Charlie Chaplin’s shortest feature or longest short,
depending on which way you’d like to view it, is important for a number of
reasons. Not only was it his final short film before moving to features
permanently but it was also his last film to co star Edna Purviance. Purviance
stared in over thirty of Chaplin’s films and was his leading lady for eight
years but The Pilgrim was her final
major onscreen appearance with Chaplin*. The movie also bought to an end a
fruitful relationship with The First National Film Company. Following this film
Chaplin would produce his final films with United Artists, the company he
founded with D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Those films
would go on to define Chaplin’s long career.
Besides the above reasons there is little worth remembering
about The Pilgrim and for me it is a
bit of a blot on an otherwise successful era for Chaplin. The Pilgrim begins slowly and never kicks into a high gear. There
is very little humour or comedy of any sort and the story, while occasionally attention-grabbing,
didn’t do anything for me. The ending was nice but The Pilgrim isn’t a film I’ll be returning to in a hurry. In a
typical case of mistaken identity an escaped convict (Charlie Chaplin) dresses
as a preacher and takes a train to Texas
where he is immediately taken for a small town’s new Church leader. His past
comes back to haunt him though as an old friend makes a surprise appearance.
