Chaplin: The Political Tramp
Written By: Michael Carlisle
Motion-picture comedy began with a simple comic situation, in the Lumiére Brothers’
L’Arroseur arrosé (
Watering the Gardener,
1895) in which a young boy steps on a garden hose as a gardener waters a
lawn, cutting off the water, only to step off just as the gardener looks
into the nozzle with incredible curiosity and thus is sprayed with the
water that is restored.
The silver screen had shared many
laughs by the time Charles Spencer Chaplin had acted in his first
comedy. In Europe, a great French company known as
Pathé Frères made
comedic films as early as 1896. As hard as it is to believe today,
Chaplin was not the first comic star of the cinema. In France a man known as Max Linder, made films for
Pathé as early
as 1905 and became Cinema’s first international star. The distinction of
being the first American comic film star goes the pudgy and cheerful
John Bunny, who had made a variety of popular films for the Vitagraph
Company from 1910 to 1915.
The most successful producer of American comedies, and the company responsible for making Charles Spencer Chaplin a star, was
The Keystone Film Company (1912-
1935). Founded in Edendale, California in 1912, it was run by Mark
Sennet who was consistently billed as “The King of Comedy” throughout
his lifetime.
When Chaplin joined Keystone in December
1913, the company was producing twelve one-reel comedies plus one
two-reel comedy a month. The comedies also were simple, but joyful.
Often the fast pacing of comedic slapstick gags would have more
importance placed upon them than developing characters or creating
riveting plots.
Chaplin personally disliked the fact that
he was making simplistic comedies. He hated the chase because it
scatters the personality and thus the audience doesn’t really have
anybody to connect with in the film. This created great conflict between
Chaplin and his director Henry Lehrman. Chaplin desired to be in slower
paced films that had loads of character development, whereas Lehrman
could care less. Due to his past theater work, he was also confused to
why the film was shot out of narrative order. Unfortunately regardless of
Chaplin’s disgust, he had felt his first film was butchered during the
editing process,
Making a Living was well acclaimed when it was first released in February, 1914.
The second film Chaplin starred in, and perhaps the most important in his Keystone career was called
Mabel’s Strange Predicament,
it was the first film in which Chaplin would dress in his now iconic
Tramp costume. This particular costume was an inspiring mixture
consisting of a derby hat, toothbrush moustache, bamboo walking stick,
baggy trousers, tight cutaway coat, and oversized boots. These boots
would be extremely helpful to Chaplin’s comedic routine, because they
gave him his legendary penguin-like walk. His costume was influenced
by tramp comedians of the British music hall as well as real-life tramps
Chaplin had encountered in his impoverished childhood. He knew that a
distinctive costume which would foster immediate recognition was
traditionally a necessary part of the success of a circus clown or
music-hall comedian, so therefore his costume would need to raise
eyebrows. Inspired by the laughs he received from his peers regarding
his funny costume, he explained the dubious character to Company founder
Mark Sennet, “You know this fellow is many-sided, a tramp, a gentleman, a
poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and
adventure. He would have you believe he is a scientist, a musician, a
duke, and a polo-player. However, he is not above picking up
cigarette-butts or robbing a baby of its candy.”
Of course the Character known as “The Tramp” would be introduced in Chaplin’s third film for Keystone, known as
Kid Auto Races at Venice. It
was a film with a rather simple plot, Chaplin makes a nuisance of
himself at the Auto Races while film-makers try to film the event. It is
not exactly known as “great”, but rather “important”.
Kid Auto Races
is the first record of an audience’s reaction to the character. As The
Tramp acts silly, the audience, a number of real spectators, smile,
laugh and even hold their bellies in sheer delight. Some people, like
Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author Walter Kerr, suggest that this
was the beginning of a new comedic revolution. If Keystone wouldn’t
become character driven themselves, then Chaplin would have to inject
character into his films himself. His comedy would be more polished and
refined yet remarkably spontaneous.
In less than a month
of seeing The Tramp on screen, the mainstream public would embrace him.
Keystone would also receive an outstanding amount of orders for films
featuring Charles Spencer Chaplin and his newly created character.
Chaplin would become incredibly popular, though not a household name
yet, he was at least able to have creative control over his films and
thus make the character driven films he wanted to make. An extraordinary
aspect to Chaplin’s popularity was the he became popular without the
use of radio, television, or internet to publicize or advertise the
Tramp. Many exhibitors simply cut out a cardboard figure of the Tramp
and placed it outside the cinema with the phrase “I am here to-day”.
