Il vagabondo

"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.

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.

This must have seemed like a real change-of-pace from Chaplin when it first came out, since it has a much different tone than almost any of his previous short features. It has a few funny moments, but this time humor is not the emphasis - except for the familiar presence of Charlie's usual tramp-like character, it feels more like one of the short melodramas from the same era, rather than a comedy.

As "The Vagabond", Charlie performs a few antics, mostly towards the beginning, but then gets involved in the life of a young woman in distress (Chaplin regular Edna Purviance), and the story turns more serious. It is not one of his best films, but it is always watchable, and is quite interesting as a fore-runner of the way that Chaplin would combine slapstick and humanity to much greater effect in the masterpieces that he would go on to create some years later.

Chaplin starts out The Vagabond playing in a bar, basically as a street performer, but soon finds himself run out by the more fully developed band who is unhappy that he's stealing their customers. Soon he wanders out into the woods and almost aimlessly stumbles across a group of backwards country people. There is a hunch-backed hag of a woman that looks like a witch but is probably the wife of a mountain of a man who likes to beat the women around him and carries a huge whip wherever he goes. This guy is ripe for a slapstick smack down.

There's an amusing scene where a young girl is beaten by the man and then Charlie shows up and tries to cheer her up by going nuts on the violin, succeeding only in getting too excited and falling into a tub of water behind him. After a series of unfortunate events, he trades his trademark cane in for a bigger stick and proceeds to knock out all the men in sight, finally making off with the young girl and the family's house, which is really just a horse-drawn wagon.

I am curious about one of the first things that happens after he "liberates" her from her family. He takes a tub of water and roughly scrubs her face, sticking his fingers into her ears and nose while he washes her. The fact that he washes her face rather than allowing her to do it herself is obviously a physical comedy ploy, but it also gave me the feeling that he is sort of washing the country off of her, turning her into a respectable woman.

At any rate, soon she stumbles upon an artist who finds her so beautiful that he wants to paint her, and the result is so wonderful that she gains a following in the uppity art world. Soon some rich art fans show up to take save her from a life in rags and bring her, presumably, to the big city. Charlie refuses a reward (or payment for selling the girl, as it were) and simply hugs the girl and probably wishes her good luck as she sets off in the big car. But the girl decides she doesn't want to leave without him, so they turn around and go back for him.

This story is fraught with problems, of course, like if she would ever start to miss her family or if her upbringing in the big city would conflict with her background as a country girl, and the ending is also a little too cute and neat, but for Chaplin's early silent comedies, this is a very complex story with a definable beginning, middle and end. I felt a little uncomfortable during the face-washing scene, but overall this is definitely a higher quality example of Chaplin's early work.

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.