Director: Charlie Chaplin
Writer: Charlie Chaplin
I know that many film lovers usually prefer one silent film comedian over another: Chaplin or Keaton (or even Lloyd). I have to admit that I like both equally, (and also admit to not having seen any Lloyd yet!). They both approach their stories and comedy differently, and both manage to elicit laughs from me. I cannot choose one over the other: in fact I am glad that we have both of them to enjoy, considering what happened to many silent films.
Having seen most of Chaplin's feature length films and a handful of shorts, The Kid was the main blindspot in my Chaplin filmography. The presence of Jackie Coogan's little kid makes this one of Chaplin's most sentimental films. While I usually bristle at sentiment, Chaplin's has never bothered me, and so I happily felt sad as well as amused by the film. There were less gags than usual, though the window scene was quite funny.
I watched this curtesy of one of Australia's TV channel's 'On-Demand' services; a wonderful resource, but because of internet speeds the picture quality often varied. I still enjoyed watching The Kid and it made me want to re-watch Chaplin's other films.
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