The Immigrant

The Immigrant (1917) : Brief Review -

Can cinematography create Comedy? Don't say No because this film proves it. A Fun-Tastic Romantic Comedy! The Immigrant stars Charlie Chaplin as an immigrant coming to the United States who is accused of theft on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and falls in love with a beautiful young woman along the way. Just try to think about it, what ideas this title gives you and how much longer can you hold onto it. Sounds peculiar to have an Immigrant's story make too much sense, aint it? Well, not anymore. Comedy has regular sources which brings laughter such as physical, slapstick, tricks, stunts, adventure and whatever else you think fits here can be considered. But have you ever considered camera work as a source of Comedy? I did not, really. But that's before watching this film. Now i believe it. So, the first half of the film takes place on a steamship which of course keeps shaking as it is floating, but the use of camera here is immensely skillful. You see, this is not the only film to have scenes on ship but i guarantee you that the use of natural resources like sea waves was never done so practically innovative before. That dinner table scene and almost every scene on Ship is with the screen swinging like a pendulum. What a great experience it was. And what's more that it creates a comedy from it, i mean how? And all this in 1917, exactly 104 years back??? I don't see even today's filmmakers going creative like that and then i have to believe that Chaplin and his team did this all a century ago. Don't ask anything, because i don't have anything to say on this. I'd rather just clap for The Immigrant team for making me believe that the cinema was much more creative 100 years ago than today, even with short films. The Immigrant has everything you wish for- romance, comedy, drama, human emotions and last but not the least, that feel of life.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

CHARLIE CHAPLIN and EDNA PURVIANCE are excellent together in this early Chaplin short covering his arrival by boat in the USA as "The Tramp" who has barely a penny to his name. The first sequence aboard ship is especially well done, full of the kind of sight gags and slapstick humor involving him and the other passengers that would make him the most famous comedian of his time.

Then the tender relationship with equally poor girl Edna Purviance and the second sequence devoted to establishing their relationship during a restaurant meal. Deftly comic moments where timing is everything are contributed by the menacing head waiter ERIC CAMPBELL, who has just thrown out a customer ten cents short of his bill. The fun begins when Charlie realizes whatever money he had from winning at cards has slipped through the hole in his pocket. A cat-and-mouse game with the waiter is played for laughs as Charlie seizes every opportunity to delay paying the bill until he accidentally finds some cash.

Chaplin fans can't afford to miss this one. Both halves of the story are played to perfection.

The Immigrant is one of Chaplin's early short films, with a very simple story but Chaplin makes it work. The thing that makes this early short film work so well is Chaplin's skill at slapstick comedy, it's so much fun to watch him try to deal with these endless predicaments that he gets into that you don't even pay attention to the simplicity of the story.

The majority of Chaplin's early films, particularly the short films like The Immigrant, are little more than brief comedy skits. But the value here does not lie in the story of the film, it lies in seeing how well Chaplin fits the role and how entertaining it is, even by todays standards, to watch his face as he realizes that he has dropped his money, after watching a man get beaten up for being ten cents short. The Immigrant is a classic because it is a Charlie Chaplin film, and really for no other reason. Chaplin makes it work, and he does it extremely well.

One of Charlie Chaplin's many entertaining short features, "The Immigrant" is interesting for the great variety of slapstick skills that Chaplin shows off, plus a few touches of the kind of sensitive observations that would later be such a large part in his best films.

Charlie is one of a group of immigrants on a ship coming to America. The first part of the film takes place at sea, and is mostly simple slapstick centering on the rocky motion of the ship. After a brief scene where the immigrants are admitted to the USA, there is a scene in a restaurant that is one of the funniest in any of Chaplin's short comedies, combining some nicely-timed slapstick with a sympathetic awareness of the kinds of problems faced by someone just trying to get by in a strange and sometimes unfriendly land.

Chaplin fans will certainly want to see this one.

The first half of 1917 saw Charlie Chaplin taking a more deliberate pace constructing his movies for his employer, Mutual Film Corporation Films. And he added a dose of societal moral commentary into his productions, a new twist in the comedian's platform for entertaining his fans.

During that six-month period Chaplin produced only three two-reelers. (At Keystone, he sometimes churned out one 15-minute movie every week.) He was becoming more of a perfectionist with his every film. When June 1917's "The Immigrant" was completed, he had only one additional film to make for Mutual under their contract obligations, missing the non-binding loose schedule by nine months.

Critics, however, saw the meticulous work of Chaplin as nothing short of enthralling. In "The Immigrants," as the British-born actor was himself belonging to that group, Chaplin examined the assimilation and financial plight of foreigners settling in the United States from their native countries. He uses as a symbol of such constrictions facing the relocating people by the actions of an immigration official roping off the departing passengers into a tight corner as they pass by the Statue of Liberty. Soon after his confinement, Chaplin kicks an immigration official in the butt. The scene was brought up as evidence during his exportation review by United States government officials looking into his anti-Americanism during the early 1950's "Red Scare" period.

Reflecting Chaplin's obsession to detail in "The Immigrants," he shot 90,000 feet of footage--90 reels--for this two-reel picture. The restaurant scene following the immigrant ship embarkation typifies the amount of retakes Chaplin demanded before satisfied with a scene. A simple eating sequence for Edna Purviance turned out to be quite unsettling for her stomach when she ate so many beans required in the script and by Chaplin, making her physically ill.