The Champion

The real leap forward that Charlie Chaplin made in screen comedy, the thing that put him ahead of his peers, was that he staged his comedy within a straight and serious world. His first two Keystone pictures had little plot but allowed his little tramp to interact (chaotically) with a realistic environment, albeit with a handful of supporting comedy characters thrown in. With the Champion he moved on to develop stronger story lines which were not funny in themselves, but which gave the tramp a world to be funny in.

The set-up of an up-and-coming boxer who fights his way to the top, is then bribed into throwing a fight and has to choose between his integrity and the payoff was an established cliché even back then. This well-known sequence of events allows Chaplin to mess around with stereotypes or subvert conventions. For a start, there is the fact that Charlie is a scrawny little feller, who essentially cheats his way to the championship. Then there's the farcical training routine, which Chaplin cross-cuts with the opponents more serious routine to give it more comedy impact, followed by the tramp's nonchalant seeing-off of Leo White's over-the-top sinister villain.

Throughout Chaplin is showing more confidence in his staging and arrangements. He allows himself to become a more marginal figure in some sequences – for example when Spike Duggan is knocking out one challenger after another, Charlie isn't doing very much, and is off-screen half the time, but it's his reactions to the growing number of defeated men that is funny. The other characters simply act naturally, whereas Chaplin is the originator of all the comedy.

In Chaplin's previous picture, A Night Out, he came dangerously close to becoming a double-act with Essanay's resident comic Ben Turpin. A large part of Chaplin's humour was based on reacting to other comedy characters, so he needed to have his supporting cast of burly bullies and pompous twerps to antagonise. However in the Champion you can see he is being careful not to let any of them have too much screen time. Although Bud Jamison, Leo White and Ernest van Pelt all do a great job, each of them is a walk-on, walk-off character; none of them shares the picture with Charlie. Ben Turpin has a tiny part as a vendor, but even in this one-shot role he manages to violate Chaplin's rule of the tramp being at the comedic centre of attention, stealing the laughs as he scrambles over the crowd to reach a customer. This would be Turpin's last picture with Chaplin.

And now, we finish with the all-important statistic – Number of kicks up the arse: 1 (1 for, 0 against)

Charlie Chaplin in the prize ring; his admirers will chuckle at the bare thought, and roar when they see the picture. The scenes in the training quarters are a steady laugh, but when Charlie faces his opponent in the roped arena, the fun is more than doubled. There have, doubtless, been burlesque boxing matches ever since the birth of the drama, but this one knocks them all out. It is a three-round "go" that grows in excitement and hilarity at every blow struck. While it must be admitted that Charlies wins the championship on a foul (with the help of his bull dog), everyone will be delighted with the result. A two-reel side-splitter. - The Moving Picture World, March 27, 1915

It seems natural that at the very start of Chaplin's career he should make a movie in which he plays a grossly unqualified boxer who succeeds by sneaking horse shoes into his gloves. I only wonder why it didn't happen even earlier. He passes a sign saying that sparring partners are wanted, people who know how to take a punch, and heads in. We see him grow increasingly concerned as one guy after another, all bigger and stronger than him, get up to fight and return in a state of dazed semi-consciousness.

A lot of times when I watch these early comedies from Chaplin, I get the feeling that he is often trying to create at least a mildly engaging story throughout which he can throw in a lot of kicking and punching scenes, but in this movie it's the kicking and punching the drives the plot, giving the film an unusually honest feel.

High-energy physical slap-stick is what Chaplin did best at that time, and smacking around a huge mountain of a man while he dances carelessly around as only he can is certainly a treat to watch. And the climactic battle between Charlie and the meaty Bob Uppercut (or Young Hippo, depending on which cannibalized version you may see) is well-acted and fun.

Mack Sennett like his comedies to be fast paced and high energy, without too much time wasted on things like characterization or even story. But in The Champion, Chaplin proves that we can have well-developed characters, an easily discernible story, and still have enough action and solid slap-stick to keep the shorter attention spanned audience members entertained. This is definitely one of the best short comedies that Chaplin had made up to that point.

This is one of 5 Chaplin that are on the first DVD of Chaplin's Essanay Comedies. In general, compared to volume 2, the shorts on volume 1 aren't as well-made--because the DVDs are arranged chronologically. Chaplin's skill as a film maker and actor appeared to improve through his stay with Essanay Studios.

This short is not great, but compared to the previous Essanay shorts, it is a major improvement. That's because this short is more like a mini-movie and is very plot-driven--something ALL great Chaplin shorts have in common. The final boxing sequence is funny but makes no sense--just turn off your brain and enjoy.

By the way,...I like the dog in the film. Dogs like this are cool.

With lots of good material, an interesting (if humorously implausible) story, and some secondary characters that are used well, "The Champion" is a very good short comedy, and is easily one of the best of Charlie Chaplin's early comedies.

It begins with Charlie answering a prize-fighter's request for sparring partners, and starting from there Chaplin gets involved in some adventures that, though lacking any believability, are quite amusing. Most of the sequences make use of the secondary characters more than is usual for Chaplin's early features. Early in the story, while Charlie and the other fighters are waiting for their turn, it makes good use of the mannerisms and expressions of the others, as well as Chaplin himself. In the main fight scene, the activity in the ring is funny, creative, and well-choreographed - there are moments when it is almost as good as the celebrated boxing scene in "City Lights". That's not to say, of course, that overall this short movie approaches such a standard of greatness, but it is a well-made and entertaining little comedy.