Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36960 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-09-22
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 82 minutes

DVD Description
The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put that relationship in jeopardy... The Kid was director Charlie Chaplin's first full-length film and is considered one of his best. Co-starring five-year-old Jackie Coogan, whom Chaplin discovered on a Los Angeles vaudeville stage, The Kid is the story of a child abandoned in a limousine by his unwed mother (Edna Purviance). When The Little Tramp finds him, he tries unsuccessfully to find a home for the boy. Obliged to keep him, The Little Tramp teaches the youngster about life on the streets and just as they have bonded and become a family, the boy's mother returns in a bittersweet finale.

Special Features
Region 2

Synopsis
Chaplin's first feature. A sad comedy about a woman who abandons her child with the intention of committing suicide. The little Tramp finds the baby and takes him under his wing. When the woman, Edna, turns out to be an opera star five years later, she spends her extra time doing charity work for youngsters who live in the slums, hoping that she will find her son. Eventually, the truth comes out and the authorities take the baby away from Chaplin. He steals the child back, but is soon discovered and separated once again from him. A reunion at the mother's mansion resolves things happily, yet the earlier sombre tone prevails, making this sweet and heart-warming story resonate for the viewer.

Customer Reviews

Clever and funny Chaplin and Coogan classic - "A comedy with a smile, and perhaps a tear"
`The kid' is often touted as the first comedy drama feature film ever produced. I probably like this 1921 movie because I am a fan of the classic 60's sitcom 'The Addams Family' and cheeky little 6 year old Jack Coogan (the kid) eventually became Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan). He tends to steal his scenes in both. The story follows the tramps discovery of an abandoned baby boy in a trashcan, who he raises as his own. By 6 the perky kid is helping the tramp with little money making scams to pay the rent and keep them both fed. This film has less pathos than many later Chaplin movies, although I do get a bit sad seeing children in old pictures - I suppose age did weary them. 'The kid' took Chaplin a year to film. It was Chaplin's first full length feature film and quite rightly made Jack Coogan cinemas first child superstar. The portrayal of poverty and the cruelty of welfare officers, echoing Chaplin's own London childhood, deeply moved audiences at the time, and the film became the second highest grossing movie of 1921. The remarkable warmth between Coogan and Chaplin on-screen adds considerably to the power of this film (it even has cinemas first adult/child kiss on the lips), and this has been linked by some to the death of Chaplin's infant son just before shooting began.

This version of 'The kid' is re-edited back to Chaplin's last personal edit on this film (from 1971) and several scenes featuring Edna Purviance (the mother) were deleted. For all of Edna's scenes, the alternative Shepard restoration of 'The Kid' is apparently recommended (although the deleted scenes are in the bonus material). Chaplin and Coogan last met in 1972. I only own two Chaplin films, this enchanting one and 'Modern Times' - I can recommend both. The picture quality of these DVD's are better than I remember it being when I saw them on TV in the 60's, and the actor's movements are far more fluid.

Pristine transfer of one of Chaplins finest films
The Kid was Chaplins first full length feature and hence deserves a special place in any Chaplin DVD collection. This addition by Warner home video looks stunning and Chaplin's music matches the action to perfection. The actual running time of the feature provided is only 50 minutes which is about 20 minutes shorter then the Delta edition released a couple of years ago, however nothing appears to be missing here and one suspects that it is because the film runs at a faster speed in this edition.
The special features on disc two are a treasure trove of rarely seen Chaplin footage including:

How to Make Movies
My Boy - A feature from 1921 starring Jackie Coogan
Scenes cut from the 1970's restoration

and many other items, picture quality on all special feature items is good considering how rare and old they are. My only disappointment was that most of these films (including My Boy) play completely silent. Surely some appropriate music could have been found to accompany the films. (I ended up listening to a CD of Chaplins music while watching).

This is a truely brilliant DVD of one the greats of silent cinema, and is highly recommended.

Surprised
There are all sorts of reasons I shouldn't like this movie - among them the facts that I'm not a big fan of Chaplin or of 'silent films' in general - and yet, this film was, to me, profound. Chaplin's storytelling technique is still, incredibly - nearly 100 years out! - clever, fresh and engaging. Give this film a look, if only, initially (as in my case), with the intention of broadening your understanding of the history of film. You might find yourself surprised.