The Kid (1921)   Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Jackie Coogan, Henry Bergman and Lita Grey Park Circus RRP: £15.99 PC0006 Certificate: U Available 10 May 2010

Charles Chaplin stars as The Tramp, a hapless con man who adopts a boy given away by his down and out mother. Years later the boy's mother seeks him out after making her fortune as an opera singer. Without his mother the boy has followed his surrogate's footsteps into haphazard criminality, the two dodge and dive around the city narrowly avoiding the law...

The Kid is one of Charlie Chaplin's most best loved movies. It stars Charlie Chaplin as The Tramp and Jackie Coogan (who would later play Uncle Fester in the TV show The Addams Family) as the orphaned kid.

When The Tramp finds an orphaned child he brings it up as his own. When the child is a little older he goes out smashing house windows whilst The Tramp wanders around as a travelling glazier. They're scheme is eventually rumbled when a local cop spots the kid throwing stones and then running off with The Tramp. When the cop returns home later, he finds The Tramp fixing his window and chatting up his wife. Not long after this child service come to take the child into care - but not without a fight from The Tramp.

For a movie that's almost 90 years old The Kid is a pretty impressive piece of story telling. Yes, there is some hammy acting (mainly by the mother - who spends way too much time looking into the distance) but the majority of the scenes are quite well executed.

Extras include Introduction by David Robinson (5 min, 25 sec); Jackie Coogan Dances (1 min, 25 sec short in which Chaplin and Coogan fool around); Chaplin Today (26 min, 14 sec documentary on the movie); Chaplin Showreel (10 min, 46 sec clips from various Chaplin movies); Scenes Deleted from 1971 release (5 min, 52 sec); Nice and Friendly (10 min, 53 sec short); and Recording of the New Score 1971 (1 min, 58 sec segment with Chaplin conducting a short sequence of the music).

There are other editions out there on DVD with more extensive extras, but I doubt that the picture quality is as good as is reproduced here - as the print has been restored in high definition for the movie's first Blu-ray release.

8

Darren Rea