villain his arms - a splendid performance.

The villains chase him to the coffee stall, during the struggle the wallet falls on the ground - from where Scraps successfully recovers it while the villains get arrested by the police and the Tramp escapes, leaving the poor stall owner behind confused and the worse for wear.

In the end, you see the happy couple on their farm and a bassinet stands on the floor - not with one baby, but a whole litter!

There are two things clearly standing out in this movie.

1. Scraps (called Mutt in real life) absolutely stole the show. Sorry, Charlie and Edna and the others, you were funny, but we all know who was the real heroine here.
2. The singer's dress. I just couldn't get over this masterpiece of fashion design. We should all wear dresses like that, women, men, children.
It looked like a long whitish skirt with a black diaphanous top over which there was kind of a black apron whose two parts were connected at the hips with black strips. But wait, there's more! Uhm, a flapping piece of curtain fastened to the back?
"We still need a dress for Edna. Oh hey, there's still some leftover fabrics here. I can do something with that!" Absolutely brilliant 😂

Not only Scraps leads a dog's life in the movie, but also the Tramp and the singer, even if not literally.
The association between the scenes of the Tramp losing the fight for a job at the agency and Scraps the one for the bone is obvious.
All three of them are forced into that life which actually makes it extra heartwarming to see them get their happy ending (even if founded on ill-gotten money). I was fully prepared to see them go down a lonely road into an uncertain future, but I liked this much better.

I also enjoyed the gags very much and the "choreography" that Chaplin was so good at.
32 minutes well spent indeed.

P.S. Did you notice something about the pictures? The familiar cane is missing. I guess a cane and a leash would have been too much.

Silent movies - The Gold Rush

We don't have weather quite that extreme here right now, but it is still winter and the beginning of the year, so I brought you a film today which is set in the snow of the Klondike region and has a famous New Year's Eve dinner scene. It's of course Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush from 1925. Or 1942? Let's see.

Actually I watched two versions for this post both of which I hadn't known before.
The original from 1925 is longer and silent with intertitles, the recut from 1942 has some changes and instead of intertitles there is a musical score and a narration done by Chaplin himself.

As usual, I'll start with the plot (and spoilers).

Along with hundreds of others, the Lone Prospector (Chaplin's Little Tramp character) makes his way to the Klondike to find gold.

Surprised by a blizzard, he ends up in the cabin of Black Larsen, a wanted criminal, and soon they get joined by Big Jim, another prospector who has just found a big gold deposit. Larsen tries to get rid of them in vain.

When they run out of food and draw cards to determine who has to go out in the blizzard to find some, Black Larsen loses. Out there, he comes across the tent of two policemen looking for him and kills them.
Meanwhile, the little fellow and Big Jim go crazy with hunger. They eat one of the little fellow's shoes, but Big Jim gets delirious and thinks his friend is a chicken. Just in time a bear marches in and they have enough to eat.

Licorice and hard candy, just in
case you wondered like me 😉

When the blizzard is over, they part ways. The little fellow heads to the next gold boom town, Big Jim to his claim. There, however, Black Larsen, is waiting. He strikes Jim down with a shovel and makes off with part of the gold, but falls to his death in an avalanche.

In the town's dance hall, the little fellow falls in love with Georgia. In order to annoy Jack who makes aggressive advances towards her, Georgia asks the little fellow for a dance.

When they happen to meet again at a cabin nearby which he's watching for the owner, Georgia flirts with the little fellow and then invites herself and her friends for dinner on New Year's Eve.

The little fellow shovels snow to get the money for the dinner. He decorates everything nicely and falls asleep waiting for the ladies dreaming about the fun and laughter when he does his bread roll dance for them.

When he wakes up all alone, however, he goes to the dance hall where everyone is celebrating. Disappointed, he goes for a walk in the snow, so when Georgia comes to the cabin with Jack after remembering the invitation, he's not there.

Meanwhile, Big Jim has made it to town. Unfortunately, he doesn't remember the location of his mountain of gold after Black Larsen hit him with the shovel. So when he sees the little fellow at the dance hall, he drags him off to help him.
They find the cabin, but during the night it slides downhill in another blizzard and after half of it ends up hanging over a cliff, it's rocking dangerously.

They make it out just in time before the cabin falls into the depth.

As luck would have it, though, Jim's gold deposit is in that spot and they both end up as millionaires.
When they take a ship back home, reporters ask the little fellow for a picture in his old prospector clothes. Falling down some stairs because the photographer tells him to step back, he lands right next to Georgia who's also on the way back, looking quite disillusioned. She thinks he's a stowaway and tries to hide him. Her surprise and joy is big when not only the captain announces him to be a multi-millionaire, but also when the little fellow tells the reporter she's his bride.

Let's get to the plot differences first.

