Review #904: Easy Street (1917)

Title: Easy Street
Year: 1917
Director: Charles Chaplin
Country: US
Language: N/A

Like it or not, Charles Chaplin was the most politically controversial figure of the silent era. He frequently sided with the poorest of poor against hardened bureaucracy and fascist dictatorship. When America asked "why are we taking in refugees?" Chaplin made The Immigrant (1917) to send a very positive message. Easy Street was another early film of his that solidified his intentions to help the impoverished. 

In this, a reformed tramp (Charles Chaplin) becomes a police constable who must fight a huge thug who dominates an inner city street. 

To play the cop is quite an unusual role for Chaplin, usually he's the roughhousian Tramp stirring up more trouble than he can handle. In most most of his pictures this would be a villainous role, but Chaplin gives the officer a code of ethics.  The part that most clearly represents Charlie's sympathy for the poor in this film is the scene when he catches the woman stealing from the sleeping street vendor. At first he is about to turn her in, but then decides that she's in need and helps her. 

Though an early Chaplin, it's still full of the technical mastery that would prove his career to be a hit later on. He uses a mobile camera, close-ups, and cross-cutting. He used an entire city street as a set for this picture, having a hand in every single detail that would be shown in and out of the frame. Chaplin's body language sells the picture however; the way his face lights up when he sees his heroine and the way he bumbles and stumbles make for many laughs.

There's a scene in which Charlie sits on a hypodermic needle that had been used by a man to shoot up with and acts as he does with the cocaine in Modern Times. I think modern audiences will find the explicit drug use quite shocking to see in silent comedy. I'm not entirely sure that scene can be remade today with the same humor laced into it. Easy Street is of its time and, although it's not one of Chaplin's best film, it certainly is quite entertaining.