ComedyDrama

The Kid

- 6 reels of Joy.

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.

Release Date : 1921-01-21

Language :No Language

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Charles Chaplin Productions

Production Country : United States of America

Alternative Titles : The Waif

Cast

Character Name : A Tramp

Original Name : Charlie Chaplin

Gender : Male

Character Name : The Kid

Original Name : Jackie Coogan

Gender : Male

Character Name : The Man

Original Name : Carl Miller

Gender : Male

Character Name : The Woman

Original Name : Edna Purviance

Gender : Female

Character Name : Car Thief / Man in Shelter (uncredited)

Original Name : Albert Austin

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bride (uncredited)

Original Name : Beulah Bains

Gender : Female

Character Name : Slum Nurse (uncredited)

Original Name : Nellie Bly Baker

Gender : Female

Character Name : Professor Guido / Night Shelter Keeper (uncredited)

Original Name : Henry Bergman

Gender : Male

Character Name : Orphan Asylum Driver (uncredited)

Original Name : Edward Biby

Gender : Male

Character Name : Assistant (uncredited)

Original Name : B.F. Blinn

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bride's Mother (uncredited)

Original Name : Kitty Bradbury

Gender : Female

Character Name : Welfare Officer (uncredited)

Original Name : Frank Campeau

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Bliss Chevalier

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Reception Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Frances Cochran

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Alley Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Elsie Codd

Gender : Male

Character Name : Pickpocket / Guest / Devil (uncredited)

Original Name : Jack Coogan Sr.

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Estelle Cook

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Lillian Crane

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Philip D'Oench

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bum (uncredited)

Original Name : Dan Dillon

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bridegroom (uncredited)

Original Name : Robert Dunbar

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Florette Faulkner

Gender : Female

Character Name : Little Girl (uncredited)

Original Name : Gloria Faythe

Gender : Female

Character Name : Bride's Father / Extra in Reception Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Rupert Franklin

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Heaven Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Sadie Gordon

Gender : Female

Character Name : Flirtatious Angel (uncredited)

Original Name : Lita Grey

Gender : Female

Character Name : Extra in Reception Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Frank Hale

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Martha Hall

Gender : Male

Character Name : Physician (uncredited)

Original Name : Jules Hanft

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Alley Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Louise Hathaway

Gender : Female

Character Name : The Kid as a Baby (uncredited)

Original Name : Silas Hathaway

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bridesmaid (uncredited)

Original Name : Flora Howard

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Reception Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Ed Hunt

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Heaven Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Lulu Jenks

Gender : Female

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Irene Jennings

Gender : Male

Character Name : Maid (uncredited)

Original Name : Kathleen Kay

Gender : Female

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Grace Keller

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Sarah Kernan

Gender : Female

Character Name : His Kid Brother (uncredited)

Original Name : Raymond Lee

Gender : Male

Character Name : Tough Cop (uncredited)

Original Name : Walter Lynch

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : V. Madison

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Reception Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Clyde McAtee

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra (Angel) Heaven & (Cook) Alley Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Michael J. McCarthy

Gender : Male

Character Name : Chief of Police (uncredited)

Original Name : John McKinnon

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Heaven Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Ethel O'Neil

Gender : Female

Character Name : Extra in Heaven Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Lew Parker

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Charles I. Pierce

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Laura Pollard

Gender : Female

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Evans Quirk

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Heaven Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Esther Ralston

Gender : Female

Character Name : The Man's Friend (uncredited)

Original Name : Granville Redmond

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bully (uncredited)

Original Name : Charles Reisner

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Heaven Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Henry Roser

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : J.B. Russell

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Reception Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : George V. Sheldon

Gender : Male

Character Name : Priest (uncredited)

Original Name : Edgar Sherrod

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bridesmaid (uncredited)

Original Name : Elsie Sindora

Gender : Male

Character Name : Fierce Woman (uncredited)

Original Name : Minnie Stearns

Gender : Male

Character Name : Car Thief with Gun (uncredited)

Original Name : Arthur Thalasso

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lady with Baby Carriage (uncredited)

Original Name : Edith Valk

Gender : Female

Character Name : Extra in Alley Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Mother Vinot

Gender : Female

Character Name : Edna's Maid (uncredited)

Original Name : May White

Gender : Female

Character Name : Cop (uncredited)

Original Name : S.D. Wilcox

Gender : Male

Character Name : Baby in Carriage (uncredited)

Original Name : Edith Wilson

Gender : Female

Character Name : Policeman (uncredited)

Original Name : Tom Wilson

Gender : Male

Character Name : Extra in Alley Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Amanda Yanez

