Charlot en la calle de la paz

When a tramp decides to go straight, he returns the money he has just stolen from a mission and commits to putting back into his community by joining the police force. Unfortunately for him his assigned patrol is Easy Street – a virtual no-go area controlled by a violent and intimidating bully. Unaware of this the young tramp heads onto the beat.

Very highly rated on this site, this short film is a typical Chaplin film as it mixes comedy with an social heart. In this regard I must admit that I found it amusing (but not hilarious) and engaging (but hardly cutting in its insight). What I supposed is most telling is that the film isn't dated and boring, it still seems fresh and lively even though technology has moved so far ahead of the period; that doesn't mean it is brilliant but it must stand for something I guess. The scenes are well laid out and tickled me but personally I much prefer the shorts of Laurel & Hardy for their sheer comedy value.

Chaplin is his usual reliable self and does his tramp personae well. He is given sturdy support specifically from Campbell as the E Street bully but also from others who react to Chaplin rather than doing something themselves. Overall then an amusing little short that will please Chaplin fans. Not one of his best but certainly worth a look for those with more than a passing interest in the man.

I've been a Chaplin fan since I was in grade school, and Easy Street was the movie that converted me for keeps. It wasn't the first of his films I saw, but once I'd seen it I knew that Charlie Chaplin was truly as great as his reputation proclaimed. He's wonderful here, at the peak of his powers, funny and moving and seemingly super-human, like some kind of cartoon dynamo. And today, more than 30 years since I first encountered it (and almost 90 years since it was made!) this is a film I could watch again anytime, not just because it's funny -- although it is -- but also for darker, more melancholy reasons. Easy Street is certainly a comedy, but it's no one's idea of a light-hearted romp: the humor in this story is rooted in poverty, violence and substance abuse, and unfortunately all of these things are just as relevant today as they were in 1917. It's well known that Chaplin grew up in dire poverty, and it's reasonable to assume that the squalid world of this ironically titled work is based on his childhood memories. This film stands as proof that the greatest comedy is born out of pain, and that's why I can return to it again and again, for although human suffering is always topical and always relevant, so is the urge to transcend suffering through humor. In this film Chaplin triumphs over the deprivations of his own childhood, and viewers can share in his triumph.

In the opening scene we find Charlie fallen on hard times, no longer the dapper Gentleman Tramp of earlier appearances but a real derelict, ragged, pale, and sleeping on the ground. He is drawn to a nearby mission by the sound of singing, joins the congregation and soon pledges to go straight; he even proves his conversion is genuine by pulling the collection box from his baggy pants and returning it to the startled minister. Before long Charlie has applied for the job of police officer in the roughest neighborhood imaginable, Easy Street, a slum ruled by an enormous bully, magnificently portrayed by actor Eric Campbell. The unfortunate Mr. Campbell, who would be killed in a car accident less than a year after giving this performance, deserves a belated nod of respect for making Easy Street such a memorable experience. Although clearly intended as a comic caricature, Campbell's nameless bully is nonetheless a formidable figure, a mighty beast with a shaved head and heavy eyebrows, and the close-ups that reveal Campbell's stage makeup do nothing to diminish his powerful aura.

The film's most unforgettable sequence comes when Officer Charlie, dressed in a Keystone Cop style uniform as he nervously walks his beat for the first time, suddenly comes face-to-face with Campbell, an ogre several times his size. The scene is filmed in a single lengthy take, beginning with a tracking shot as Charlie strolls down the sidewalk, encounters the bully, and then tries to stand up to him. The bully, who appears to be made of granite, becomes increasingly sure of himself as Charlie falters. When Charlie finally resorts to clubbing him over the head, the blows have no effect whatever; in fact, the bully impassively offers his head for more clubbing, just to demonstrate how little it bothers him. Charlie tries to flee, but the bully yanks him back and starts toying with him, like a cat tormenting a mouse before moving in for the kill. Scary, right? Well it's funny in the movie, but scary too, and it comes as a relief when Charlie (in an iconic moment as familiar as Harold Lloyd dangling from the clock) resourcefully uses a nearby gas lamp to subdue the bully -- temporarily, anyway.

