Charlot cambrioleur

One of my favorite things about watching these old short comedies that Chaplin was making before he really understood what his own message was is to watch the development not only of his style and on screen talent but also the development of his understanding of his audience. The tramp is the cinema's most famous everyman, and as far as I know this is his most criminal outing yet.

The movie opens with him being released from jail and immediately two things happen: first he is swindled by someone claiming to be trying to get him on the right path, and second, he stumbles across a drunk with a nice gold watch hanging from his vest, begging to be stolen. He fumbles with it a bit, but never once indicates that the thought of stealing it ever enters his mind, even though he could easily get away with it.

But before you go thinking that the tramp was just in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was convicted of whatever crime he was just released from prison for, he immediately becomes involved in a plot to rob a wealthy mansion in cahoots with none other than his old cell-mate. Apparently he didn't learn his lesson so well!

Luckily, the tramp lives in a world where mansions are populated by his old pal Edna Purviance who, when bothered by the robbers intrusion, calls the police, who are so indifferent to the emergency call that they hang out at the police station chatting and sipping drinks before responding.

In true Chaplin form, the tramp manages to win Edna's sympathy, and when the police finally arrive (in true Chief Wiggam form, as it were), he convinces them that he is her husband, and the tramp cheerfully enjoys a quick smoke with the three officers, tapping ashes into one of their hands on the way out, just as the one officer who knows what's going on arrives and throws himself against the door.

The tramp has already slammed the door shut by this point, so he casually drop kicks his cigar as only Chaplin can and relishes in the fact that he has won. The unpleasantness that is sure to follow is unimportant, because soon Charlie falls in love and learns that there are more important things in life than robbing people. This is also one of the earliest films where Chaplin so clearly illustrates his almost Robin Hood-like contempt for the police's oppression of the people. Great stuff!

The Tramp never had much going on with authority and the police in the first place, but we never saw (well, at least I didn't) Chaplin quite as criminal as in 'The Police'.

In the first scene he's released from prison and a minister of some sort wants to guide him on the right path, but Charlie finds himself robbed by this imposter. So out of money and out of hope he runs into his old cell-mate, and the two of them decide to rob a big mansion.

When they finally get inside (after an encounter with a police-officer), the young woman living there (a part by Edna Purviance) is being alarmed by some noise, and she calls the police. They don't seem too interested though, as they finish their drinks before checking out the scene.

Meanwhile, Edna confronts the burglars and lets them take away some things, as long as they don't go up, as that would scare her mother. Charlie agrees but his mate doesn't, and they get into a fight just as the police finally arrives as well.

In the end, Edna feels sorry for Charlie and claims that he's her husband so he won't be arrested, and Charlie finally sees that robbing people isn't the right way to live.

Great ending there, with Charlie in love and standing in the sun, of a pretty good Chaplin short about forgiving and living well. 7/10.

I disagree with everyone who says that 'Police' is uneven. This little one is probably one of the best structured early Chaplin's short. There is a story, and it is logical. Simple, yes, but it follows the classic rules of story development. 'Police' is not just a random collection of gags taking place somewhere. There are nice subtle gags which some become a running joke, and then there is over-the-top fast-paced slapstick. Although the film is cleverly constructed, and Chaplin tries something different with his Tramp character (Tramp has never before been so straightforward criminal) it still is not that inventive or interesting as some of his later (short) films. Still, 'Police' is not the movie to pass on, this is quite important Charles Chaplin picture, mainly because here his story creating ability gets to shine beside his creative gags.

Charlie Chaplin's "Police" is rather uneven, as are so many of his Essanay features, although it does have a few good parts. In one respect, it's somewhat like his later movies, in that on a number of occasions some social commentary is obviously intended. But such ideas are not expressed nearly so well here as they would be in Chaplin's later, better-remembered films. Here, in fact, it is just these parts that usually slow things down. In this movie, at least, the slapstick generally works a little better than do the attempts to say something.

In "Police", Chaplin plays a just-released convict, who gets involved with police officers, street preachers, and a variety of other characters as he tries to figure out what to do with himself. Some of his predicaments are good for some laughs, while others really do not come off. It's worth seeing, but there are many other Chaplin comedies, even from his early years, that are more satisfying. His efforts to combine social commentary with slapstick seemed to work much better later, when he not only had more experience, but also had complete control over his projects.

Just a couple of years into his film career and, while Chaplin had already come a long way since his first outings, he was still far from the finished article. In this film he's both villain and victim: an ex-con who is immediately fleeced by a fake preacher upon his release from prison and then teams up with an old cell mate to rob the house of Edna Purviance and her sick old mum.

The film's OK, but it's nothing great and, while it amuses for most of it's running time - apart from the last five minutes when things start to become a little flat - it doesn't raise any real belly laughs. Chaplin would get much better.