The Adventurer

Chaplin is a funny man that can do a lot with very little. His humour is slapstick and he is very good at it.

Here we follow a convict on the run through diverse escapades in which he amongst other things saves a woman's mother and steals the woman from her suitor.

His jokes are very simple and effective, that said they can be a bit repetitious and today obvious.

Funniest part is in the beginning when he bumps into police everywhere and repeats his mistakes all the time and also the bit with the sliding doors.

Although there isn't quite the depth to "The Adventurer" that many of Chaplin's films have, since most of it is just slapstick comedy, on that level it is still quite a success. It is non-stop fun with a lot of good gags, with good work not only from Chaplin but also from his supporting cast.

Charlie plays a convict who escapes from prison and tries one thing after another to stay free. Early in the movie, when he happens to save a rich girl (Chaplin regular Edna Purviance) from drowning, he is taken into her home, and from there, some hilarious situations and a lot of frantic activity follow.

One of the things that works very well in this feature is the re-use of a couple of the same gags with different details. Chaplin and the rest of the cast also work together well in building up the humor as it goes along. There are also some hints at some of Chaplin's usual social themes. For pure comedy, this is one of the best of Chaplin's short films.

Certainly, in my opinion, the Greatest comedy short of all time. Charlie, an escaped convict, saves life of rich woman and is taken in by her family(and jealous Eric Campbell - who tragically died in an automobile accident a year after). How long will it be till the law catches up with him? There's an absolutely SUPERB sequence as him dodging the law using sliding doors, it will leave you laughing loud. This film alone demonstrates Chaplin's unique and incredible talent. Many people get turned off by Chaplin's shorts as they are silent. It's a shame as some of them represent his best work.

I've seen The Adventurer well over a dozen times and each time it is just as funny as the time before. I repeatedly find myself thinking during the first scenes (where Charlie is on the beach and on the lamb from the police) that those scenes must be the high of the movie and as such that the movie will progessively sink from the close of those scenes on. Yet each time I watch the film I am pleasantly refreshed to the fact that the whole film is equally great.

Chaplin is excellent in the film, and his frequent foil in the early movies, Eric Campbell, is also perhaps at his best.

This film is well worth watching (several times).

Charles Chaplin plays an escaped convict, who saves a rich girl and her mother, and is treated as a hero.But how long can he hide from the law.The Adventurer is a great short silent comedy movie from 1917.The movie has many funny scenes, like when Charlie is chased by the cops.It is great fun to watch these old silent movies and see how much the movies have changed from those days.