Undoubtedly Chaplin’s finest film of the period and one of
the highlights of his long career, The
Kid was not only his first feature film but also in my opinion his first
great work. Produced at a difficult time in the star’s life, The Kid is the first of several Chaplin
films which perfectly balanced comedy, drama and pathos. His previous films had
often contained at least one of these elements and earlier films such as A Dog's Life and The Immigrant had provided at least two, but for the first time in
1921, despite personal tragedy and pressure from his studio, Chaplin created
his first true masterpiece.
Production began in 1919 just ten days after the death of
Chaplin’s baby son Norman. Chaplin, who had been struggling creatively, was
instantly hit with an idea that was to become The Kid. As his Tramp character Chaplin finds a baby who has been
abandoned by a poor single mother (Edna Purviance). The Tramp ends up raising
the child alone and when he is around six or seven the child (Jackie Coogan)
helps his adoptive father in his window repair business. The father follows the
boy around town as the boy breaks windows. Soon after being smashed, the man
turns up to repair them. All is well until the boy falls sick and a Doctor
realises the Tramp is not the natural father. Soon after Social Services arrive
to take the boy from the man in what is one of the most gut wrenchingly moving scenes
in cinema history.
