#124 The Kid (1921)

I thought I was done with Charlie Chaplin movies. Three is enough (#43 Modern Times (1936), #39 City Lights (1931), and #66 The Great Dictator (1940)). As you may know, I am no fan of Chaplin. It is all too slapstick for me. I just looked it up, and I have at least one more Charlie Chaplin movie: #135 The Gold Rush (1925). There may be more, but as of now, that is all I can find. This film is just like the others. I mean, it is even Chaplin playing the same character, again: The Tramp. How many times does one character deserve to be on the top 250? Luckily this one was only an hour long. Also, the "subtitles", or whatever they are called, are on for too long. Maybe people used to read very slowly?
If you have seen one Chaplin movie, you have seen them all. It is about a poor man who gets himself into some trouble and ends up with money through his antics. I get it. He is supposed to show the people's struggle. When so many of old plays and stories only dealt with the nobles and kings. the new age of movies offered a chance to be more egalitarian, and Chaplin seized this moment; it made him famous.
I reluctantly chuckled a couple times during the movie. So there is that. I will also say that Charlie Chaplin does have a twisted sense of humor. I mean, not compared to today's stuff, but in a lot of ways, I was very surprised.
So how about some fun history stuff? One of the "lines" in the movie Charlie Chaplin says, "Put a quarter in the gas machine." Then the kid put a quarter in a contraption so he could turn on the stove. Is that really how things used to work? You had to put a quarter in a box to turn on the gas for the stove? That's insane. The things I learn from movies. The other history thing also involves gas. Pipes apparently used run through a house with an exposed flame coming out of it to light the house. I saw it on #45 Citizen Kane (1941) as well, but that was a flash back. I wasn't sure how long ago this was really used. I am sure +Leslie Roskovich would've hated living during that era. I don't mean there is a fixture covering the flame. I mean it is a plain ol' exposed flame coming right out of a pipe.
After some more research, I think I watched an abbreviated version. The original might have been 18 minutes longer. That's not enough for me to care.

"The mother—whose sin was motherhood." -"Narrator"

Have you seen this movie? What movie should I watch next?

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