“The Kid” is a Charles Chaplin masterpiece which any cineaste or silent film fan should have in their collection. Highly recommended!
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TITLE: The Kid – The Criterion Collection #799
YEAR OF FILM: 1921/1922
DURATION: 53 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, black and white/color-tinted, 1:33:1 aspect ratio, Monaural
COMPANY: Janus Films/THE CRITERION COLLECTION
RELEASE DATE: February 16, 2016
Directed by Charles Chaplin
Written by Charles Chaplin
Produced by Charles Chaplin
Music by Charles Chaplin
Starring:
Carl Miller as The Man
Edna Purviance as The Woman
Jackie Coogan as The Child
Charles Chaplin as A Tramp
Charlie Chaplin was already an international star when he decided to break out of the short-film format and make his first full-length feature. The Kid doesn’t merely show Chaplin at a turning point, when he proved that he was a serious film director—it remains an expressive masterwork of silent cinema. In it, he stars as his lovable Tramp character, this time raising an orphan (a remarkable young Jackie Coogan) he has rescued from the streets. Chaplin and Coogan make a miraculous pair in this nimble marriage of sentiment and slapstick, a film that is, as its opening title card states, “a picture with a smile—and perhaps, a tear.â€
In 1921, Charles Chaplin released his first full-length film as a director titled “The Kid”.
The film is produced, written, directed and music composed by Charles Chaplin, the film would feature the America’s first child star Jackie Coogan (who would become popular three decades later as Uncle Fester in the hit TV series “The Addams Family” from 1964). The film would also star Edna Purviance, an actress who would play the leading lady in many of Charlie Chaplin’s early films.
In 2011, “The Kid” was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and is considered one of the greatest films of the silent era.
And now “The Kid” will be released on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of the Criterion Collection.
“The Kid” begins with an unwed woman (portrayed by Edna Purviance) leaving a charity hospital with her newborn son. Meanwhile, the father is shown looking at her photo and the photo falling into the fireplace and would burn up.
Struggling with a decision to abandon her child, the woman leaves her baby in the back seat of an expensive automobile and she leaves behind a note with him about caring and providing love for the baby.
As the woman leaves, two thieves steal the car, unaware a baby is in the back seat. Meanwhile, the woman has second thoughts and when she returns back to get her baby, she sees the car no longer there.   When she goes to the wealthy home where the car was parked, she finds out from the chauffeur that the car was stolen and the woman faints.
As the two thieves drive to an area of town, they hear the baby cry and put the baby near a trash can.
The baby is found by the tramp (portrayed by Charles Chaplin). While the tramp tries to rid of the child onto other people, with police walking nearby, he is unable to and decides to raise the baby after seeing the note that came with him.
Five years later, the child (portrayed by Jackie Coogan) has been raised with street smarts, thanks to the tramp. The tramp has taught the boy to be his partner in crime, making money by the boy breaking windows and the tramp being paid to fix them.
Meanwhile, the child’s real mother has become a successful and wealthy star. But despite her financial success, she contributes her time doing charity work with the poor as a way to make amends for abandoning her child.
But one day, she ends up going to the neighborhood where the Tramp and child are living.
VIDEO:
“The Kid – The Criterion Collection #799†is presented in 1:33:1 black and white and in 1080p High Definition. The film looks absolutely beautiful on Blu-ray!
White and grays are well-contrast, black levels are nice and deep and the detail and sharpness is fantastic. I did not notice any issues with the picture quality with blurriness or any scratches or dust during my viewing of the film.
The film is a new 4K digital restoration of Charlie Chaplin’s 1972 re-release version of the film.
According to the Criterion Collection, “this new high-definition digital transfer was created from a 35 mm first-generation 1921 element preserved by the Cineteca di Bologna. The element was scanned on an ARRISCAN film scanner and edited to match Charlie Chaplin’s 1972 rerelease; for a severely decayed 370-foot portion for the film, a first-generation 1921 fine-grain from the collection of Roy Export was used instead.”
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
As for the lossless audio, “The Kid – The Criterion Collection #799” is presented in LPCM 1.0 and features Charles Chaplin’s original score. The soundtrack is fantastic and Chaplin’s score as conducted by composer Timothy Brock is just great to listen to in HD without any buzzing or crackle.
According to the Criterion Collection, “the original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from 35 mm magnetic tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD and Izotope RX 4.
Features English intertitles.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Kid – The Criterion Collection #799” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentary – Featuring audio commentary by Chaplin historian Charles Maland.
- Interviews – Featuring interviews with Jackie Coogan (11:04), Lita Grey Chaplin (10:00), cinematographer Rollie Totheroh (7:48 – audio only) and distributor Mo Rothman (9:42 – audio only).