In the 1925 original, Georgia refuses Jack's kiss after they find the cabin empty but decorated, but later writes him a letter apologizing and telling him she loves him. Jack shows the letter to the others at his table laughing at it, then he has the letter taken to the little fellow just to spite Georgia. So when the little fellow tells Georgia he got her note, kisses her hand and promises her to make good before being dragged away by Big Jim, she is clearly confused what's going on. Only when she is afraid for him on the ship because she thinks he'll be put into irons, you can tell she has really feelings for him.

In the 1942 version, however, the note goes directly to the little fellow and only says that she wants to apologize and explain about New Year's Eve and there isn't a mention of a relationship between Jack and her.

The ending is also a bit different, in the original you see the little fellow and Georgia in a long kiss, in the recut they just climb the stairs arm in arm.

I think the first version adds a little more drama and the note seems to be giving the little fellow the motivation to go back to look for gold in order to be worthy of Georgia.
The note in the recut is a bit lukewarm and doesn't really say that much about Georgia's feelings towards him, so that makes his reaction to it look rather over the top.

To be honest, the romance is what I'm struggling with in this film, anyway. Jack is a bully and I don't understand why Georgia suddenly changes her mind about him (in the first version) and then changes her mind again, this time about the little fellow. At least she's not after his money when she tries to help him on the ship, but does she really know what she wants?
On the other hand, a happy ending usually makes me happy as well, and in this one Chaplin's Little Tramp gets a really happy one, his lady and a load of money on top.

"The Gold Rush" was Chaplin's own favorite and a critical and commercial success. It was inspired by pictures of the Klondike Gold Rush and a book about the Donner Party.
Now you may wonder what on earth could be funny about these two historical events, but Chaplin always managed to find humor in tragedy.
The film didn't make me laugh out loud, though, because I always felt that tragedy around the corner.
Take the Thanksgiving dinner with the shoe, for example. I enjoyed the way the little fellow celebrated the presentation of the "meal", but thinking about this being inspired by real events was also gruesome.

I also couldn't help wondering how cold it must have been for those dance hall girls in their beautiful but rather flimsy looking dresses, and seeing the little fellow in his usual outfit walking through the snow was funny, but also made me shiver (you may remember that I wondered about heating when I saw the huge castle in Doug Fairbanks's Robin Hood, too 😂). I just hate snow (except in pictures of lovely winter landscapes).
Of course, I was aware that those were studio scenes, but I think that rather speaks for Chaplin's talent at evoking the feeling of a harsh Klondike winter.
There were also some amazing effects, such as the rocking cabin or Black Larsen's death scene.

It's really no surprise that the movie has received such high praise and still does.
Of course, people are divided about the two versions, though.
If I had to choose, I'd take the 1925 version, but with the score of 1942. I didn't mind the narration as such, but I think Chaplin went a bit overboard with the pathos and he could have said less (maybe I'm really getting used to title cards?).

Why is there a recut, anyway?
Chaplin wanted to revive the film - as mentioned, it was his favorite - but knew that after talkies had been around for more than a decade now he couldn't just present the old version the way it was. So he tweaked and rearranged and modernized and added music and narration.
The 1925 version had entered the public domain in the USA because the copyright hadn't been renewed, but in the end it went into the trash. Only in 1993, film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill were appointed by Chaplin's heirs to reconstruct and restore it from available sources.

For people who shy away from completely silent movies, however, I think, the recut is a great choice. I know I have waited far too long myself, but I believe "The Gold Rush" is worth a watch by everyone who's interested in classic movies at all.

P.S. I'll deduct a point for bringing in a dog that suddenly disappears. That's too much tragedy for me.


Sources:

1. Fritzi Kramer: The Gold Rush (1925) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, July 5, 2015
2. Jeffrey Vance: The Gold Rush. On: San Francisco Silent Film Festival, presented at the "Little Tramp at 100" event January 2014

Silent movies - Modern Times

It's obvious we had to get to this point eventually.
A silent movie project without Charlie Chaplin wouldn't be complete and "Modern Times" practically jumped at me when I was checking what was new in the ARTE Mediathek (the TV channels keep a video library of their content for a certain time) and found they had a Charlie Chaplin event.
Again, I knew parts of it, such as the Tramp getting caught in the cogs of the factory, but wasn't sure if I had ever seen the whole movie.
Also, ARTE didn't just have the movie itself, but also a documentary on it.

After "City Lights", which had been a huge success in 1931 even as a silent film among talkies, Chaplin had been burnt out and went into depression. His PR tour turned into a trip around the world to help him find himself again. After 17 months, he came back to Hollywood ready to do another movie. At his side was Paulette Goddard.

Public domain

"Modern Times" is a little special in this project of mine as it's not a completely silent film.
Actually, Chaplin had already written a complete dialog for it until September 1934, rehearsals started in October. In December, however, after three days of shooting, Chaplin stopped. He just couldn't make himself to have his famous character talk, he didn't know what voice to give him and what to make him say.
As mentioned, however, "Modern Times" isn't completely silent. People may not speak to one another, but they speak through the machines, the intercom through which the factory boss gives his orders even during break time, the radio, the "mechanical salesman". There's only one scene in which you hear the Tramp's voice, not speaking, but singing, not in understandable words either, but in gibberish because he has forgotten the lyrics to the song. What could be better to show Chaplin's position towards talkies?
Shooting ended in August 1935 and the movie came out in 1936 - "A story of industry, of individual enterprise - humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness."

