Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

ThiefHott Too much of everything

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Paul Hesp The Immigrant was the first Chaplin film I ever saw. In the early 1950s, with little pocket money for the shows in the village cinema and virtually no TV ownership, the occasional Sunday film afternoons organized at the home of a school friend by an uncle of his were a real treat. The film collection wasn't that big, so I must have seen The Immigrant a dozen times, as one of a dozen kids screaming with delight, even in anticipation of scenes we already knew by heart. Many decades later the film has lost nothing of its quality, never mind that it is from an era when film was a sort of vaudeville theatre shot with a static camera. For a start there is the figure of the Tramp, with his physical agility, precise movements and wonderful range of facial expressions. Then there are the many bizarre types, especially the waiter (Eric Campbell) who frightened me to death when I was a child: a huge man with monstrous eyebrows over bulging eyes, capable of bending coins (false, I know) with his teeth. There is the hilarious rolling of the immigrants' ship, which forces people sitting on opposite sides of a table to take turns shovelling food into their faces and has fat ladies rolling like barrels. Finally, this is one of Chaplin's very 'economical' early shorts: every shot counts. In spite of their great qualities, Chaplin's later, longer films are occasionally a bit sloppy and marred by patches of sentimentality, reminding me bit of Dickens' novels. As do the many bizarre and theatrical characters and the depiction of grinding poverty in Chaplin's films. Dickens, very much a man of the theatre himself, no doubt would have loved film as a medium. A pity Chaplin never took on David Copperfield, Hard Times or Bleak House.

RainDogJr I have the Charlie Chaplin (the Little Tramp) Collection of 5 DVDs, from Passport Video, since long time ago however, and I really feel stupid for that, I have only a few of Chaplin short films. Well, the last weekend I watched and really liked a couple of Harold Lloyd short films (Bumping Into Broadway and An Eastern Westerner) and basically I just thought, "well, what I am waiting, let's watch some Chaplin shorts". The Immigrant is so much fun, divided in two parts this 25 minutes film shows Chaplin first on board and later, when he finally is in the Land of Liberty, at a restaurant. It is the American dream for the little tramp but he will find nothing but hard times. Previously he had an odd trip and we can't argue that, we enjoy some of his "adventures" on board meeting some people and of course one of them will join him in America. Between them, the tramp and the girl, we watch good moments in difficult times, the tramp as always being kind but sometimes not very kind. The girl is having not only the hard time of being on board with a dream in mind, the dream of founding a new place where the things can be a little better but maybe everything will be just that, a dream. So apart of that her mother is sick and both need some help. For her fortune the tramp is there not only to show us how you can eat when the tide is making things a little complicated but also to be kind with the girl. To begin he helps the girl to get some food however the problems are bigger when the mother of the girl is stolen. But again the kind and realistic tramp is there to put a smile in the girl's pretty face. After the mentioned incidents of the tramp and the girl it was going to be impossible for both not to recognize the other if they meet again now in solid ground. And when they are at the restaurant is when the funniest part begins. There all the personality of Chaplin's character is shown, to begin he is again the helper of the girl and we will watch a very strange and understandable behaviour of the tramp, you know he and the girl eating and he without a cent. Simply hilarious; probably the sequence that resumes this tramp is when the artists arrives to their table. The tramp has been "fighting" to get some money and he knows what happens when a client can't pay (in the Harold Lloyd short film Bumping Into Broadway we watch a similar scene for a similar case, in both our protagonists sees the person who they owe beating a man in their same situation) but he refuses the help of the artist. He ends paying with the money of the artist (with the tip that the artist left) however nobody but us knows that. Look at Chaplin when the waiter realizes that the tramp actually could afford the food. And the tramp even ends as a very kind man since he even left a tip to the waiter, he did what the waiter doesn't, simply great and very funny to end with the tramp and the girl together.Right now I can't really write that The Immigrant is one of the best short films that Chaplin made since I have seen only a few however I can write that this is a very recommend short film that I really liked.

CitizenCaine Chaplin's eleventh film for the Mutual Film Corporation, which he edited, wrote, produced, and directed highlights the experiences of early twentieth century immigrants. A group of European immigrants heads to the United States aboard a ship. On the way, there are many sight gags and slapstick moments, such as the swaying of the ship (which is highly exaggerated), the card shuffling, and the mealtime musical chairs with the dishes. The New York harbor scene is especially poignant, as Chaplin himself was an immigrant only a few years before. Many of the shipboard experiences in the film probably echo his own during his immigration to the United States. Chaplin helps a woman and her daughter aboard ship and later meets the same daughter in a restaurant where he has dinner with her. However, Chaplin must figure out a way to pay for their dinners because he comes up short of cash. Meanwhile, another customer gets the works from the establishment, headed by waiter Eric Campbell, for not paying up. Chaplin spies a coin on the floor, and he has to quickly pocket it before anyone else sees it. This comical scene is the highlight of the film. Chaplin bumps into an artist who hires Chaplin and Edna Purviance (the daughter) as models, and Chaplin gets the guy to pay an advance. He then uses this advance to force Edna to marry him. This is a combination of the immigrant experience and the determination to survive and make good with a comic bent of course. *** of 4 stars.

MisterWhiplash This is one of my favorite Charlie Chaplin shorts; it's a partly brave and just partly brilliant and silly mix of quintessential Chaplin comedy. There's scenes here that mark as classic set-pieces, shorts or otherwise, like when the Tramp, feeling some sadness for the woman (Edna Purvivance) who has not a penny, slips her some money into her coat when not looking, but for an instant flips through the money again to make sure he can keep some for himself, and then is fingered as a pickpocket, having to explain himself in the embarrassing Tramp manner the woman finds she has money in her pocket, the smile says all to the guard, and then the Tramp goes through his typical blushing and flirting with the other immigrant. It's one of those little triumph scenes for Chaplin because it cuts short of sentimentality and sweetness when we see how bitter and sour a lot these people are in- and how funny it can oddly be.There is even a scene that got Chaplin in trouble by the 'House of Un-American blah blah' over the bit where Chaplin's character kicks an immigration officer. What's amazing is how they missed the point entirely of the scene as well as the context of it in the picture (albeit it's not surprising they wanted to use whatever they could to scapegoat Chaplin and kick him out of the country since that's what they did to a lot of Hollywood); the Tramp speaks comedy to power, or rather the moment of humility to either the immigration officer or to the head waiter with the over-the-top eyebrows at the restaurant. It's only evidence of a particular state of mind of the bittersweet connotation of coming to America: there's the moment of joy seeing the Statue of Liberty, and then the more realistic lot of time where it's being pushed around as an immigrant. This is also only for a beat that Chaplin focuses on this, however a significant one.Most of the comedy and awesome power in the Immigrant comes in those little scenes, stuff that could be throwaway for any other filmmaker or star, like the card scene on the ship or that rocking back-and-forth moment with everyone on the ship (done here to much better effect than in Countess from Hong Kong). And especially in the restaurant, where we get people with crazy mustaches and beards, and that angry waiter who is stuck in a loop of madness with the Tramp as the poor little guy tries to get the coin off the ground. This one simple action is stretched for a few minutes and every beat of it is wonderful. There's pathos amid the pantomime here, and that's the key for Chaplin's success.