Le Vagabond

The Vagabond is a funny short film that features Charlie Chaplin as The Tramp. Here he's a wandering violinist who bizarrely finds himself in a gypsy camp, where The Gypsy Drudge--the lovely Edna Purviance--is slaving over a wash tub. He falls in love right away. Several funny episodes here and an oddly happy ending, but there is plenty of Chaplin's stock in trade: masterful comedy, sight gags, and that Victorian sweetness that makes his films so special. Chaplin was a master of creating laughter and tears, and his best films do both. The Kid and City Lights are among the most emotional films you'll ever see. Edna Purviance made more than 20 films with Chaplin and should have been a star in her own right. Eric Campbell, Albert Austin, Charlotte Mineau, and Leo White (as a the gypsy hag) co-star.

THE VAGABOND (Mutual Studios, 1916), directed by Charlie Chaplin, stars the legendary Charlie Chaplin in his third comedy short for the studio. With Chaplin's attempt with improving himself with each passing film, rather than the usual twenty minutes of slapstick and chases, he deftly blends humor and sentiment, a standard that would later become associated by his technique in storytelling. Rather than playing a trouble-making tramp, this time Charlie's a violin playing drifter with more human qualities than before.

The story opens in great comedy tradition as Charlie enters a bar to play his violin for the patrons. His music is drowned out by a German street band playing outside. As the band leader enters to collect money, he finds Charlie collecting the money instead. A brawl and chase ensues until the crowd loses themselves in the confusion, giving Charlie a chance to sneak away. Charlie next approaches a gypsy drudge where he plays for a gypsy girl (Edna Purviance) washing clothes. A brief cutaway of the plot shows a society matron (Charlotte Mineau), looking at an old photo of a little girl who, believed by its movie audience to have been abducted by gypsies many years ago. Now a young woman, the girl is shown to be an abused slave to the gypsy leader (Eric Campbell). Witnessing one of her brutal whippings that leaves her senseless, Charlie steps in to rescue her, leading to a wild escape down the road in a gypsy caravan. Resting in a secluded spot on a country road, Charlie, having assisted the gypsy girl with her every needs, finds himself in stiff competition when a struggling artist (Lloyd Bacon) enters the scene, inspired by the girl's beauty and uses her as a subject matter to his latest canvas painting, "The Living Shamrock."

THE VAGABOND may not be one of Chaplin's most memorable of his comedy shorts for the Mutual Studios, but it represents him here more as a comic-actor rather than a just a slapstick one. Though scripted by Chaplin himself, the story seems to have some influence to Michael Balfe opera, "The Bohemian Girl," which also involves gypsies. While THE VAGABOND could very well have become a straight dramatic story for the possible choices of a Lillian Gish and Robert Harron under D.W. Griffith's direction, instead, it's Chaplin being both Griffith and Harron, and Purviance being Gish. Because its a two-reel comedy, it leaves very little detail for plot and character development. There are moments found in the film where it looks heavily edited. Usually when comedians do drama, or mix comedy with drama, the attempt fails. Fortunately for Chaplin, his method is believable and acceptable as long as he doesn't stray too far from his usual standard of comedy. Of the Chaplin stock players, including Leo White and Frank J. Coleman, Eric Campbell, later known as "Chaplin's Goliath," stands out as the hefty villainous gypsy with the whip, while the funniest performance comes from a character playing an old white-haired gypsy hag. No screen credit is given for his or her work. If played by an actor in drag, all the funnier. And the young artist, played by Lloyd Bacon, the same Bacon who would become a notable movie director himself.

Presented on commercial television in the sixties as part of "Charlie Chaplin Theater," and unseen on public broadcasting television since the 1970s, THE VAGABOND was later resurrected a decade later on cable channels and home video. Though various editions have different underscoring, ranging from orchestration to jazz rhythm and blues, Blackhawk Video's edition consisted of reissue prints presented in theaters of the 1930s with the use of sound effects and instrumental scoring to "The Vagabond Lover" and theme scoring used for the independent feature, VANITY FAIR (Allied Pictures, 1932) starring Myrna Loy. When shown on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 6, 1999) as part of its "star of the month" tribute to Charlie Chaplin, THE VAGABOND and other Mutual shorts were broadcast in restored clear visuals, new scoring and in accurate silent film speed extending the standard 22 minute short to 34 minutes. Though that's all well and good, poor scoring most of all takes away the enjoyment of the film, leaving the most preferred viewing from Blackhawk (later Republic) Home Video. Next Chaplin short: ONE A.M. (1916) (***)

In 1914 and early 1915, Chaplin did his first comedy shorts. In general, they were pretty awful--with almost no plot and consisting of him mugging it up on camera and hitting people. However, in 1915 he left Keystone Studio and began making better films with Essenay (though there are some exceptions) and finally, in 1916, to Mutual where he made his best comedy shorts. These newer films had more plot and laughs and usually didn't relay on punching or kicking when they ran out of story ideas.

This film tells a complete story--more so than almost any other Chaplin short. In fact, in many ways it is reminiscent of some of his later full-length films--in particular, THE CIRCUS. There were two problems with the film, though. One is a pretty lousy plot device on which the whole film relies. A woman was apparently stolen by gypsies as a little girl and later, as an adult, her portrait is painted and the girl's biological mother recognizes this 20-something year-old as her long-lost daughter!!! Talk about unbelievable! The other problem is that in the version I saw from THE ESSENTIAL CHAPLIN COLLECTION, there were no title cards to explain the action. I had to read the box to get an idea of what was occurring! It's a shame, as without these two problems, it would have been among Chaplin's best shorts.

Charlie Chaplin said the happiest he had ever been during his career was with his third film studio, Mutual Film Corporation. Film historians claim his best and most innovative movies Chaplin produced came out of his 18-month association with Mutual. The comedian was appreciative of the one-month period he was allowed to create each of his movies, a luxury he wasn't afforded with his previous employers.

Chaplin's combination of comedy and melodrama, a relatively new mixture for film comedy, took a huge leap in his July 1916 "The Vagabond." His Tramp is portrayed having deeper romanantic feelings than previously seen. The actor isn't playing the unemotional, violent hellion character seen so often during his Keystone and Essanay days--with notable exception to the movie "The Tramp." Sentimentalism for Chaplin gave the comedian a broader canvass to work his magic.

"The Vagabond" is also noteworthy for showing the first time Chaplin playing the violin. Although not being a concert quality musician, Chaplin had a passion in strumming the strings. Every moment he had away from his movie-making, Chaplin would pick up his violin. The childhood hobby was an indication of his love of music and the role it would play in his future.

"The Vagabond" represents quite an evolution for Chaplin. He had already proved himself the funniest comedian on screen and was already in the process of distancing himself from the crude and frantic slapstick of Keystone. With this film, more than any afore, he recreated the tramp as a character worthy of pity. Here begins the pathetic hero whom audiences could invest their emotions in. At Mutual, adding this drama to his refinements in his comedy, he created in the tramp, cinema's most endearing and recognizable icon.

In the film, the vagabond violinist saves the girl (Edna Purviance, as usual) from a terrible gypsy chieftain who whips her. Although Charlie saves her by hitting the gypsies over the heads with a log, there isn't much that's funny about this sequence; it's as purely dramatic as Chaplin's films ever get. And, it perfectly sets Chaplin up as the hero for the sentimental denouement. Additionally, rather than an equally rough and comic clown or a heavy as the tramp's competition for the girl, here, it's a handsome gentleman artist--leaving the tramp feeling inadequate--and to us, more sympathetic than ever.