It
is not difficult to understand why The Tramp became so popular so
quickly. To many people, Chaplin’s tramp character is known for much
more than just being funny looking and hobbling like a duck. The Tramp
is an everyman who relates to- and stands up for- the poor regardless of
his situation. We first see the political side of The Tramp in
The Immigrant (1917),
a film which shows the hardships of the immigrant experience, Chaplin’s
character controversially kicks an immigration worker in the butt. The
film is quite genius because it blends comedy and drama perfectly, it is
a film that you can laugh and cry at, it is exceptional because it is
truthful to this day.
Artistic intellectuals felt that The
Tramp was an ingenious creation because he embodied no national
identity and spoke no mother tongue, therefore he had touched the hearts
of spectators from all corners of the Earth and all walk of life.
Remarkably he is one of the few silent era characters, along with Buster
Keaton, that is still known to this day.
Though Chaplin’s
Tramp was built on action rather than dialogue, the arrival of sound into motion pictures would be inevitable. In
1927 the Warner Brothers Company would produce
The Jazz Singer, the first
ever
feature length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences. The
film’s very release brought about the rise of the “talkies” and the
decline of the silent sound era. Though during the early years of
“talkies” synchronizing sound would prove increasingly difficult and
thus lead to a decline in overall quality in individual films, there was
great public demand for them. The public demand for “talkies” was so
great that many of the film stars who couldn’t, or refused to, convert
to the new technology would fade from the spotlight and fall into
obscurity. The careers of major silent film stars like Norma Talmadge,
John Gilbert, Harold Lloyd and the captivating Louise Brooks effectively
ended this way.
The fact that Chaplin was still able to make a silent film (
City Lights) four
years after the arrival of sound was a true testament to his
popularity, artistic integrity and his wealth. The arrival of sound
films was a bigger challenge for Chaplin than for any other actor or
director. Chaplin knew that his audience had certain expectations for
The Tramps voice and he was afraid that he could not meet those
expectations and fantasies. He did not want to lose what made him so
popular by embracing sound, but he also didn’t want to become penniless
and irrelevant. He had won world fame with the universal language of
pantomime and if he made a sound film he knew he would lose a large part
of his international audience that couldn’t understand the English
language. In a 1931 interview Chaplin would completely dismiss
dialogue, predicting that it wouldn’t last more than half a year. It
wouldn’t be until after
City Lights and his world tour (1931-1932) until Chaplin would re-consider.
As evident in
The Immigrant,
Charles Chaplin had displayed a great political consciousness that
frequently, if not always, sided with the proletariat community and was
very critical towards the upper class and the people who were in charge
of the lower class. However it wasn’t until after his world tour
(1931-1932) that his social consciousness went into overdrive, inspiring
him to create
Modern Times, his film criticizing technology over humanity, and
The Great Dictator, his personal attack against Hitler and the notoriously evil Nazi Regime.
By
the mid-1930s Chaplin’s political opinions were well known to the
public, thus they became essential to his image as a star. During his
tour, in which he had visited pretty much all of Europe, China and Bali,
incredibly famous and influential men willingly met with Chaplin to
discuss world politics. This was not a shock to Chaplin as he had always
been adored by great thinkers, often being the host to luxurious and
decadent parties. While he was relentlessly pursued by great thinkers,
he was also stalked by a foreboding presence, the American Federal Bureau
of Investigation. The FBI had a file on him since 1919 and was waiting
for him to slip up. Though Chaplin’s political views were not that
controversial, at worst they could be considered “Marxist”, he didn’t
really like to tell people about which party he belonged to, in
retrospect that may have been the best thing for him to do as he was
denied re-entry in 1952 because the FBI said they had a “pretty good
case against him”.
While Chaplin was on his world tour it
seemed like an incredible amount of history was happening around him.
Back in America the depression which began in 1929 with the collapse of
the Stock Market was getting worse and reaching farther corners of the
globe, Hitler and his Nazi regime were gaining great influence over the
lives of the German people, and Gandhi civil disobedience was driving
England mad. Chaplin was learning more about the world’s suffering,
thinking more about real socio-economic issues and reconsidering his
views. Of course, it wasn’t until his meeting with Gandhi did his
political mind get a real intellectual boost and perhaps change the
course of Chaplin’s entire life.
