rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 1921
Directed by Charles Chaplin; produced by Charles Chaplin; written by Charles Chaplin
Starring Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Carl Miller, Jack Coogan
A very poor woman (Edna Purviance) can't take care of her baby and therefore she puts him in the back of a car, hoping someone will take good care of him. By a coincidence the kid ends up in the arms of a tramp, played by Charlie Chaplin of course. A note asks for someone to take care of the orphan child. The tramp takes the job, and we move to five years later.
We see how the tramp and the kid (now played by Jackie Coogan) live and love each other, how they have little sneaky plans to earn money, how they belong to eachother. In the meanwhile the woman has become rich and when she does a little charity for the poor, she meets the kid not knowing it is hers.
This is a great feature film with Chaplin, which is what happens when he is playing the tramp. Coogan is very good and he does a great job in scenes where kids can easily overreact and overact. One great sequence will be remembered. The tramp is in dreamland and every single person is an angel. This could have been a great short film on its own. As the film says in the first seconds, 'The Kid' is good for a laugh and perhaps a tear.