Innocents of Paris

Early talkies often have remnants of stage performances. Here we have an introduction by Chevalier warming the crowd up, and it immediately endears him to us. He is wonderfully charming and his effervescent personality makes the audience eager to watch this film.

He plays Maurice, a street peddler who saves a young boy Jo-Jo (David Durand) from drowning at the hands of his desperate mother. He tries to reunite the boy with his real family, which turned his mother out when she eloped with his father years ago against her father's wishes. He won't have Jo-Jo, so Maurice takes him home, but not before he catches sight of the boy's aunt Louise (Sylvia Beecher). The two begin courting against her father's wishes, and when he has the chance to make it big on the stage to prove his worth, he jumps at it.

Durand is impressive, alternately cute, funny and heartbreaking. I never understood Chevalier's popularity until I saw this film, and although I'd heard it before, now I can't get "Louise" out of my head.

This film was screened at Capitolfest in 2017.