While the scenes with Campbell are moments to savor, there are also a number of low-key sequences involving the lady from the mission, played by Chaplin's perennial leading lady Edna Purviance, and during these scenes we get a vivid picture of life on Easy Street. Edna takes Charlie to a flat full of kids whose exhausted-looking parents obviously can't cope. Charlie, impressed with the scrawny Dad's ability to father so many children, quietly pins his own badge on the man's chest. It's a sadly funny moment, but the larger picture is bleak, and before the story is over we've been presented with images of domestic abuse and drug addiction. None of this material is prettified or sentimentalized in the "Hollywood" manner; this looks more like newsreel footage, and some viewers may well find it depressing. Easy Street is no stroll in the park, but somehow Chaplin is able to leave us on a note of hope, even while making it clear (with one last gag involving the reformed bully and his wife) that he's fully aware of the wishful thinking involved. Still, it's a beautiful ending to a great movie, one that demonstrates Chaplin's artistry as beautifully as any short film he ever made.

Easy Street (1917) : Brief Review -

Charlie Chaplin as a Heroic Cop inventing useful cliches on "Tough Street". That's Enough! The toughest beat for a cop is named 'Easy Street'. This is a good metaphor even after 104 years, don't you agree? Or haven't you seen the similar stuff in at least one film in your life which was of course made years after East Street. Well, that's called inventing cliches. Hollywood was getting involved in almost every genre in the 10s decade but Comedy wasn't really explored by the mid 10s. Chaplin did the job alongside Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton by the end of the 10s decade and continued the same in the 20s decade too. We owe them a lot for that. Easy Street is an action-comedy, an unknown genre then but a popular one Today. I live in India, i belong to Bollywood Industry so this Action-Comedy Genre is well known, and well in demand which makes this film a very important affair for me. And like i said, Chaplin discovered useful cliches which i have seen in almost every cop film belonging to action-comedy genre in Hollywood as well Bollywood. A reformed tramp becomes a police constable who must fight a huge thug who dominates an inner city street. Chaplin again does some innovative acrobatics and brings laughter but most importantly it has that linear equation formed correctly. Comedy stunts are not easy in any era, whether it was 1917 or 2021, this segment always has to have sense which obviously comes from proper management. Here, that linear equation, that well planned cat and mouse game in pacy line-up makes it looks sensible and so does extremely funny. Eric Campbell can be seen doing all his trademarks here. Overall, Easy Street is short and sweet and believe me watching Chaplin in Cop's avatar is some pleasant thing for sure. Enjoy the original resource of those cliches you have been enjoying for years.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

This is the one in which Chaplin gets a job as a policemen and is given the prime task of policing Easy Street, a notorious hotspot of vice and crime, from which the police are usually wheeled back to the station in a wheelbarrow. Eric Campbell, often seen in Chaplin films as an upper-class braggart with an elaborate beard here plays a clean-shaven bully who rules the street with an iron fist, and it's not long before Chaplin has to go head to head with him.

This one is pretty funny. The street has such a reputation that even an 8-year-old kid can scare the police. To defeat Campbell's bully, Chaplin has to trap his head in the gas lamp of a suspiciously rubbery lamppost. One aspect of the film that looks quite bizarre today is the way that one character who is clearly a junkie is portrayed as a figure of fun.

I liked "Easy Street" better than "The Cure", and I watched them back to back. There were actually some laughs in this one. I tuned out toward the end and apparently missed something to do with a drug addict and Charlie sitting on a needle. These movies are too fast paced for my modern attention span.

It has a couple of memorable moments: the bully bends a lamp-post in half with his massive strength, so Charlie puts the lamp over his head and turns the gas up to anaesthetize him. After this, there's another memorable sight gag: every time he turns his back, he gets swarmed by the riff-raff of Easy street, but when he turns to face them, they immediately disperse.

It's pretty amusing but I could never imagine finding myself in stitches at one of these movies. I think humour has changed. There, I said it.