Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921) is a silent film about Chaplin's iconic Tramp character raising a child he finds abandoned. Chaplin wrote, produced, and starred in the film, which was his feature-length directorial debut.
The film begins with a woman, scorned by her lover, abandoning their newborn son in the backseat of a rich person's car. When thieves take the car, they unwittingly bring the child with them before leaving him in an alley in a poor neighborhood. The Tramp happens upon the child, who he names John and commits himself to raising. Five years later, John and The Tramp live a happy but meager life together. To make money, John breaks people's windows so they can pay The Tramp to repair them. Meanwhile, John's mother becomes a wealthy actress who takes to visiting The Tramp's neighborhood to give out gifts and money. When John falls ill, a doctor learns The Tramp is not the orphan's actual father. Both John and The Tramp fight off the child welfare authority when they come to take John. Meanwhile, The Woman learns that John is her son when she sees the note she left with him. When the proprietor of a flophouse where The Tramp and John are staying sees a reward posted for John's return, he takes John to the police station, where he is reunited with his mother. The Tramp wakes up distraught to have lost John. However, the film ends with a police officer bringing The Tramp to a mansion where The Woman and John are waiting to welcome him inside.
Film historians have noted that The Kid is perhaps Chaplin's most personal work as it draws on his impoverished childhood in London. The film is also notable for the blend of "sentiment and slapstick" Chaplin insisted upon. In an essay for The Criterion Collection, Tom Gunning writes: "Chaplin was warned by a number of people as he embarked on The Kid that slapstick and sentiment would not mix and that gag comedy could not support the length of a feature film. The success of the movie proved them wrong."
Considered one of the greatest films of the silent era, The Kid was a critical and commercial success. It also turned Jackie Coogan (John), who had previously been a vaudeville performer, into the first child star of Hollywood. In 1972, Chaplin re-released the film with a new soundtrack he composed. He also cut several minutes from the film, worrying that modern audiences would dislike its most melodramatic moments.
