Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: DVD EAN: 9786305075523 Format: AC-3, Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC ISBN: 6305075522 Label: Image Entertainment Manufacturer: Image Entertainment Number Of Items: 1 Picture Format: Academy Ratio Publisher: Image Entertainment Release Date: November 19, 1997 Running Time: 197 minutes Sales Rank: 104532 Studio: Image Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: January 22, 1917
Description: Charlie Chaplin was the biggest star in film when he signed with the Mutual Company in 1916 for the then-unheard-of sum of $670,000. The twelve films he made for Mutual reflect Chaplin's attempt to use comedy not just as a series of gags, but as a search for genuine, universal truths. Digitally mastered from early generation 35mm negatives, these works provide considerable testimony to Chaplin's skills as both a comedian and a filmmaker. This volume includes the shorts 'The Immigrant,' 'The Adventurer,' 'The Cure' and 'Easy Street' (all 1917).
Amazon.com: Charlie Chaplin entered a period of tremendous artistic freedom and creative growth when he embarked on his 12 films for Mutual Studios in 1916. As he neared the conclusion of his contract, he became increasingly more ambitious and mixed his tried and true comic formula with social commentary for two of his most enduring works. The Immigrant finds the promised land less than rosy for peasants herded like cattle on the ship and wandering the streets of New York looking for work and food, but the Tramp's ingenuity and resilience make him into a symbol of hope for the future as well as a comic riposte. Easy Street is Chaplin's most successful mix of social issues and slapstick comedy. As a rookie cop in the city's toughest neighborhood, a slum overrun with bullies, drug addicts, and gangsters, the goodhearted Chaplin isn't above a little unconventional policing--when his billy club proves ineffective on gargantuan Eric Campbell's thick skull, he resorts to gassing him with a compliant street lamp. The balance of the tape emphasizes lighter fare: The Adventurer finds Charlie as an escaped convict who hides out in a high society party crawling with cops. When the Tramp decides to take The Cure, he comes prepared with a trunk full of alcohol, which quickly inebriates the guests and staff of the sanitarium. The revolving door becomes a comic centerpiece (like the escalator in The Floorwalker), which befuddles the inebriated Chaplin and infuriates gout-stricken nemesis Eric Campbell. --Sean Axmaker
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Rating: - This DVD was great, but the new restored 90th Anniversary Edition is better.
Up until 2006, these were the best copies on DVD. But now David Shepard and Image Entertainment have restored the missing footage and re-mastered the films , addressing the complaints mentioned below.
So buy the "Mutual Restored 90th Anniversary Edition" instead of this edition.
Rating: - Slapstick as an art form
This is the best single volume of Chaplin you can own -- 4 masterpieces from his most creative period, the Mutual films of 1916-1917. Later films like The Circus and The Gold Rush are to a large extent refinements of the ideas first produced here, and are not significantly more satisfying to watch.
The Cure and The Adventurer are in the style of classical two-real slapstick comedy -- not much of a story, but a small number of ideas mined for considerable comic potential. The Cure is somewhat a throwback to Chaplin's Essanay period, where the humor tends to derive from his character's inability or unwillingness to abide by social rules. In this case, Charlie (not appearing as the tramp character) is a recovering alcoholic in a sanatarium who arrives with a suitcase full of liquor, fights with the staff and other patients, and flirts with, and eventually wins, the heart of a fellow patient, played by ... Read More
Rating: - The best of Chaplin's Mutual comedies are on Volume 1
The two-reel comedies that Charlie Chaplin made during his one-year contract with the Mutual Film Corporation are considered his best shorts. Having been offered $500,000 from Essanay to stay, Chaplin signed with Mutual for $10,000 a week for one year and a $150,000 signing bonus. More important, Mutual gave Chaplin virtually complete control over his shorts as writer, director, and star. It was during this period that Chaplin refined his filmmaking techniques and set the stage for moving on to longer and better films, from "A Dog's Life" and "The Kid" to his silent feature films such as "The Gold Rush" and "Modern Times."
Fortunately Kino started restoring Chaplin's work with both Essanay and Mutual, tracking down the best surviving 35mm negatives, digitally mastering the prints to clean them up, and then adding re-orchestrated musical scores. "The Chaplin Mutuals, Volume 1" actually offers the ... Read More
Rating: - Curleycue_82 has it down!
I agree with you Curleycue_82. I couldn't wait to write a review to these people!
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- This DVD was great, but the new restored 90th Anniversary Edition is better.
- Slapstick as an art form
