The Bond

This obvious PSA for Liberty Bonds was the last film presented on disc one of the "American Slapstick" DVD collection. Written, directed, and starring Charlie Chaplin, we go through the bonds of friendship, love, marriage, and the Liberty kind. The funniest segment was the "Love" part with The Tramp going through a courtship with his longtime leading lady Edna Purviance. Lots of stuff involving a fake moon, his cane, Cupid, and some wrapping paper contributes to the entertainment factor in that one. In the Liberty segment, Chaplin's brother Syd portrays the Kaiser who gets bopped by Charlie. Worth a look for anyone interested in all kinds of film miscellany.

A fantastic reason why not to believe Cinema Expressionism was confined solely to Germany! Compare this work to Caligari, and see for yourself. The settings and makeup not only use the black and white scheme to its fullest, but the far out set designs make this a wonderfully abstract short. This little film explodes the myth that Chaplin was not a "filmic" director, as the whole thing depends entirely on artifice. A great way to explore Chaplin as an artist, not just as a movie maker or comic. The Bond may have been made to avert the scandal caused by Chaplin's failure to enlist in the army (his first real hint of bad press, nastily foreshadowing his later troubles), but it is a sign of Chaplin's abilities that he managed to make this short so much more than propaganda. Further, his brother Sidney makes a startling Kaisar!

Technically, this is an exceptionally well-made Chaplin film--with great special effects and makeup. However, it really isn't a Chaplin short but a short advertisement for the theaters in order to sell Liberty Bonds for WWI. As an advertising and propaganda piece, it achieves it goals very well and was fun to watch but how can you really rate something like this on IMDb? You can't really stack this up against any of Chaplin's other shorts and it must be seen as a unique curio.

FYI--this is an included DVD extra from Warner Brother's Chaplin Collection. This is an exceptional set covering nearly all his full-length films and his later (and in my opinion, better-made) shorts. A great set for fans of silent comedy or an exceptional way to learn more about this comic genius.

One of Charlie Chaplin's earlier film shorts, it is funny, but more of a public service announcement than a comedy short. Although it is funny from time to time, the main point of this short is not to make the audience laugh but to get the audience to leave the cinema and to purchase war bonds! During the first World War, Chaplin was one of a handful of celebrities that backed the war effort to sell liberty bonds for American soldiers. Since Chaplin was not going to put on a soldier's uniform and fire a gun for the war, he would raise thousands upon thousands of dollars for the war effort. This is evidence that Chaplin was pro-America. Even though he did not want to be drafted and fight on the western front, he did do his part and raise a lot of money for the country he loved.

I never knew that Chaplin made at his own expense a propaganda film for helping the Liberty Loan Committee for selling bonds in the World War I, against the German Empire. After three sketches about the bonds of friendship, love and marriage (among which I only liked the second one, particularly the gags with the moon and the cupid), the tramp meets both Uncle Sam and German Emperor Wilhelm II in a fourth and last segment. The two-reel film is aesthetically different (quite simple black set) from other short films by Chaplin, and also much less funny than almost all of them. It works, however, as a historical curiousity.