Gehetzte Unschuld

I've only seen this as the 40 minute reissue with Matt Monroe warbling Chaplin's song 'Bound for Texas' all the way through it. There's nothing at all wrong with the tune or the singing, except that it comes on too often and makes you realise just how ordinary the rest of the score is. Maybe the DVD's better - maybe!

The film itself is a pleasure, not a joy, but it does have some typically wonderful Chaplin moments in it: The jig with the collection-boxes, the cake/hat, the sticking on his chin of the little 'beard' to make him look tough (what an expression he put on as well!) The reissue moves swiftly along, and you're borne with it until you sadly realise that it's over - too fast. Personally, the storyline is too thin and the gags though numerous are just too disparate and inconsequential to put this amongst his very best, but on a good second level. Charlie's maturer and lesser efforts like this are still towering achievements in comparison with most of his contemporaries and successors best.

The Pilgrim is an outstanding example of Charlie Chaplin at work. So much of what Chaplin did was based on his physical ability to move like a dancer, and this film shows off his agility to the maximum. Charlie tumbles and jumps, turns on a dime, and makes every graceful movement funny. The plot is your basic silent movie plot, with a lot of mistaken identities and a love interest that leads to a plot climax and a happy ending for Charlie--but without the girl. (Charlie almost never got the girl at the end of his films. It was one of his enduring charms.) The difference between this and a typical silent film is the charisma of Charlie Chaplin. There is simply nothing else like it in film history.

This short comedy has some funny moments and a few observations about human nature thrown in. It is one of Chaplin's more popular shorts, due to the good slapstick sequences, even though it might not have as much substance as some of his other features.

At the beginning, Charlie gets mistaken for a town's new preacher, and starting with that, he finds himself in some increasingly complicated situations. There are some good gags and some funny moments that arise as "The Pilgrim" tries to figure out what is expected of him, and tries to fit in.

Edna Purviance is engaging as usual, and Syd Chaplin gets a chance to show his versatility, so both of them add something. A few of the scenes are drawn out a little too long, but in general it's a pretty good feature that most Chaplin fans will enjoy.

The tramp escapes from prison and, with wanted posters everywhere, takes a train to a place picked randomly – Texas. Disguised as a minister he is fortune enough to be mistaken for the real deal when he stumbles into a welcoming party for a town's new minister, Reverend Phillip Pin. A mixed blessing this as it puts more pressure on his disguise and makes it even more important he cover up the telltale signs of a life spent behind bars.

As part of my recent film education I have been watching quite a few Chaplin films of this period as Sky have been showing them as a season over the last few weeks and what I have found is what everyone already knows – which is that the enduring popularity of Chaplin is not a fluke or accident. No, The Pilgrim yet again demonstrates the talent and skill that Chaplin had because it is very funny, imaginative and well put together. The story is simply and allows for a series of scenarios where Chaplin can work his comedy such as the hat becoming part of the pudding, the early confused chase and so on. However in the smaller moments you can also see plenty of evidence of talent; my favourite moments of the film are the frequent bits of habitual behaviour that betray the tramp as a convict. Having bought a ticket for the train he then climbs under the car because he is not aware of any other way of doing it, or while buying the ticket he leans against the bar as one would in a cage. Little things like this running along with the bigger scenarios make the film that much funnier for having a consistency to it.

In front of the camera Chaplin delivers perfectly. I have yet to get into his later films (although I will do) but I will be interested to see how he acts when he has the ability to deliver dialogue with sound. The reason for this is that silent film acting is much different from dialogue driven because near everything has to be done with body language and gestures; goes without saying that he is great at it. He is well supported by a cast getting familiar to me after seeing several of his shorts and the turns from Swain, Purviance, Underwood and others are good.

Overall then another classic comedy from Chaplin that is consistently funny due to the bigger laughs blended with lots of clever amusing detail.

Chaplin originally planned "The Pilgrim" as a two-reel short, but it expanded to a four-reel feature. When comparing it to his films at Mutual or before, it's evident how far Chaplin had come with his First National pictures: he took his time elaborating and extending fewer gags and set pieces and in developing the plot and characters. His First National films may not always be as continually uproarious as his Mutual ones, but they are, I think, more satisfying and affecting.

"The Kid", deservedly his most beloved First National release, greatly strained Chaplin's relationship with the distributors. He would leave yet another company to continue in his evermore-ambitious efforts. Jeffrey Vance, in "Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema", makes an interesting observation: he points out that Chaplin plays an escaped prisoner in both his last Mutual film, "The Adventurer", and in this film, his last First National release. They both reflect the filmmaker's escape from confining contracts.

There's some light satire on a religious community and parody of Westerns, and Chaplin gets plenty of mileage out of the common mistaken identity device. I didn't find any of the gags particularly memorable, but the hilarity is sustained throughout the film. "The Pilgrim" is, as religion can be, uplifting.