Gender : Female

Character Name : Extra in Alley Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Baby Yanez

Gender : Female

Character Name : Extra in Wedding Scene (uncredited)

Original Name : Elsie Young

Gender : Female

Reviews

Andres Gomez

@tanty

2021-06-23

Cute and funny. It is difficult to say anything new from this movie or Charles Chaplin. He just delivers a complete story with a lot of different elements. Remarkable is also the performance of Jackie Coogan.

barrymost

@barrymost

2021-07-28

If you enjoy this review, please check out my blog, Old Hat Cinema, at https://oldhatcinema.medium.com/ for more reviews and other cool content. Two Little Tramps The most amazing thing about Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid is that it was released in January of 1921. That makes this film 100 years old! A century has gone by since it was made, released, and first viewed, and yet it’s still available to be appreciated anew today. The DVD print that I watched was in very good shape, the picture was great, and I felt that I was watching an important piece of cinema history. However, The Kid is by no means one of my favorite Chaplin films. In fact, two out of my top three aren’t even silent films, but prime examples of Chaplin’s later work: Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Limelight (1952). And my third favorite, the 1936 masterpiece Modern Times, is only two-thirds silent! The plot of the film is quite simple: our beloved Little Tramp finds another little tramp, and and raises the foundling as his own. Years pass, and together, they rise above their life of poverty through the power of love and comedy. “Professionally funny” is a phrase that I thought a fitting description of Chaplin. He was an artistic genius, and he knew what he was doing and how to engage an audience. In fact, this was his first feature-length film, and he took a whopping five-and-a-half months to shoot it, which was an incredible amount of time for a film production in 1921. Chaplin, of course, not only starred, but wrote, directed, produced, and scored the film! Jackie Coogan was fantastic as “the Kid”, displaying a wide range of emotion and deftly tugging at the viewer’s heartstrings. His father, Jack Coogan, Sr., coached his son during filming and was paid $125 a week by Chaplin, and also played several small parts within the movie. Chaplin and Coogan in The Kid (1921) It is said that Chaplin and Coogan were as close off-screen as on, and every Sunday during the first few weeks of filming, Chaplin would take the boy to the amusement park or other fun activities. This relationship was seen as either an attempt on Chaplin’s part to reclaim his own unhappy childhood, or possibly he was just thinking about his own son whom he had lost, having died three days after birth. The Kid features a truly bizarre dream sequence in which the Tramp falls asleep on his doorstep and dreams of everyone — including himself — as an angel or demon. He envisions himself as an angel, with white, feathery wings spread out behind him, and a harp in his hand. Others, including a neighborhood bully, appear as demons, depicted traditionally in dark (presumably red) attire and horns atop their heads. Even a little dog, suspended on wires, comes floating by in a little angel costume! It’s one of the strangest and most inexplicable dream sequences I’ve seen in a film, and yet it is oddly captivating. The technical aspects in this film — both in the dream sequence and in the rest of the movie — are marvelous when one considers that it was made a hundred years ago, when the movie medium itself was less than thirty years old. Whether or not it is one of Chaplin’s greatest works is up to the individual viewer, but you cannot deny that it is a landmark movie, and holds an important place in the history of American cinema. It deserves a look, maybe even more than one. As the opening title card reads, it’s “a picture with a smile — and perhaps, a tear.”

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

2024-07-14

An impoverished woman (Edna Purviance) feels compelled to abandon her child in the hope that he might find a better life - so she leaves him (with a short note) in the back of a car. The two men who find the little bundle don't want anything to do with him, so plonk him down behind some rubbish where de is discovered by the tramp (Charlie Chaplin). Now he's not that keen on children either, but the presence of an attentive policeman means can't just leave his new package in the pram of a woman nearby. Skip on five years and the two have become quite a formidable double act - the lad (Jackie Coogan) chucks stones at windows and his father-figure does the mending! Meantime, the mother finds success treading the boards and the boy's real father, likewise, succeeds - but that relationship is toast and she gradually starts to pine for and then search for her lost child. When the authorities cotton on to the lucrative acts of vandalism of the two, they attempt to seize the kid and put him in an orphanage - and that's when things all start to come to an head. There's a delightful bond that develops here between Chaplin and the enthusiastic young Coogan with Chaplin's direction showcasing both their skills and the extent of the poverty amidst which they lived and which drove people to make horrendous decisions to part with their children. The ending is exactly as it should be, so don't go expecting much jeopardy on that front - and the scenes with the angelic wings towards the end mix determination and comedy effectively, too. It makes you smile and pulls at the heart strings and is truly a classic piece of cinema.