The Adventure (1917) directed by Charles Chaplin
Viewed on July 12, 2019
Synopsis:
An escaped convict (Chaplin) is being pursued by the police in a seaside setting. In a series of chases, he keeps narrowly eluding capture. Finally, he escapes by swimming out into the ocean. He comes across a boat, where he steals a bathing suit.
Meanwhile, on the pier, a girl is being wooed by a suitor. Just then, her mother screams for help; she is drowning. The suitor won't go after her, so the girl jumps in herself, and is soon in trouble. The suitor is left standing on the pier with another man. The railing breaks, and they both fall into the ocean. The convict rescues all of them. He pretends that he is a rich man who has just left his yacht. The girl invites him to her house.
The next morning, he awakens in bed in striped pajamas. He is alarmed, but the butler enters the room and gives him a suit to wear for the swank party they are holding. He gets into a tit-for-tat with the suitor, who doesn't like the attention he is giving his girl. The convict meets the girl's father, who is a judge. He thinks he has seen the convict before, but he just can't place him. Meanwhile, the suitor spots the convict's picture in the newspaper. While he is telling the judge, the convict spots the picture and draws in a beard to make him unrecognizable. Undeterred, the suitor calls the police.
In the kitchen, the parlor maid is entertaining her boyfriend with food from the party. He is a guard at the jail. When the convict and the girl enter the kitchen, he hides. The convict opens the cabinet where the guard is hiding, realizes who it is, and runs out of the room, only to be confronted by the police who have arrived on the scene.
The convict is involved in a series of chases and narrow escapes. He is finally caught, but manages one last maneuver, and escapes.
Commentary:
Excellent early Chaplin that showcases his facility with staging comic action. The choreography of the slapstick is balletic. The film is cleverly bookended with similar chase scenes in the opening and closing sequences. Charlie's scrambling up the hill in the opening is paralleled with his running up the staircase in the closing.
While some of the gags are a bit repetitive, Chaplin finds ways to wring as many variations out of them as he can. For example, each time he runs up the stairs, he doesn't simply turn at the top (as the others do.) He adds a little hesitation step before each turn, but the hesitation is different each time.
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