O Imigrante

One of Charlie Chaplin's many entertaining short features, "The Immigrant" is interesting for the great variety of slapstick skills that Chaplin shows off, plus a few touches of the kind of sensitive observations that would later be such a large part in his best films.

Charlie is one of a group of immigrants on a ship coming to America. The first part of the film takes place at sea, and is mostly simple slapstick centering on the rocky motion of the ship. After a brief scene where the immigrants are admitted to the USA, there is a scene in a restaurant that is one of the funniest in any of Chaplin's short comedies, combining some nicely-timed slapstick with a sympathetic awareness of the kinds of problems faced by someone just trying to get by in a strange and sometimes unfriendly land.

Chaplin fans will certainly want to see this one.

Chaplin plays an immigrant on a ship bound for America. While on the ship, he helps a fellow immigrant, Edna Purviance, whose mother had been robbed. Chaplin meets Purviance later at a restaurant where they are spotted by an artist who hires them to be models. Chaplin uses the advance to buy a wedding license.

"The Immigrant" is generally considered to be one of Chaplin's finest shorts. That is true. It is one of his funniest. However, I do not consider it as finely-crafted on the whole as many of the other Mutual films. "The Immigrant" feels like two separate one-reelers, featuring the some of the same characters, strung together. We have a shipboard reel and a restaurant reel. The only common characters from both segments are Chaplin and Purviance. (I don't count members of the stock company who appear in both segments as different characters.) There is no overarching plot combining the segments, and the film also suffers from the lack of a consistent heavy throughout. This weak story structure hampers the overall effectiveness of the short, but doesn't detract too much from comedy. The first segment has some of the more elaborate gags, like eating dinner on the wave-tossed ship, but I prefer the more subtle humor of the second half as Chaplin tries to figure out how to avoid the wrath of his tough waiter when he discovers he doesn't have any money to pay for his meal.

Much political hay is made of Chaplin kicking the immigration officials after the ship passes the Statue of Liberty. Leftist supporters look at it as an early example of his "heroic" anti-totalitarian political sentiments, while critics take it as a nasty, early anti-American statement. I believe both groups are guilty of wrongly transposing the political sensibilities of the late-forties and early- fifties back into the teens. Robinson's excellent book "Chaplin: His Life and Art" thoroughly examines the issue and shows that Chaplin intended no political message. (Write something like that on the Chaplin newsgroup and watch people argue for months!)

Charlie, however, would have plenty of time for politics later!

The Immigrant (1917) : Brief Review -

Can cinematography create Comedy? Don't say No because this film proves it. A Fun-Tastic Romantic Comedy! The Immigrant stars Charlie Chaplin as an immigrant coming to the United States who is accused of theft on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and falls in love with a beautiful young woman along the way. Just try to think about it, what ideas this title gives you and how much longer can you hold onto it. Sounds peculiar to have an Immigrant's story make too much sense, aint it? Well, not anymore. Comedy has regular sources which brings laughter such as physical, slapstick, tricks, stunts, adventure and whatever else you think fits here can be considered. But have you ever considered camera work as a source of Comedy? I did not, really. But that's before watching this film. Now i believe it. So, the first half of the film takes place on a steamship which of course keeps shaking as it is floating, but the use of camera here is immensely skillful. You see, this is not the only film to have scenes on ship but i guarantee you that the use of natural resources like sea waves was never done so practically innovative before. That dinner table scene and almost every scene on Ship is with the screen swinging like a pendulum. What a great experience it was. And what's more that it creates a comedy from it, i mean how? And all this in 1917, exactly 104 years back??? I don't see even today's filmmakers going creative like that and then i have to believe that Chaplin and his team did this all a century ago. Don't ask anything, because i don't have anything to say on this. I'd rather just clap for The Immigrant team for making me believe that the cinema was much more creative 100 years ago than today, even with short films. The Immigrant has everything you wish for- romance, comedy, drama, human emotions and last but not the least, that feel of life.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

This was my first ever exposure to the works of Charlie Chaplin and remains one of my favorites. We watched THE IMMIGRANT at the introduction to our discussion of silent film in my film history class and it was this movie (as well as EASY STREET, my all-time favorite Chaplin) that solidified my Chaplin fandom. It's clever, funny, and tells a pretty coherent story over the course of its meager twenty-four minute run-time, which isn't necessarily the case for all his films in my opinion. Whereas some just seem to drop Chaplin in an amusing situation and let him do his thing (e.g. THE CURE, where he's let loose in a health spa), THE IMMIGRANT tells the brief story of…well…an immigrant. Chaplin's lovable tramp is one of many immigrants huddled aboard a ship bound for America where he hopes to make a new life. On his journey, he meets and falls for a beautiful woman making the journey to America with her ill mother. Upon making landfall, Chaplin is penniless (having given his gambling winnings to the beautiful woman after her mother's money was stolen) and hungry. He finds a coin in the streets and pops into a restaurant for a meal when he crosses paths with the woman again. He continues to woe her, hoping to win her heart while at the same time dodging the angry brute of a waiter who's not afraid to rough up patrons who try to skip out on a bill.

THE IMMIGRANT is one of the most consistently funny Chaplin short films I've had the pleasure of watching. The gags are funny and, unlike some of his other films, the jokes don't run on too long. As I mentioned before, I also love the fact that there's a solid little story in there. It's the usual stuff: boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy wins girl. We've seen the same thing in plenty of his films, but it's the jokes and visual gags that make each movie special. I love the entire restaurant sequence, with Chaplin caught between trying to win the woman's heart while quietly panicking over his restaurant bill when his coin is discovered to be bogus. It's a fun movie and that doesn't wear out it's welcome halfway through with stale gags. I always have a hard time writing comments on Chaplin's films and putting up a convincing argument for new people to check them out; these movies were made before cinematography was more than some basic lighting and a locked down camera so there really isn't much to say aside from…it's funny. Check it out. It won me over and, if you've never seen it, it might win you over as a Chaplin fan too.

A group of immigrants travel on a boat to their new lives in America. On the boat the little tramp meets and befriends and helps a young lady whose mother has lost all her money. Months later he is in a restaurant when he meets her again. He wants to look after her but the prospects look bleak, as he cannot even pay for the food they are currently eating.

This is one of the later shorts that Chaplin made for Mutual Films and it is starting to show an element of the poignancy that he brought to his later features. The plot sees him take pity on a young lady even when they are both down on their luck and to stick together even when things are looking rough until things suddenly begin to look up for them both. The film has no extreme physical routines but it does have ongoing gags – the guts of this film is in the restaurant rather than the boat. It is still amusing and the story is better developed than some of his other shorts.

Chaplin is excellent, doing trademark hat flicks etc while Purviance is much better here than other mutual shorts simply because she has a good role. Fans will love it and it's steady foundation and gentle humour may win others over.