Charlie Chaplin Carnival

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Audience Member Entertaining, but not among Chaplin's best. Interesting plot: the Tramp becomes a policeman! (It could happen...). From here many adventures ensue. Has the usual Chaplin slapstick and sight gags but also has some darker themes: bullying, abuse of power, power-madness, instant fame and even drug abuse (though here it appears more of an advert for drugs - it was 1917 I guess, so they didn't know better). However, it is not as powerful, clever or laugh-a-minute as Chaplin's later stuff. Chaplin's gags seem less well thought-out and more about cheap laughs here. I guess he was still honing his craft and exploring his own boundaries. Good performances. Eric Campbell is scary as the bully, he of the fearsome eyebrows. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member A reformed tramp becomes a police constable and works an inner city street where thugs and crime are aplenty. Chaplin had already touched on many serious issues of public awareness in his slapstick shorts, but it is Easy Steet that arguably takes the helm for being his darkest work, perhaps even of all time. Sure, it's genuinely funny, as you would expect from the average Chaplin film of the golden era of slapstick, but Chaplin is also very much interested in the drama and tragedy of life on the inner street and does not shy away from crude depictions of crime, poverty and perhaps most memorably, drug addiction. Considering the fact that this film was made in 1917, this also comes across as a fearless and audacious works and prominently shows Chaplin's serious intentions both as a filmmaker and as a man representing social issues through escapism and his own perfected form of entertainment. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member A highlight among the Chaplin shorts. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member Here we have a Chaplin silent short that may rival The Immigrant as Charlie's most important and famous work at Mutual Studios. It also may as well be Charlie's most autobiographical with a subject matter very near and dear to Mr. Chaplin's heart. The Tramp, looking for work, joins up with the police force and gets assigned to the toughest neighborhood in the county, Easy Street. He does his best to clean up the area, but struggles when he runs into the bully and his gang that run the whole joint. As I've mentioned, Charlie grew up in the slums of Walworth, London, which was a very rough and tumble neighborhood. Charlie wanted to recreate his hardship by building a little London slumdog town in the middle of Los Angeles, California, and he did so (if I may say so) brilliantly. A little trivia, the name of the street and film is a reference to the actual street Charlie grew up on which was called East Street. See, it's like Easy Street but with a "T" instead of a "Y" at the end. The film may not very funny (even though it does have a few pretty good moments) but it's definitely one of Charlie's most endearing films as you can almost feel how much of himself he put into this film. The ending is very touching, and you almost feel the sort of difficulties Charlie had to go through to get where he is today. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member For this 1917 two reeler, Chaplin packs a lot in. Eric Campbell as the eponymous baddie was sorely missed after he was killed in car crash shortly after this was made. A giant talent, and a giant loss. RIP great Scott. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review eric b I would not have expected a Chaplin film to have a pivotal gag about intravenous drugs. Creepy. My best laugh was his character feeding a room of needy children as if they were chickens. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Charlie Chaplin Carnival

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