TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES

Escapes

The Adventurer

Charles Chaplin
1917 - United States - 24mn

Screenings : monday 22 - 2:30 pm - Pathé - 2 - presented by Sébastien Farouelle - film teacher saturday 27 - 7:30 pm - Pathé - 1

Charlot escapes by jumping into the sea. Having taken off his striped prisoner's costume, he saves a mother and her daughter from drowning, and is invited to stay with a respectable family until the fateful day when his mugshot appears in the papers…

The most popular of the series of films Chaplin made for the Mutual Film Corporation, The Adventurer begins and ends with a chase. It is the most high-paced film in the series, and is admirable in terms of its construction and the depth of the characters. In one of the most famous moments in the film, the Tramp drops an ice cube into his oversized trousers. Chaplin wrote a detailed analysis of this scene in his article “It Makes People Laugh”: “All my pictures are built around the idea of getting me into trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman. That's why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head.” It is ironic that the final film in the intense series for Mutual shows Chaplin escaping from prison. Unlike at Essanay, the Chaplin and the Mutual separate on very friendly terms. Mutual offered Chaplin a million dollars to make 8 more films, but he wanted more independence. He later wrote “I think my time at Mutual was the happiest period of my life. I was light and free, I was 27-years-old, and had before me fabulous perspectives and a friendly and attractive world”. (Charliechaplin.com)

CAST AND CREW

Cast : Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Henry Bergman, Albert Austin
Screenplay : Vincent Bryan, Charles Chaplin, Maverick Terrell
Cinematography : William C. Foster, Roland Totheroh
Editing : Charles Chaplin

Production : Lone Star Corporation

French distributor : Lobster Films