- Jackie Coogan: The First Child Star – (19:09) A video essay by Charles Chaplin scholar Lisa Haven about the first child star Jackie Coogan and the legacy he left behind to other child actors.
- A Study in Undercranking – (25:09) Featuring silent film specialist Ben Model discussing how films were made and how cameras were cranked by hand.
- Charlie Chaplin Conducts the Kid – (2:04) Brief footage shows Charlie Chaplin conducting his newly composed score for “The Kid” in 1971.
- From the 1921 Version – (7:22) The deleted scenes Chaplin made when revisiting the film in 1971, removing three scenes featuring “The Woman” Edna Purviance. Also, including the original First Nationa opening titles, various intertitles and closing card.
- “Charlie” On the Ocean – (4:00) A newsreel which documents Charlie Chaplin’s first trip back to Europe after relocating to the US from England in 1914 to become a movie actor.
- Nice and Friendly – (10:53) Filmed at Pickfair, the home of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford in 1922, as a wedding present for Lord and Lady Mountbattten, this short features Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan and the newlyweds. Featuring a new score by composer Timothy Brock.
- Trailers – Theatrical trailers for “The Kid”.
EXTRAS:
“The Kid – The Criterion Collection #799” comes with a six-page foldout with the essay “The Grail of Laughter and the Fallen Angel” by Tom Gunning.
“The Kid” is a silent film that I have adored for many years but watching it on Blu-ray and seeing the detail and the beauty of the film in HD, I have fallen in love with this film once again.
It’s no doubt a masterpiece from Charles Chaplin, who wrote, starred, directed, produced and even composed the music for the film. Going through strains of a marital breakdown and literally so much personal drama, he was able to craft a film showing how much of a cinema genius at the time. And even now, not far from a century since this film was released in theaters we can only marvel of how well-crafted “The Kid” really is.
In fact, there were high expectations for this film, so much that Ralph Kettering, representative of Jones, Linick & Schaefer Co. stated, “The First National exhibitions’ circuit paid over to Mr. Chaplin $800,000 in gold for the purchase of this picture and we have paid an enormous sum to secure the first screening anywhere on earth here in Chicago”.
But the high expectations for Chaplin was because gossip of his divorce and his life had captivated America who hasn’t seen much of the actor. But when his six-reeler was released, film critics were positive of his film.
The legendary silent film critic Carl Sandburg of the Chicago Daily News wrote, “‘The Kid’ is a masterpiece and should satisfy either those who want knock down and dragout or something the whole family will enjoy.”
But one must have to admit that what made this film work was finding the right child actor. Watching many silent film with child actors, not many have that skillset as the young Jackie Coogan. I’ve read of how mature this child was at such a young age, so much that Chaplin and other well-known silent film talents included the child in a personal film together made for a friend, but it’s the fact that this film features a wide-range of emotion and Chaplin was able to bring that out with the young Jackie Coogan.
Also, what makes this film so relevant today is the fact that the situations featured in “The Kid” still resonate strongly today. Single parent unable to afford their child, struggles to give their baby up. Edna Purviance as the mother who lives with her decision and is able to change her life and give back to charity in order to make amends, is something that viewers can sympathize with.
Similar to Coogan, Purviance has had a long career with Chaplin and like the short films, he is able to showcase her talent and emotions with efficacy.
But it’s that fatherly role which Chaplin provides to the kid that makes us feel laughter, sadness and just knowing that for the tramp, despite being poor and not living in the best conditions, he does what he can to parent the child and raise him.
As for the Blu-ray release from the Criterion Collection, this is a fantastic release with a good number of special features and in depth look into the film thanks to audio commentary by Chaplin historian Charles Maland, a wonderful featurette about Jackie Coogan courtesy of Chaplin historian Lisa Haven and more.
The Blu-ray is the best I have seen of “The Kid” by far. The details and sharpness are magnificent in HD, the new score by composer Timothy Brock is fantastic!
But I have to mention that this Blu-ray release features the 1972 re-release version of the film. An older Chaplin wanted to make some revisions for the re-release, so if you want the full version of the film, a complete version was released on LaserDisc long ago. But the good news is that “The Kid” features the deleted scenes in the special features.
For those who owned the 2004 Warner Bros. DVD, you still want to hang on to that DVD for the Chaplin and Coogan shorts. But it’s definitely worth upgrading to the Criterion Collection Blu-ray as this release is magnificent.
Overall, “The Kid” is a Charles Chaplin masterpiece which any cineaste or silent film fan should have in their collection. Highly recommended!
