Charlot fait une cure

This is one of the more dated of Chaplin's short comedies, but it still has some funny parts. A great deal of the humor comes from elements that either do not seem quite as funny today (habitual drunkenness) or that are not as familiar today (gout, "taking the cure"), but there are other parts that demonstrate Chaplin's usual comic genius. Charlie is a rich idler who is at a spa to "take the cure", but he is most reluctant to give up his dissolute ways. The best moments are probably the scenes with a wobbly Charlie and a gouty Eric Campbell trying to negotiate a revolving door - they get a lot of laughs out of a simple gag.

While dated, there are still enough very funny parts to make "The Cure" worth a look.

This is an odd film from the outset, as Chaplin doesn't play the Little Tramp--the poor but decent soul he usually played. Instead, he's a rich alcoholic who goes to a spa to "take the cure"; i.e., rest, drink lots of mineral water and kick his booze habit. It's obvious, though, that he's not the least bit motivated as his luggage consists of dozens of bottles of booze. When the staff find them, they throw them out the window and accidentally into the spring--thus "fortifying" the water significantly. Everyone there gets drunk and Charlie finds, for the first time, he actually LIKES water! Highly ridiculous and silly, but that's slapstick for you. All-in-all, a very good film but quite a departure for Chaplin.

By the way, some time after I first saw and reviewed this movie I saw the documentary "Unknown Chaplin" and a significant portion of the first part of this interesting British show was about THE CURE. It was very interesting to see how the film evolved. In the beginning, Charlie cast himself as a bellhop and another person as the drunk. But after seeing many takes and re-takes, he apparently decided to do the drunk role himself. Many of the bellboy scenes were re-shot--now with Charlie doing them as the drunk. This documentary is a must-see for Chaplin fans.

Charlie, an alcoholic, goes to a health spa for the water cure. He does so, however, only half-heartedly since his luggage is filled almost entirely with alcohol. Once at the spa, he flirts with the always-delightful Edna Purviance and battles with always-menacing Eric Campbell, who finds himself at slight disadvantage in this film since his character suffers from gout. This film, Chaplin's tenth under his twelve-film Mutual contract, doesn't quite scale the heights of his previous one, "Easy Street," but remains one of his most consistently funny shorts. A revolving door is used repeatedly for great comic effect, but the highlight of the film is the massage sequence where Charlie desperately tries to avoid the rough treatment masseur Henry Bergman deals out. Charlie interestingly abandons his normal tramp persona for this film. Although he felt rich drinkers were ripe targets for comedy, he felt that alcoholism in the working class was a serious problem which wasn't suitable for comedy. (Don't ask me for attribution, but I know he said that somewhere.)

Out of all of Chaplin's short films, this is the one I could watch over and over again. Chaplin is at his absolute best as a reluctant guest at a spa. His daring escape from a massage, and the funniest use I have ever seen of an escalator are the highlights of this gem.

When Chaplin was in production for his April 1917's "The Cure," American politicians were concerned about the overindulgence of alcohol in the country and were seriously considering enacting a ban on its sales, as some individual states were increasingly doing on their own. Three years after "The Cure" was released, the United States enacted its Prohibition on all alcoholic beverages.

Chaplin, in a number of films, showed his Tramp character drunk. But the times now were calling for sensitivity for the lower and middle-classes on the issue, so he created his character here into an upperclass dandy who rooms at a health spa. Trouble is, he brings a luggage crate full of liquor bottles, which ends up being thrown into an accessible well. Originally, Chaplin had intended to use a fountain for the bottles to be tossed into by the spa's staff, but after 77 takes, Chaplin realized it was easier to fall into a well built on the surface than in an elevated fountain.

Chaplin continued to be a master of using props and situations for belly laughs. The revolving door at the spa's entrance serves as a merry-go-round of human inescapability. And the massage parlor sequence proves to be a cat-and-mouse chase sequence between a hulking powerhouse masseuse and the scrawny Chaplin.