Not one of Charlie Chaplin’s masterpieces but with some great moments, “The Kid” is the only time that Chaplin’s iconic character, the Tramp, is paired with a child. The Tramp raises a little boy by himself after the mother abandons the child as a baby. The movie is a step towards the mastery that Chaplin would eventually attain, and we see the fusion of genuine pathos and comedy that would become his hallmark. He’s not completely there yet; the comedic brilliance isn’t consistent, the pacing lags at times, and we spend too much time on a side-story of the child’s mother. But great comedy is present, and the movie touches our hearts as much as it makes us laugh. Besides his cinematic genius, which is only partly visible in this movie, there’s a genuine compassion that distinguishes his work. Yes, others have filmed very compassionate and touching stories, but you can tell in the work throughout Chaplin’s life that he himself felt that deep empathy for the downtrodden. Very interestingly, it was after becoming very famous and wealthy from his movies that he produced his greatest work playing the down-and-out Tramp. And he did an awesome job directing the kid in The Kid, making the 5-year-old a very worthy companion to The Tramp, a co-star more than a sidekick, no small feat indeed.

Extras:

• When you watch any silent movie that includes children, you realize that kids weren’t treated or protected very well during movie production (neither, for that matter, were the adults).
• The child who played The Kid, Jackie Coogan, became one of Hollywood’s first major child stars with this movie and made millions (equivalent to at least $36 million today) with this and other films. However, his mother and stepfather squandered all that wealth and left him very little of it when he was older. This led to the California Child Actor’s Bill, also known as Coogan Act, which requires the parents of child actors to set apart 15% of the child’s income into a trust fund, a law that is still in place today.
• That cute Kid later grew up to become the not-very-cute but very entertaining Uncle Fester in the TV classic, “The Addams Family,” a role that essentially immortalized him and by which he is now known.