The Kid
National Film Registry
A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.
What critics thought
Chaplin's first feature-length film was celebrated on release as a masterpiece of blended comedy and pathos, with critics singling out the balance between slapstick and genuine emotional weight. Even the lone dissenting voice at the time — the New York Times — acknowledged the heights Chaplin reached while objecting to moments of coarseness, making the reception nearly unanimous but not quite. A century on, audiences have caught up entirely with the admirers.
“The Kid settles once and for all the question as to who is the greatest theatrical artist in the world. Chaplin does some of the finest, most delicately shaded acting you ever saw anywhere, and for every slapstick furore in it there is a classic, exquisite scene.”
The Chicago Herald and Examiner
“The Kid may be counted as a screen masterpiece.”
Theatre Magazine
“Charlie Chaplin is himself again - at his best, in some ways better than his previous best, and also, it is to be regretted, at his worst, only not with so much of his worst as has spoiled some of his earlier pictures.”
The New York Times
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Family
Cast & Crew
DirectorCharlie Chaplin
StarringCharlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Carl Miller, Edna Purviance, Albert Austin
ComposerCharlie Chaplin
The Kid
National Film Registry
A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.
What critics thought
Chaplin's first feature-length film was celebrated on release as a masterpiece of blended comedy and pathos, with critics singling out the balance between slapstick and genuine emotional weight. Even the lone dissenting voice at the time — the New York Times — acknowledged the heights Chaplin reached while objecting to moments of coarseness, making the reception nearly unanimous but not quite. A century on, audiences have caught up entirely with the admirers.
“The Kid settles once and for all the question as to who is the greatest theatrical artist in the world. Chaplin does some of the finest, most delicately shaded acting you ever saw anywhere, and for every slapstick furore in it there is a classic, exquisite scene.”
The Chicago Herald and Examiner
“The Kid may be counted as a screen masterpiece.”
Theatre Magazine
“Charlie Chaplin is himself again - at his best, in some ways better than his previous best, and also, it is to be regretted, at his worst, only not with so much of his worst as has spoiled some of his earlier pictures.”
The New York Times
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Family
Cast & Crew
DirectorCharlie Chaplin
StarringCharlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Carl Miller, Edna Purviance, Albert Austin
ComposerCharlie Chaplin