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The Immigrant, produced & directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Albert Austin, Henry Bergman

Synopsis of The Immigrant:

One of Charlie Chaplin’s greatest short films. It strikes me with a special feeling after the events of 9/11. It depicts Charlie Chaplin in his world-famous clown role of The Tramp coming to America on a boat (Tramp steamer :o), on a boat overcrowded with other immigrants. On the voyage, Chaplin has fun with the rolling motion of the deck, from walking on board to eating soup. He also meets a pretty young lady (Edna Purviance), who is taking care of her sickly mother. Chaplin is falsely accused of stealing money on the boat, but gets out of that predicament. There is a stirring scene as the boat nears the American shore, and they see the Statue of Liberty for the first time—it chokes me up when I see it.

On shore, Chaplin tries unsuccessfully to find work—he’s broke (which, of course, is normal for The Tramp), but eventually has a bit of luck—he finds a coin on the ground. What luck! Now he can eat! He goes into a restaurant, and orders a meal, only to unknowingly lose his coin. He finds Edna in the same restaurant, weeping, with a black-laced handkerchief—her mother is nowhere in sight. The audience immediately realizes that her mother has died – a wonderful example of the power of the silent movie to communicate. The Tramp invites her over, and tries to cheer her up. Suddenly, the head waiter (played by the perpetual heavy, Eric Campbell) starts to beat up (in a comical, almost cartoonish style) a customer who is a penny short. Chaplin checks for his coin, only to realize that it’s gone.

After several moments of hilarity, as Chaplin realizes his condition and the head waiter comes over with his check, all is made right as an artist (Henry Bergman) hires them both as models—they pay their check, leave, and get married, to live, of course, happily ever after.

I rate it 5 clowns on a 5-clown scale.

Order the version from Amazon.com ., or the version from Amazon.com .

The Immigrant, by Charlie Chaplin, also starring Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Albert Austin, Henry Bergman

Trivia for Charlie Chapln’s The Immigrant

According to Kevin Brownlow and David Gill’s documentary series Unknown Chaplin, the first scenes to be written and filmed take place in what became the movie’s second half, in which the penniless Tramp finds a coin and goes for a meal in a restaurant, not realizing that the coin has fallen out of his pocket. It was not until later that Chaplin decided the reason the Tramp was penniless was that he had just arrived on a boat from Europe, and used this notion as the basis for the first half. Purviance reportedly was required to eat so many plates of beans during the many takes to complete the restaurant sequence (in character as another immigrant who falls in love with Charlie) that she became physically ill.
The scene in which Chaplin’s character kicks an immigration officer was cited later as evidence of his anti-Americanism when he was denied re-entry to the United States in the 1950s.

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About the Author

Tom Raymond, aka. Raynbow the Clown, is a professional clown working out of Madison, Wisconsin, and is available for ministry events, conventions and conferences.

Posted by Tom Raymond, aka Raynbow on 07/19 at 08:24 PM
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