The Immigrant (1917)
Written and directed by Charles Chaplin.
Charles Chaplin - Immigrant
Edna Purviance - Immigrant
Eric Campbell - The head waiter
Albert Austin - Seasick immigrant / A diner
Henry Bergman - The artist
Kitty Bradbury - The Mother
Frank J. Coleman - Ship's Officer / Restaurant Owner
Tom Harrington - Marriage Registrar
James T. Kelly - Shabby Man in Restaurant
John Rand - Tipsy Diner Who Cannot Pay
An American silent romantic comedy short starring Charlie Chaplin's Tramp character as an immigrant coming to the United States who is accused of theft on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, and falls in love with a beautiful young woman.
Nearing the end of his contract with Essanay, Charles Chaplin found himself pursued by all the major studios, who were determined to get the popular star on their roster. In February 1916 he accepted a highly lucrative offer from the 10-year-old conglomerate Mutual Film Corporation that made Chaplin the highest paid entertainer in the world. Mutual gave him his own studio, renamed Lone Star, and he began work on what would be a dozen shorts over the next two years, some of the best of his career, including such classics as The Rink (1916) and Easy Street (1917). Chaplin later referred to his time at Mutual as "the happiest days of my life."
In The Immigrant, Charlie and Edna meet on an arduous cross-Atlantic voyage, a couple of immigrants seeking a new life in America. The first half of the film takes place aboard the ship, where Charlie uses his card-playing skills to win back money stolen by another passenger from Edna and her ailing mother.
The ship sequence concludes with the passengers lined up at the rail, watching in wonder as they pass the Statue of Liberty, a shot--and a sentiment--referenced in many future movies, notably The Godfather Part II (1974). 
Shortly after that, he is separated from the girl and her mother as they are herded like cattle onto the dock. Chaplin's depiction of this indignity and the immigration officials who treat the new arrivals so gruffly (one of whom gets a kick in the rear from Charlie) was later cited, incredibly, as evidence of his "anti-Americanism" when he was forced to leave America in the 1950s during the Red Scare.
According to Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's documentary series Unknown Chaplin, the first scenes to be written and filmed take place in what became the movie's second half, in which the penniless Tramp finds a coin and goes for a meal in a restaurant, not realising that the coin has fallen out of his pocket. It was not until later that Chaplin decided the reason the Tramp was penniless was that he had just arrived on a boat from Europe, and used this notion as the basis for the first half. Purviance reportedly was required to eat so many plates of beans during the many takes to complete the restaurant sequence (in character as another immigrant who falls in love with Charlie) that she became physically ill.
Chaplin had become such a perfectionist by this time that he shot 90,000 feet (27,430m) of negative film - 90 reels worth - for this two-reel short. He also spent 4 days and nights without sleep editing the film in order to release it on schedule, yet the failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
The Immigrant (1917)
Written and directed by Charles Chaplin.
Charles Chaplin - Immigrant
Edna Purviance - Immigrant
Eric Campbell - The head waiter
Albert Austin - Seasick immigrant / A diner
Henry Bergman - The artist
Kitty Bradbury - The Mother
Frank J. Coleman - Ship's Officer / Restaurant Owner
Tom Harrington - Marriage Registrar
James T. Kelly - Shabby Man in Restaurant
John Rand - Tipsy Diner Who Cannot Pay
An American silent romantic comedy short starring Charlie Chaplin's Tramp character as an immigrant coming to the United States who is accused of theft on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, and falls in love with a beautiful young woman.
Nearing the end of his contract with Essanay, Charles Chaplin found himself pursued by all the major studios, who were determined to get the popular star on their roster. In February 1916 he accepted a highly lucrative offer from the 10-year-old conglomerate Mutual Film Corporation that made Chaplin the highest paid entertainer in the world. Mutual gave him his own studio, renamed Lone Star, and he began work on what would be a dozen shorts over the next two years, some of the best of his career, including such classics as The Rink (1916) and Easy Street (1917). Chaplin later referred to his time at Mutual as "the happiest days of my life."
In The Immigrant, Charlie and Edna meet on an arduous cross-Atlantic voyage, a couple of immigrants seeking a new life in America. The first half of the film takes place aboard the ship, where Charlie uses his card-playing skills to win back money stolen by another passenger from Edna and her ailing mother.
