Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid was originally released in 1921 and it is Chaplin’s first self-produced
and directed feature film. Sometimes described as overly sentimental, The Kid starts with the credits for the
principal characters - the man (Carl Muller),
the woman (Edna Purviance), the kid (Jack Coogan) and the tramp (Charlie
Chaplin) – followed by an opening sentence that sets the mood for the movie
“A picture with a smile – and perhaps, a tear”.
The opening scene shows an unwed mother –
the woman whose sin was motherhood - leaving a Charity Hospital with a baby in
her arms. Her burden is illustrated with a title card showing Christ bearing
the cross. The father of the child is a poor artist who cares little for of his
former lover, carelessly knocking her photo into his garret fireplace and
coolly returning it there when he sees it is too badly damaged to keep.
Desperate and not knowing what to do, the mother leaves her baby in the back
seat of a millionaire's car with a note imploring whoever finds him to love and
care for the child. Unfortunately and unexpectedly, two thieves steal the car
unaware that there was a baby in there. When the thieves stop to smoke a
cigarette, they hear the baby crying and decide to leave him in an alley, in
the middle of the trash. Enter Chaplin, the tramp, carefully selecting a choice
cigarette butt from his tin. He stumbles upon the crying baby and, after trying
to palm it off on a lady with another baby in a carriage, he decides to leave
the baby where he found him. A policeman observes the scene and after a
hilarious sequence of failed attempts to leave the child, Chaplin finds the
note the mother left and decides to adopt the kid himself. Meanwhile, the
mother regrets her act and when she returns to the mansion, she is told that
the car has been stolen, and collapses in despair. Chaplin calls the
baby John (the only character we know the name) and outfits his apartment
for the
kid as best he can, using an old coffee pot with a nipple on the spout
as a baby bottle and a cane chair with the seat cut out as a potty seat.
In the next sequence, five years have
gone by, the kid is now helping the tramp to break windows and fix them for
living. The mother is now a world famous opera singer, still haunted by the
memory of her child, she does charity work in the very slums in which he now
lives. Ironically, she gives a toy dog to her own kid without knowing it. After
a fight, the kid falls ill, and the mother asks that a doctor goes to see him.
During the consult the doctor learns of the illegal adoption and summons the
Orphan Asylum social workers who try to separate Chaplin from his foster son.
In one of the most moving scenes, Chaplin and the kid try to fight the
officials, but Chaplin is subdued by the cop they have summoned. The kid is
thrown into the back of the Asylum van, pleading to the official and to God not
to be separated from his father. The tramp, freeing himself from the cop,
pursues the orphanage van over the rooftops and, descending into the back of
the truck, dispatches the official and tearfully reunites with his son.
Returning to check on the sick boy, the mother encounters the doctor and he
shows her the note she had attached to her baby five years earlier. The tramp
and the kid, not daring to return home, settle in a flophouse for the night.
The owner sees a newspaper ad offering a reward for the boy’s return and
kidnaps the sleeping kid. After hunting for the kid without success, a grieving
Chaplin falls asleep on his doorstep and dreams that he has been reunited with
the boy in Heaven. Woken from his dream by the cop, he is taken to the mother's
mansion where he is welcomed by the kid and the three of them live happily ever
after.
The Kid can be
considered one of the first examples of the classical Hollywood style. In this movie, the
narrative is the result of a cause-effect chain of actions caused by individual
characters. According to Bordwell and Thompson (2008),
“This conception of narrative [classical Hollywood style] depends
on the assumption that the action will spring primarily from individual characters as causal agents.
Natural causes (floods, earthquakes) or societal causes (institutions, wars,
economic depressions) may affect the action, but the narrative centers on
personal psychological causes: decisions, choices and traits of character.” (B
& T, p. 94)
Chaplin creates very well-defined characters.
The woman who abandons her baby to give him a better life but regrets it starts
this chain of actions. Our sympathy is with her, because we know she is good
woman (her only sin was motherhood), and even though she leaves her baby in the
backseat of a stranger’s car, she is only trying to protect him. Her decision causes
a reaction (cause-effect), and the baby ends up with a tramp. Our sympathy is
also with him. Although he is a tramp, he is polite and proud, and elegant in
his way, and when he realizes the baby has no one and needs someone who loves
and care for him, the tramp has the choice to leave the baby or care for him.
His choice shows us his character. He is a good man, he chooses to adopt the kid.
He decides to protect this boy no matter what and this desire will guide him
throughout the narrative.
“Often an important trait that functions to get the
narrative moving is desire. The
character wants something. The desire sets up a goal, and the course of the narrative’s development will most
likely involve the process of achieving that goal”. (B & T, p. 95)
When the child falls ill, Chaplin’s
character accepts the help of a stranger and allows a doctor to visit the kid.
When the doctor realizes this was an illegal adoption and tries to separate the
tramp from the child, the tramp’s desire to protect the boy takes place and he
moves quickly to do so. He follows the van, he fights the cop, and he gets his
kid back. The counterforce is then the flophouse owner, who kidnaps the
sleeping boy for money, separating once more father and son.
Another important characteristic of The Kid is the way the story is
organized chronologically. We only get to know about the character’s lives when
there is something important to be known. First when the mother leaves the baby
– we do not know when she got pregnant, why the kid’s father abandoned her, we
only know what is relevant to the story, she is a single mom, the father is not
a good guy, and a tramp ends up with the baby – and later when the boy is
separated from his foster father. What happens in between these five years is
not relevant. What we need to know to understand the facts is what is presented
to us.
“In the classical Hollywood narrative, the chain of actions
that results from predominantly psychological causes tends to motivate most
other narrative events. Time is subordinated to the cause-effect chain in a
host of ways. The plot will omit significant durations in order to show only
events of causal importance. (…) The plot will arrange story chronology so as
to present the cause-effect chain most strikingly.” (B & T, p. 95)
Moreover, the narration shows the audience
things that the characters do not know. We know from the beginning who is the
baby’s mother. We know who is taking care of the kid. We know that the mother
gives her own child a toy without realizing it. The audience “has access to
things the character does not see, hear, or know” (B & T, p. 95).
Finally, Bordwell and Thompson (2008) also claim
that to a narrative to be considered classical Hollywood style it will give us
closure. This is what happens in The Kid.
At the end of the story, we learn that the mother is with the baby,and that she
invites the tramp to also stay with them. We know that the biological father
does not belong to that family, and we have the happy ending we are hoping for.
“most classical narrative films display a strong degree of closure at the end. Leaving few loose
ends unresolved, these films seek to complete their causal chains with a final
effect. We usually learn the fate of each character, the answer to each mystery,
and the outcome of each conflict. (B & T, p. 95-96)
The
Kid is undoubtedly
one of the most moving stories in the cinema and it is one of the first
examples of this classical Hollywood style. Definitely inspiring.
Works
Cited
Bordwell, David and Kristen Thompson. Film Art: An Introductio
8th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.
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