Easy Street

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.

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.

Charlie Chaplin remembered the rough and tumble neighborhoods he grew up in and the moral anchors the scattered Christian missionaries provided for the indigent residing in those rough boroughs of London.

He brings law and order into his January 1917's "Easy Street," in his attempt to tame those bullies he was so familiar with growing up. Chaplin, after attending a session at a missionary, decides on applying for a police position. Once he gets badged, he's patrolling one of the meanest streets in the city. Actor Eric Campbell's character is the toughest of a tough lot, to which Chaplin sets out involuntarily to control the beast. A street gas light proves to be the comedian's best weapon; it was while filming this scene the lamppost, bent in the middle, fell on Chaplin, requiring him to be rushed to the hospital.

Chaplin used the bookends of the missionaries, one in the beginning and another, a newly-constructed missionary in the tough neighborhood, to convey the movie's message. All the reformed neighborhood thugs, including Campbell, are dressed up to go to service. Here, Chaplin is making an overt statement on the power of redemption.

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.

Easy Street is one of the first films that really solidified Chaplin's intentions to continue to represent the poorer people of society. In this film, Chaplin's common rich vs. poor theme is especially prevalent in the way that the predicament of the poor is presented, and especially given the fact that, at this point in his career, Chaplin was earning roughly $10,000 a week.

Although this is one of Chaplin's best short films, it is strange that in the church near the beginning of the film, he turns the hymn book upside down as though he can't read, but then he is soon able to read the help wanted sign at the police station. At any rate, after he leaves the church, having found Jesus, he finds the streets seething with comical violence. He sees that the police are looking to hire, and his hesitant entrance into the police station is one of the funniest parts of the entire film.

Clearly, it's amusing enough to see the tramp in a policeman's uniform, but the way that he and the bully that seems to have claimed ownership of Easy Street interact is also some classic comedy. The irony in this film is that Charlie is trying to get this huge guy under control so that he will stop terrorizing the people, but then when he does, in fact, defeat him, the people are afraid of HIM. As is almost always the case when Charlie performs some heroism in his films (usually inadvertently), he acts like it was no big deal when people arrive (see the scene in The Gold Rush when Jack gets knocked out by a falling clock, and Charlie thought that he had done it).

The part that most clearly represents Charlie's sympathy for the poor in this film is the scene when he catches the woman stealing from the sleeping street vendor. At first, it seems that he is going to turn her in, but he is so heartbroken that he runs to the street vendor (who is still asleep), and steals more food for the woman, and then encourages her to hurry off before the vendor wakes up and realizes what has happened.

This rich vs. poor theme is one of the many that traverses a good majority of Chaplin's career, but there are many other things that can be seen in his later films, like the love interest element of The Bank that can be seen in a very similar form later in City Lights. In this film, there is a short sequence where Charlie sits on a hypodermic needle that had been used by a man to shoot up with (something like that wouldn't be quite as funny if it was done today), and his reaction to the small dose of the drug is almost exactly the same as that in Modern Times, when he pours cocaine onto his food, thinking it's salt.

Easy Street is an entertaining and heartwarming story in many ways, and the ending leaves the feeling that something has really been accomplished in the film. As Charlie calmly walks the sidewalks in his policeman's uniform, everyone on the street is orderly and well dressed, and even the bully tips his hat to Charlie as he walks by. Unfortunately, very few people watch Chaplin's films anymore, but even if only a few are watched, this should definitely be one of them.