Movie Monday featuring The Kid

"A picture with a smile, and perhaps a tear..."

The Kid, a sentimental film written, produced, directed and starred Charlie Chaplin remains one of the most hopeful, yet heartbreaking films of all time.

One could say that this film is just as stark and ironic as last week's Movie Monday entry, Bellissima. In both films you have parents (well, one who takes in a child as their own and the other biological) who love their kids and yet, they are poverty stricken. That's were the similarities end, the plot of The Kid begins when Charlie's character - the iconic "Little Tramp" finding a baby in an alley. He takes the little tyke in and begins to raise him as his own son and naming him John.

Filmed at Olvera Street in Los Angeles, Chaplin chose this area to recreate the London he once knew. Here Chaplin and Coogan stare hopelessly at their plight.

Reminiscent of Dickens and even Chaplin's own upbringing: the set is dark and dreary. Olvera Street in Los Angeles was used to recreate a gloomy London. Soon, the Little Tramp grooms the Kid (Jackie Coogan...later known in the 1960's as Uncle Fester in the Addams Family) to pick pocket and be his partner in crime. It's only when social workers catch wind of their antics the Kid is taken away from the Little Tramp leading to an emotional and heart tugging reunion.

The Little Tramp is reunited with the Kid

 

Jackie Coogan in his "Pageboy" haircut that was the style at the time.

Undated photo

Jackie Coogan became the first "Child Star" in films, as he would go on to receive millions from acting and endorsements. In his twenties he would sue his mother and step-father for squandering his money on luxury items. A court battle ensued and California enacted the California Child Actor's Bill, also known as the "Coogan Bill." The law requires the child's employer to set aside a portion of the child's earnings in a trust savings account.

Also of note is Lita Grey who played the Angel of Temptation on the film became Charlie Chaplin's second wife and mother of his two sons. Who themselves would become actors.

The Kid is available on DVD 
A Blueray edition is set to be released on May 10th through The Criterion Collection.