The ship sequence concludes with the passengers lined up at the rail, watching in wonder as they pass the Statue of Liberty, a shot--and a sentiment--referenced in many future movies, notably The Godfather Part II (1974).
Shortly after that, he is separated from the girl and her mother as they are herded like cattle onto the dock. Chaplin's depiction of this indignity and the immigration officials who treat the new arrivals so gruffly (one of whom gets a kick in the rear from Charlie) was later cited, incredibly, as evidence of his "anti-Americanism" when he was forced to leave America in the 1950s during the Red Scare.
According to Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's documentary series Unknown Chaplin, the first scenes to be written and filmed take place in what became the movie's second half, in which the penniless Tramp finds a coin and goes for a meal in a restaurant, not realising that the coin has fallen out of his pocket. It was not until later that Chaplin decided the reason the Tramp was penniless was that he had just arrived on a boat from Europe, and used this notion as the basis for the first half. Purviance reportedly was required to eat so many plates of beans during the many takes to complete the restaurant sequence (in character as another immigrant who falls in love with Charlie) that she became physically ill.
Chaplin had become such a perfectionist by this time that he shot 90,000 feet (27,430m) of negative film - 90 reels worth - for this two-reel short. He also spent 4 days and nights without sleep editing the film in order to release it on schedule, yet the failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
Written and directed by Charles Chaplin.
Charles Chaplin - Immigrant
Edna Purviance - Immigrant
Eric Campbell - The head waiter
Albert Austin - Seasick immigrant / A diner
Henry Bergman - The artist
Kitty Bradbury - The Mother
Frank J. Coleman - Ship's Officer / Restaurant Owner
Tom Harrington - Marriage Registrar
James T. Kelly - Shabby Man in Restaurant
John Rand - Tipsy Diner Who Cannot Pay
An American silent romantic comedy short starring Charlie Chaplin's Tramp character as an immigrant coming to the United States who is accused of theft on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, and falls in love with a beautiful young woman.
Nearing the end of his contract with Essanay, Charles Chaplin found himself pursued by all the major studios, who were determined to get the popular star on their roster. In February 1916 he accepted a highly lucrative offer from the 10-year-old conglomerate Mutual Film Corporation that made Chaplin the highest paid entertainer in the world. Mutual gave him his own studio, renamed Lone Star, and he began work on what would be a dozen shorts over the next two years, some of the best of his career, including such classics as The Rink (1916) and Easy Street (1917). Chaplin later referred to his time at Mutual as "the happiest days of my life."
In The Immigrant, Charlie and Edna meet on an arduous cross-Atlantic voyage, a couple of immigrants seeking a new life in America. The first half of the film takes place aboard the ship, where Charlie uses his card-playing skills to win back money stolen by another passenger from Edna and her ailing mother.
The ship sequence concludes with the passengers lined up at the rail, watching in wonder as they pass the Statue of Liberty, a shot--and a sentiment--referenced in many future movies, notably The Godfather Part II (1974).
Shortly after that, he is separated from the girl and her mother as they are herded like cattle onto the dock. Chaplin's depiction of this indignity and the immigration officials who treat the new arrivals so gruffly (one of whom gets a kick in the rear from Charlie) was later cited, incredibly, as evidence of his "anti-Americanism" when he was forced to leave America in the 1950s during the Red Scare.
According to Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's documentary series Unknown Chaplin, the first scenes to be written and filmed take place in what became the movie's second half, in which the penniless Tramp finds a coin and goes for a meal in a restaurant, not realising that the coin has fallen out of his pocket. It was not until later that Chaplin decided the reason the Tramp was penniless was that he had just arrived on a boat from Europe, and used this notion as the basis for the first half. Purviance reportedly was required to eat so many plates of beans during the many takes to complete the restaurant sequence (in character as another immigrant who falls in love with Charlie) that she became physically ill.
Chaplin had become such a perfectionist by this time that he shot 90,000 feet (27,430m) of negative film - 90 reels worth - for this two-reel short. He also spent 4 days and nights without sleep editing the film in order to release it on schedule, yet the failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
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