On September 22nd, 1930
the world famous Comedian named Chaplin met with the considerably more
famous Mahatma Gandhi in a poor neighborhood in London. Chaplin
initially remarked to Gandhi, “I should like to know why you’re opposed
to machinery. After all, it’s the natural outcome of man’s genius and is
part of his evolutionary process.” Gandhi would disagree, stating that,
“I wish to make our people independent of industry, which is the weapon
the Western world holds over us.” Though Chaplin refused to agree with
Gandhi at the time, the conversation with the Mahatma stuck with him and
he would reflect on it for the rest of his life. His next film
Modern Times (1936)
would be a clear sign that Gandhi's words had given him a new outlook
on life, as the entire film is a bold cry against authority and the
machinery that had ruined the lives of many men.
By the time he came to prepare
Modern Times it
seemed like Chaplin had changed his mind about the use of sound. In the
Chaplin Archives there is a script which features dialogue for every
scene in the film. The dialogue he had considered for his own character
was nonsensical and humorous; however after a day of rehearsal Chaplin
was dissatisfied about the results. Though the majority of the dialogue would
be cut. Chaplin did proceed with sound effects and took great
personal interest in their creation. For a scene involving flatulence,
he enjoyed found a way to create the sound by blowing bubbles from a
straw into a pail of water. The very fact that he was willing to
experiment with sound showed an interesting evolution regarding his
willingness to use newer technology.
While
Modern Times is
mostly silent, there are very brief sequences of human sound. It is
very interesting that the first words heard in a Chaplin film should
come from the greedy and powerful boss of the factory where The Tramp
works. “Quit stalling, get back to work!” Right from the start we get a
sense of the power of sound and the downside of it. The fact that this
sound, and many other authoritative sounds in this film is amplified by
use of technology also shows Chaplin’s disgust for modern technology
itself.
The vile boss of the factory is obviously based on
American industrialist Henry Ford (1863-1947) founder of the Ford Motor
Company which created automobiles that the average American could
afford to buy. He also had perfected the development of the assembly
line and made it acceptable for many other companies to use it
similarly. It was actually when Chaplin visited a Ford factory and met
the dictator himself that his previous conversation with Gandhi rang
true. In these factories men were treated poorly, they were worked like
machines and were expected to work a continuously fast pace over long
hours or be replaced by somebody who could work even harder. The Tramp’s
nervous breakdown in the beginning of the film is not a scene of
fiction, many factory workers of that era experienced similar emotional
and physical breakdowns due to the extreme stresses that were present in
the sinister factories.
The theme of
Modern Times, which
is essentially about the oppression of the individual by the industrial
complex, can be simplified as the use of the individual for something
other than what he/she has intended. Chaplin has a variety of jobs, none
of which he can stand, but all of which he performs rather well. It’s
rather interesting that every frustration in The Tramp’s life is caused
by the workplace and other institutions. These institutions are
supposedly created to help and satisfy, at least provide money for a
decent meal. However, Tramp’s jobs seem to last less than a day, his job
as a mechanic lasts precisely half a day. When his job is over he seems
to accidently land himself in jail.
Indeed when The Tramp
is not working like a machine, he finds himself incarcerated. To be
idle in a working society seems like an impossibility, as if it’s
against the law or as if idleness must take place in an institutional
setting like a jail. An irony f this film is that even though idleness
is discouraged, it seems like the workplace encourages it despite being
created in order to enforce work ethic.
The world of
Modern Times is
unfortunately quite topsy turvy. It is where honesty is punished and
dishonesty is rewarded. One example of this is early in the film when
Tramp picks up a flag that has dropped on the ground; he picks it up and
tries to give it back, but unwillingly becomes part of a protest that
is violently interrupted by police. He is immediately arrested as a
conspirator. The way Chaplin portrayed the police’s ferocity toward the
protesters was not an invention of his own, this what was actually
happening to protesters in the 30’s. An example of dishonesty being
rewarded is seen during every successful acquisition of food. It’s as if
basic survival was dependent on breaking the law and thus creating
freedom from institutions.
Modern Times would
not be the last film which took place in a backwards world; Chaplin
would soon turn his attention to the Nazi Regime which was slowly
conquering Europe with great force. This doesn’t seem like a shocking
move as he had strong hatred for authoritarian government in general ,
mostly because it was very dehumanizing, like the machines of
Modern Times. His public statements made it clear that this was not simple publicity game, he hated fascism with a passion.
