Gewehr über!

One of Charlie Chaplin's very best shorter features, "Shoulder Arms" is a wonderful combination of comedy, commentary, and adventure. Charlie plays a soldier who heads off to World War I, and in the course of 40 minutes or so, it provides a light-hearted but in many respects believable portrayal of what life was like in the trenches. The story also combines some fine slapstick with some exciting adventures.

In this movie, Chaplin hits the perfect balance between humor and substance, helping us to sympathize with those who bore the burdens of the war, without ever becoming sentimental. The other characters are nicely conceived and acted, with the engaging Edna Purviance, the versatile Syd Chaplin, and other talented supporting players pitching in.

The story has many creative turns, plus a couple of good surprises. It's great entertainment, and thoughtful as well. Make sure to take a look if you enjoy Chaplin or silent comedies in general.

Chaplin took so long to direct this 3 reel comedy, his longest to that old date. Once in France and dealing with with Chaplin as a Boot Hill soldier who still looks like an awkward tramp . At the military quarter he doesn't obtain letter from home, at last, he achieves a pack containing limburger cheese. After that, he has the cheese from a mousetrap. Later on, he volunteers to wander behind German lines and posing as a tree takes 13 prisoners , surrendering them from the enemy trench . Finally, with the help a beautiful French girl, Edna Purviance, captures the Kaiser, Syd Chaplin, and the Crown Prince.

The picture had success at boxoffice and the public liked it, specially the following scenes : when Charlie under a gas mask eats the cheese and subsequently he throws it over the enemy lines, as Charlie disguises as a tree trunk and kicks German soldiers in the seat of their pants , and when he takes the Kaiser and is given a statue of victory . In the picture appears two Chaplin's regular : Edna Purviance and Syd Chaplin in a double role as The Kaiser and Charlie's comrade.

This was the longest film to that date and it premiered only 3 weeks before the end of the WWII. This was a 3 reel comedy, he previously directed 1 or 2 reel short movies, such as : Our hero, Night at the show, The fireman, The adventurer, The count, The floorwalker, The circus, The cure, The inmigrant, Burlesque on Carmen, 3 Charlies and one phoney, among others. Shortly after, he directed long time films as The gold rush, the Kid, City lights, Modern times, The great dictator, Monsieur Verdoux, Limelight, A King in NY, and his last one : A countess from Hong Kong. Rating 7.5/10. Better than average Chalie movie. Essential and indispensable watching for Charles Chaplin fans. Well worth seeing

One of the prices of superstardom is that you have to become adaptable. When the US joined the World War in 1917 Charlie Chaplin was at the height of his popularity. Naturally, he was expected to make some sort of contribution. Chaplin had already set his short films in all sorts of locations, even at different time periods, and had given his little tramp all manner of occupations, so soldiering in the trenches shouldn't have been too big a step. However, Shoulder Arms is, if not a propaganda piece (it was released a bit late for that), at least one that had to have a certain outlook. As a result Chaplin was constrained somewhat, and it shows.

The first half of the picture, which is set during Charlie's training and among his comrades in the trench seems a little muted compared to other Chaplin pictures of this period. The reason for this is clear – it wouldn't have had the right effect if there were seen to be too much antagonism between soldiers. Characters like the burly drill sergeant or Charlie's buddy (played his brother Syd) would make ideal bugbears in any other picture, but here all we get is a bit of appropriately brotherly tussling between Charlie and Syd. When you see how weak these opening ten minutes are you realise how much of Chaplin's comedy depended upon playing off others and pricking pomposity.

Fortunately, Chaplin gets to make up for all this when his little tramp goes out to face the German foe. Here he can go all out with making his enemies look ridiculous, getting the most out of his varyingly-sized supporting players. We have Henry Bergman as a roly-poly German, Albert Austin as a gangly one, and best of all Loyal Underwood as a short but self-important German officer. This is Underwood's finest moment, and he really puts a lot of energy and spirit into the part. And Chaplin gets to set up some great routines, with some ingenious ways of defeating foes, not to mention one of his best ever entrances when he appears out of the landscape in his tree disguise.

And Chaplin was clearly savvy enough to realise that the beginning of the picture contained some fairly poor material. Consequently he edits in a handful of shots of antics in the German trench (with Underwood at his most animated), which serve as nothing more than a little touch of uproar, and a promise of things to come.

And now we must have that all-important statistic – Number of kicks up the arse: 7 (1 for, 0 against, 6 other)

Charlie Chaplin wins the war single handedly in this funny amusing film. This was one of Chaplins most successful films and is easy to see why. Made at a time when people needed a diversion from one the most terrifying wars ever Chaplin fins a light hearted way to make people feel good for a while.

The film starts with him having some funny problems in boot camp when he falls a sleep he finds himself being deployed to to trenches of France and immediately has problems manicuring inside the trench, He finally goes over the top rescues a friend, falls in love with a french lady, and then captures the Kaiser.

It is all rather light hearted and very amusing a good film to see

The big names in cinema tried to do their part for the war effort, and Charlie Chaplin was no exception. This patriotic and propagandist picture, "Shoulder Arms", is part of his contribution, although the war was nearly over by the time of its release. The Tramp goes to the front, humorously accomplishes acts of heroism and kicks the Kaiser in the bum. It's a very funny film, although I don't think it nearly one of his best. It's with "A Dog's Life" as his better output for First National before he made his early masterpiece "The Kid". They were his first three-reelers, which contain sustained, more elaborate gags than he could usually orchestrate in his two-reel shorts at Mutual.

It can be difficult to balance a pro-war message with slapstick antics and scenes of burlesque in battle, but one wouldn't think so watching "Shoulder Arms". It's also preferable in many respects to a "more serious", dramatic work with a similar message, such as Griffith's "Hearts of the World". Chaplin had become a true virtuoso of screen comedy by this time; he makes it look effortless. He knew very well by then that a film with fewer gags--with more elaboration, refinement and careful timing--could be better than any knockabout, Keystone-type farce with a dozen pratfalls a minute. The sequence where Chaplin is disguised as a tree is a pertinent example. Even with wars raging, Chaplin can lift the spirits of millions.