Despite being one of his more popular films it was only recently that The Kid (1921) was added to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. In 2011 the silent picture, along with twenty-four other films, was selected as a cultural, artistic and historic treasure that deserved preservation in that most prestigious of archives. The reason cited by the Library of Congress is that the film represents a peak in the evolution of Chaplin’s creative direction.
Peak or not it was certainly a sign of artistic development, being the first feature film Chaplin directed. For almost seven years Chaplin had developed his character of The Tramp into a creature of pathos. The Kid then took him further as a sympathetic surrogate father, a decision influenced by real-life events to be discussed later. The personal nature of the film’s story meant that it became Chaplin’s most potent combination of comedy and drama, a demonstration that there was always more to the Vaudeville performer than mere slapstick. And of course the film was a seminal moment for the use of children in film, turning Jackie Coogan into the first child star.
The Kid focused on the relationship between Chaplin’s Tramp and Coogan’s orphan Boy who has been abandoned at birth. The Tramp gets along with The Boy as his partner in crime but when The Boy falls ill the authorities are contacted and the two are forced on the run. Meanwhile, the biological mother, who now regrets her decision, has been searching for her child for five years. Unlike Chaplin’s previous attempts at dramatic comedy though, The Kid has a happy ending with The Boy reunited with his mother who allows The Tramp into her home.
It isn’t hard to see why the film was a success at the time, being the second-highest grossing film of 1921 (just behind the epic Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse). The Tramp had always been a sympathetic character but almost always had an agenda at play, usually seeking money, food or the affection of a young woman. Here though we see The Tramp act wholly altruistically, taking in a child who will be wholly dependent on him for years to come. While The Boy does become a tool of mischief we see the bond between the two characters and the lengths The Tramp will go to protect his adoptive son.
Production for The Kid began in August 1919, just one month after the death of Chaplin’s first child Norman Spencer Chaplin. Norman was the product of a marriage of convenience between Chaplin and seventeen-year-old Mildred Harris and was born severely malformed. He died three days after birth. The loss of his first son is thought to have been the major impetus for writing a story in which he took responsibility for a child. It was an opportunity to perform the role of a father in fiction when it had been denied to him in reality.
As with Chaplin’s previous work his childhood was also a major influence. Chaplin’s parents were estranged from one another so like The Boy, Chaplin grew up with a single parent. His mother struggled to support Chaplin and his brother and as their situation deteriorated Chaplin was sent to a workhouse, the same fate that almost befalls The Boy. It’s notable that the welfare workers who are sent to remove the child are presented as cruel and uncaring.
Since it premiered on this day, 21 January, in 1921 The Kid has been hailed as an important work in the development of storytelling. Its combination of comedy with tragedy demonstrated Chaplin’s ability to provoke a range of emotions in his audience. He was able to make them smile but also shed tears and without The Kid Chaplin may have been pressured to stick to slapstick. Just imagine if the film had not been such a success; we might never have had City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936) or The Great Dictator (1940). A career that has influenced all of cinema might have sunk into relative obscurity like those of Harold Lloyd or Charles Prince. Today we celebrate the 95th anniversary of The Kid and the fact that without it Chaplin might have spent the rest of his career kidding around.
by Liam Macleod
A Film History Magazine 