Der Einwanderer

This legendary comedy stands as one of Charlie Chaplin's great achievements, a seamless blend of humor, romance, suspense and social commentary, all packed into an 18-minute running time! It's especially impressive when you consider that only three years earlier Chaplin was a complete novice at movie making, cranking out reels of often crude and chaotic slapstick for Mack Sennett. But in The Immigrant, Chaplin displays a self-assured command of contemporary film-making skills (i.e. cinematography, editing, and basic story structure) equal or superior to that of the era's top directors. Most impressive of all is Charlie himself: his iconic character is in full bloom, fresh and funny and full of life. He's a marvel, and a joy to watch.

The first half of this film is set on the sort of beat-up, wildly rocking cattle boat that served as passage to America for an entire generation of immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and it's certain that many of the people who saw The Immigrant when it was new could relate to the experience first-hand. Charlie is one of a large group of voyagers, seemingly of Eastern European origin (although this is never specified) emigrating to the United States. Some viewers may find the humor in these scenes vulgar, what with the relentless sea-sickness motif. The very first shot of the film suggests that Charlie is already suffering from a violent bout of mal-de-mere, although a surprise twist reveals we've jumped to the wrong conclusion. Whether you find these gags amusing or not, they're based on harsh reality only slightly exaggerated for comic effect; after all, before he was famous Chaplin himself came to America with the Fred Karno comedy troupe in a boat not unlike the one seen here, and his memory of that experience must still have been fresh -- unpleasantly so.

In any event, the highlights of the shipboard sequence include Charlie's attempts to navigate the slick floor of the dining hall, his meeting with Edna and her mother, and a game of cards with fellow passengers, including one burly guy with a very bad temper. The first half closes with one of Chaplin's most famous gags: as the immigrants get their first view of the Statue of Liberty the camera lingers for a moment on their expressions, at which point they are suddenly pushed back behind a rope line and then herded through customs like cattle by brusque, uniformed officials. As this takes place, Charlie sneaks a quick look back at the horizon, as if wondering whether Miss Liberty is really out there after all, and then he manages to give one of the rude officials a swift kick. A most satisfying moment, that.

The second half of The Immigrant takes place in a restaurant, and this sequence is a comic tour-de-force in and of itself. Charlie, hungry and broke, enters the restaurant thinking he has at least enough money to pay for an order of beans and a cup of coffee. When he realizes he's mistaken about his ability to pay, his prime objective is to escape the wrath of enormous waiter Eric Campbell, who is almost as menacing here as he was playing the bully in Easy Street. Campbell is a huge factor (so to speak) in making this sequence work so beautifully, as he had a knack for portraying comic villainy in a way that was both funny and genuinely frightening; Charlie's fear at what may happen if he fails to pay his check feels very believable. The many ingenious devices Charlie contrives to avoid facing the music make up the rest of the show, and as the suspense mounts the gags get funnier. (It was interesting to learn from the documentary "Unknown Chaplin" that this sequence was written and filmed first, and that the lead-in material on the boat was devised afterward.) It's in the restaurant that Charlie also reunites with his shipboard sweetheart Edna. Their relationship feels natural, touching, and real, and provides this wonderful comedy with an appropriately poignant finale.

This was my first ever exposure to the works of Charlie Chaplin and remains one of my favorites. We watched THE IMMIGRANT at the introduction to our discussion of silent film in my film history class and it was this movie (as well as EASY STREET, my all-time favorite Chaplin) that solidified my Chaplin fandom. It's clever, funny, and tells a pretty coherent story over the course of its meager twenty-four minute run-time, which isn't necessarily the case for all his films in my opinion. Whereas some just seem to drop Chaplin in an amusing situation and let him do his thing (e.g. THE CURE, where he's let loose in a health spa), THE IMMIGRANT tells the brief story of…well…an immigrant. Chaplin's lovable tramp is one of many immigrants huddled aboard a ship bound for America where he hopes to make a new life. On his journey, he meets and falls for a beautiful woman making the journey to America with her ill mother. Upon making landfall, Chaplin is penniless (having given his gambling winnings to the beautiful woman after her mother's money was stolen) and hungry. He finds a coin in the streets and pops into a restaurant for a meal when he crosses paths with the woman again. He continues to woe her, hoping to win her heart while at the same time dodging the angry brute of a waiter who's not afraid to rough up patrons who try to skip out on a bill.

