A very good movie

By now, I have seen all the full-length features directed by Charles Chaplin but it had been several decades since I saw one of his shorts. Well, according to the IMDb ratings, it must be one of his very best so I thought I might as well check this one out. First of all, it was pretty neat that the copy I saw on YouTube was just pristine with no commercials on top of that. Anyway, I don’t think I have ever seen this short before but, within a few mins, I was reminded why I used to love these shorts so much when I was a kid. Indeed, the damned thing was just so hilarious and, in my opinion, Chaplin was just from a different league than everyone else involved in silent comedies at the time (Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel & Hardy,…) . Concerning the story itself, there were basically 2 parts. The first one was about the Tramp going on a trip to America and it was quite amazing how still topical the damned thing was, even 100 years later. Indeed, you can be pretty sure that most (illegal) immigrants face such hardship and worse when they try to reach Europe or the US and the fact that Chaplin managed to turn such dark material into something so entertaining is just a pure marvel. The second part was this time about the poor guy trying to pay his meal at a restaurant when he didn’t have a dime. It was actually the starting point of his short, Chaplin apparently did add the first part as an explanation on how the main character ended up in this predicament. Eventually, I actually preferred the 1^st part because it had more impact but the 2^nd part was some serious fun as well. Anyway, to conclude, I just loved this short and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Charles Chaplin’s work.