Unfortunately for Chaplin,
The Great Dictator
may be the only example in his career of when he was ahead of the
times. Hollywood clearly wanted to avoid the European politics at the
time and simply pretend that they could avoid the Nazi mess. At the time
many movies like
Wizard of Oz were created as escapist films
that didn’t really have an insightful political message. America itself
was slightly anti-Semitic, the most famous example being American
industrialist Henry Ford, who often gave expensive gifts to Adolf
Hitler. Because of this, many Directors strongly discouraged Chaplin
from making the film and their opinion definitely weighed heavily on his mind.
It’s
quite interesting that this “sound” Chaplin had avoided most of his
career, which was introduced into film by Jews in a Jewish movie named
The Jazz Singer which was essentially about the lives of Jews
, would
be manipulated by an evil dictator who would attempt wipe out the Jews.
Though Chaplin had a lot to lose when making this film; was this the
time for comedy? He not only risked killing off his artistic persona
known as The Tramp but also risked making a picture that just wasn’t
funny. His solution was to create a “mistaken identity” picture, to twin
his Tramp with the Tyrannical Hitler.
Perhaps the funniest aspect of
The Great Dictator is
Chaplin’s exploitation of sound. Chaplin obviously did a lot of
studying in preparation for this film, mainly looking at Hitler’s
infamous rallies. As Hynkel he has the real dictator’s movements and
gestures down to a tee, even the tone of voice is consistent with the
way Hitler talked. “Ah the big booben!” He speaks gibberish and mixes up
a few English words that don’t quite fit into a serious speech. “Cheeze
n daz crackers!” Interestingly enough his mockery doesn’t just include
Hitler, later in the film there is also a bumbling and stumbling
resemblance of Italian dictator Mussolini in the mix. The narrator
throughout Chaplin’s speech is also quite hilarious.
The most important and well known scene in the film is Chaplin’s
magnificent speech. It is incredibly powerful, but out of the blue and
doesn’t fit with the comedic aspect of the film at all. However, at the
time the words were needed to be said. In Chaplin’s response to his
critics he says, “To me, it is a logical ending to the story. To me it
is the speech that the little barber would have made-even had to make.
It would have been much easier to have the barber and Hannah disappear
over the horizon, off to the Promised Land. But there is no promised
land for the oppressed people of the world. They must stand and we must
stand.”
Unfortunately getting The Tramp to speak also
meant putting to death the character that had made his creator famous
and taking the risk of exposing himself without a mask. This film ended
Chaplin’s reliance on slapstick comedy and perhaps for the first time,
his character was willingly putting himself into danger instead of
accidently falling into it. Did the speech at the end of the film
compromise Chaplin’s ability to sustain a comedic tone throughout the
film? Chaplin was aware of these issues, but as he claims,
The Great Dictator was the
“First picture in which the story is bigger than the Little Tramp.”
Bibliography
1. Vance, Jeffery.
Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema. New York: Roy Export, 2009. Print.
2. Chaplin, Charles.
My Autobiography. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1964. Print
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4. The Great Dictator. Dir. Charles Chaplin. Charles Chaplin Productions, 1940. Film
.
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Modern Times. Dir. Chaplin. Perf. Charles Chaplin and Paulette Godard. Criterion Collection. 2010. DVD
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Modern Times. Dir. Chaplin. Perf. Charles Chaplin and Paulette Godard. Criterion Collection. 2010. DVD
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Modern Times. Dir. Chaplin. Perf. Charles Chaplin and Paulette Godard. Criterion Collection. 2010. DVD
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Modern Times. Dir. Chaplin. Perf. Charles Chaplin and Paulette Godard. Criterion Collection. 2010. DVD
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Modern Times. Dir. Chaplin. Perf. Charles Chaplin and Paulette Godard. Criterion Collection. 2010. DVD
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Literature/Film Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1987) 219-226. Print.
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The Great Dictator. Dir. Chaplin. Perf. Charles Chaplin and Paulette Godard. Criterion Collection. 2011. DVD.
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The Great Dictator. Dir. Chaplin. Perf. Charles Chaplin and Paulette Godard. Criterion Collection. 2011. DVD.
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The Great Dictator. Dir. Chaplin. Perf. Charles Chaplin and Paulette Godard. Criterion Collection. 2011. DVD.
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The Great Dictator. Dir. Chaplin. Perf. Charles Chaplin and Paulette Godard. Criterion Collection. 2011. DVD.