THE IMMIGRANT is one of the most consistently funny Chaplin short films I've had the pleasure of watching. The gags are funny and, unlike some of his other films, the jokes don't run on too long. As I mentioned before, I also love the fact that there's a solid little story in there. It's the usual stuff: boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy wins girl. We've seen the same thing in plenty of his films, but it's the jokes and visual gags that make each movie special. I love the entire restaurant sequence, with Chaplin caught between trying to win the woman's heart while quietly panicking over his restaurant bill when his coin is discovered to be bogus. It's a fun movie and that doesn't wear out it's welcome halfway through with stale gags. I always have a hard time writing comments on Chaplin's films and putting up a convincing argument for new people to check them out; these movies were made before cinematography was more than some basic lighting and a locked down camera so there really isn't much to say aside from…it's funny. Check it out. It won me over and, if you've never seen it, it might win you over as a Chaplin fan too.

A group of immigrants travel on a boat to their new lives in America. On the boat the little tramp meets and befriends and helps a young lady whose mother has lost all her money. Months later he is in a restaurant when he meets her again. He wants to look after her but the prospects look bleak, as he cannot even pay for the food they are currently eating.

This is one of the later shorts that Chaplin made for Mutual Films and it is starting to show an element of the poignancy that he brought to his later features. The plot sees him take pity on a young lady even when they are both down on their luck and to stick together even when things are looking rough until things suddenly begin to look up for them both. The film has no extreme physical routines but it does have ongoing gags – the guts of this film is in the restaurant rather than the boat. It is still amusing and the story is better developed than some of his other shorts.

Chaplin is excellent, doing trademark hat flicks etc while Purviance is much better here than other mutual shorts simply because she has a good role. Fans will love it and it's steady foundation and gentle humour may win others over.

The first half of 1917 saw Charlie Chaplin taking a more deliberate pace constructing his movies for his employer, Mutual Film Corporation Films. And he added a dose of societal moral commentary into his productions, a new twist in the comedian's platform for entertaining his fans.

During that six-month period Chaplin produced only three two-reelers. (At Keystone, he sometimes churned out one 15-minute movie every week.) He was becoming more of a perfectionist with his every film. When June 1917's "The Immigrant" was completed, he had only one additional film to make for Mutual under their contract obligations, missing the non-binding loose schedule by nine months.

Critics, however, saw the meticulous work of Chaplin as nothing short of enthralling. In "The Immigrants," as the British-born actor was himself belonging to that group, Chaplin examined the assimilation and financial plight of foreigners settling in the United States from their native countries. He uses as a symbol of such constrictions facing the relocating people by the actions of an immigration official roping off the departing passengers into a tight corner as they pass by the Statue of Liberty. Soon after his confinement, Chaplin kicks an immigration official in the butt. The scene was brought up as evidence during his exportation review by United States government officials looking into his anti-Americanism during the early 1950's "Red Scare" period.

Reflecting Chaplin's obsession to detail in "The Immigrants," he shot 90,000 feet of footage--90 reels--for this two-reel picture. The restaurant scene following the immigrant ship embarkation typifies the amount of retakes Chaplin demanded before satisfied with a scene. A simple eating sequence for Edna Purviance turned out to be quite unsettling for her stomach when she ate so many beans required in the script and by Chaplin, making her physically ill.

Chaplin plays an immigrant on a ship bound for America. While on the ship, he helps a fellow immigrant, Edna Purviance, whose mother had been robbed. Chaplin meets Purviance later at a restaurant where they are spotted by an artist who hires them to be models. Chaplin uses the advance to buy a wedding license.

"The Immigrant" is generally considered to be one of Chaplin's finest shorts. That is true. It is one of his funniest. However, I do not consider it as finely-crafted on the whole as many of the other Mutual films. "The Immigrant" feels like two separate one-reelers, featuring the some of the same characters, strung together. We have a shipboard reel and a restaurant reel. The only common characters from both segments are Chaplin and Purviance. (I don't count members of the stock company who appear in both segments as different characters.) There is no overarching plot combining the segments, and the film also suffers from the lack of a consistent heavy throughout. This weak story structure hampers the overall effectiveness of the short, but doesn't detract too much from comedy. The first segment has some of the more elaborate gags, like eating dinner on the wave-tossed ship, but I prefer the more subtle humor of the second half as Chaplin tries to figure out how to avoid the wrath of his tough waiter when he discovers he doesn't have any money to pay for his meal.

Much political hay is made of Chaplin kicking the immigration officials after the ship passes the Statue of Liberty. Leftist supporters look at it as an early example of his "heroic" anti-totalitarian political sentiments, while critics take it as a nasty, early anti-American statement. I believe both groups are guilty of wrongly transposing the political sensibilities of the late-forties and early- fifties back into the teens. Robinson's excellent book "Chaplin: His Life and Art" thoroughly examines the issue and shows that Chaplin intended no political message. (Write something like that on the Chaplin newsgroup and watch people argue for months!)

Charlie, however, would have plenty of time for politics later!