The Vagabond (film)

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The Vagabond
The Vagabond (1916).jpg
Theatrical poster to The Vagabond
Directed by Charles Chaplin
Edward Brewer (technical director)
Produced by Henry P. Caulfield
Written byCharles Chaplin (scenario)
Vincent Bryan (scenario)
Maverick Terrell (scenario)
Starring Charles Chaplin
Edna Purviance
Eric Campbell
Cinematography William C. Foster
Roland Totheroh
Edited byCharles Chaplin
Distributed by Mutual Film Corporation
Release date
  • July 10, 1916 (1916-07-10)
Running time
24 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent film
English intertitles

The Vagabond is a silent film by Charlie Chaplin and his third film with Mutual Films. Released to theaters on July 10, 1916, it co-starred Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Leo White and Lloyd Bacon. This film echoed Chaplin's work on The Tramp , with more drama and pathos mixed in with the comedy.

Charlie Chaplin British comic actor and filmmaker

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, "The Tramp", and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.

Edna Purviance American actress

Olga Edna Purviance was an American actress during the silent movie era. She was the leading lady in many of Charlie Chaplin's early films and in a span of eight years, she appeared in over 30 films with him.

Eric Campbell (actor) British actor

Alfred Eric Campbell, was a British actor. He was a key member of Charlie Chaplin's film ensemble, invariably playing an intimidating bully, and appeared in eleven of Chaplin's films before he was killed in a car crash at the age of 37. He is the subject of a documentary by filmmaker Kevin Macdonald.

Contents

Synopsis

The Vagabond (1916) The Vagabond still.jpg
The Vagabond (1916)

The story begins with Charlie, the Tramp, arriving at a bar, playing on a violin to raise money and exciting a rivalry with competing musicians. This results in a barroom brawl and comic mayhem.

Wandering off into the vicinity of a gypsy caravan in the country, he encounters the beautiful, though bedraggled, Edna. He entertains her with his violin. She has been abducted and abused by the gypsies, chief among them Eric Campbell, who whips her mercilessly. Charlie comes to her rescue and knocks her tormentors over the head with a stick before riding off with her in a commandeered cart. Love develops between them as Charlie washes Edna's face in a bowl and combs her hair. He makes breakfast while she goes to fetch water. On the way Edna meets an artist who lacks inspiration. Edna is his muse and he paints her, including her unique shamrock-shaped birthmark. Edna falls for him and brings him back to the cart where the two talk, while Charlie is ignored. The artist leaves and she is stuck with Charlie.

The resulting painting is seen by the girl's mother who recognizes the unusual birthmark and rushes with the artist to rescue her daughter. They find her with Charlie, who refuses payment from the mother and sadly says goodbye. Edna is driven off in a limousine with her mother, others, and the artist--only to realize she loves Charlie. She orders the car to reverse and take him along with her. [1]

Review

Louis Reeves Harrison wrote in Moving Picture World, "The latter part of the story shows Chaplin in a new role, and he handles it well in spite of the necessity of being as funny as possible. He would make an interesting lead in almost any story if it were possible for him to divest himself of the little tricks which have made him famous. Those little tricks still go, and they pay, but it would be a novelty to see Chaplin free to do without them in some opportunity of a reverse, or much different, character."

Cast

Leo White German-American actor

Leo White was a German-born English-American film and stage actor who appeared as a character actor in many Charlie Chaplin films.

Lloyd Bacon actor, director

Lloyd Francis Bacon was an American screen, stage and vaudeville actor and film director. As a director he made films in virtually all genres, including westerns, musicals, comedies, gangster films, and crime dramas. He was one of the directors at Warner Bros. in the 1930s who helped give that studio its reputation for gritty, fast-paced "torn from the headlines" action films. And, in directing Warner Bros.' 42nd Street, he joined the movie's song-and-dance-number director, Busby Berkeley, in contributing to "an instant and enduring classic [that] transformed the musical genre."

Charlotte Mineau actress

Charlotte Mineau was an American film actress of the silent era.

Sound version

The Vagabond

In 1932, Amedee Van Beuren of Van Beuren Studios, purchased Chaplin's Mutual comedies for $10,000 each, added music by Gene Rodemich and Winston Sharples and sound effects, and re-released them through RKO Radio Pictures. Chaplin had no legal recourse to stop the RKO release. [2]

Van Beuren Studios was a New York City-based animation studio that produced theatrical cartoons from the 1920s to 1937.

Gene Rodemich American musician

Eugene Frederick (Gene) Rodemich was a pianist and orchestra leader, who composed the music for Frank Buck’s first movie, Bring 'Em Back Alive (1932).

Winston Sharples American composer

Winston Singleton Sharples was an American composer known for his work with animated short subjects, especially those created by the animation department at Paramount Pictures. In his 35-year career, Sharples scored more than 700 cartoons for Paramount and Famous Studios, and composed music for two Frank Buck films, Wild Cargo (1934) and Fang and Claw (1935).

See also

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References

  1. Simon Louvish (2009) Chaplin: The Tramp's Odyssey. London, Faber and Faber: 105-8; revised from Louvish based on the movie itself
  2. SilentComedians entry Archived 2014-01-12 at the Wayback Machine .
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