Ready for some plot (with spoilers)?
The Tramp works on an assembly line. Due to the stress - the scene with the feeding machine designed to feed workers to make breaks obsolete and thus increase profits really stressed me out - he suffers a nervous breakdown which ends in chaos and ends him up in hospital.
After his release he stumbles into a demonstration and gets arrested being mistaken for the leader because he happens to pick up a lost red flag.
In jail he prevents a jailbreak by knocking down the convicts which gets him special treatment. Being told that he will be released soon, he says he'd rather stay in jail.

Back in a world of unemployment, uproar, and poverty, the Tramp is determined to go to jail again after messing up at another job.
He meets Ellen, "The Gamin", who just lost her father and whose sisters were taken away by juvenile services (never to be mentioned again in the movie) from which she could escape. She has stolen a bread from a van, and both to help her and to get arrested himself, he claims he did it, but a witness tells the police it was Ellen, so she gets taken away.
He meets her again in a police wagon after he gets arrested for eating a huge amount of food at a restaurant without paying. The wagon breaks down and they escape together.

Next he gets a job as a night watchman in a department store and brings Ellen with him imagining how it would be to live in a nice house with her.
During the night, three burglars come in one of whom he knows from work. They say they are just hungry, so they eat and drink, and the Tramp wakes up when the department store has already opened.
When he gets out of jail this time, Ellen surprises him by showing him a very rundown shack where they can live. He gets a new job, but the workers go on strike and during that he inadvertently hits a policeman with a brick.

While he's in jail, Ellen has found a job as a café dancer and secures a job for him as well, as a waiter and entertainer.
Unfortunately the police arrives and wants to arrest Ellen for running away from juvenile services. They both escape, but Ellen has lost all hope and wonders why you should even bother trying.
The Tramp tells her never to lose hope and together they go down the road into an uncertain life.

"Modern Lights" was the last appearance of the Tramp on screen, and despite coming out almost ten years after the first talkie (The Jazz Singer), it was a very successful send-off.
While the movie has very funny scenes, there is a lot more to it, though.

Its opening scene is a flock of sheep pushing along - one black one among them - and next a crowd of workers coming out of a subway station. You see a few crowds in the film and often the Tramp is getting caught up in them without wanting it and without being able to escape - for example in the demonstration, during the strike, and a scene in the café where people dance while he's trying to get an order to a guest.
Chaplin had been to Ford's factory, he had seen how hard and exhausting work on an assembly line was for the young men working there, so it's not surprising that his Tramp can't take the stress he's exposed to by the ever increasing speed of the line. If one worker falls behind, it has a direct effect on all the others, too.

After the Tramp is released from hospital, the movie is one attempt after the other to find a place for himself and Ellen in this merciless system, and just when they think they have found it, the dream gets destroyed by that system once again.
It's what makes the Tramp so universal, a lot of people could identify with that feeling, especially during the Great Depression. And yet he never gives up and keeps that childlike hope that there will be something good in the future.
Originally, a different ending had been filmed with the Tramp finding out that Ellen has joined a convent, but then Chaplin found that the film had to end on a hopeful note.

Given Chaplin's own history of a hard childhood in the slums of London and bouts of depression throughout his life, the Tramp's relentless pursuit of his little happiness - because he isn't asking for much - is quite amazing (also for me, a terrible pessimist).

In Germany, "Modern Times" was prohibited, just as Chaplin's other movies were not shown anymore. That doesn't mean it wasn't criticized in the USA for showing "communist tendencies". Not everyone was happy with Chaplin getting political, even more so with his later films. Eventually he even had to leave the USA because of that.

I enjoyed the movie much more than I had expected although I can't really tell you what exactly I had expected. I laughed, I was touched, and I suffered with those two just doing their best to survive in difficult times.
Again, there would be so much more to say about the movie, but as always I'm going to list some sources for you if you are interested (quite randomly picked, as you can imagine, there is a lot available!).
"Modern Times" has been called one of the greatest films not just of Chaplin, but ever. I would definitely recommend watching it and I'm quite sure I will be watching it again myself, too.


Sources:
1. R.K.: Chaplin : Modern Times. Originally in: The Manchester Guardian, July 14, 1936
2. Chaplins "Moderne Zeiten" - Der Abschied vom Stummfilm (France 2024, German dubbing/subtitles). On: ARTE TV (currently available until November 30, 2025)
3. Matt ?: Modern Times (1936). On: I Draw On My Wall, September 4, 2017
4. David A. Punch: Modern Times: Aversion to Innovation. On: The Twin Geeks, February 4, 2019
5. Josh Matthews: Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times - - What Makes This Movie Great (Episode 7). On the YouTube channel "Learning about Movies"