TCM at 8pm: Charles Chaplins A DOGS LIFE (1918) is one of the great laugh-out-loud silent comedies. Chaplin was ready for a leap to long-form comedies, and he led with the Tramp and his purest encapsulation of survivng moment-by-moment in a ghetto cosmos. Charlies testing ground consists of little more than an open-air bedroom in a fenced lot, a couple of streets with food vendors, an employment office, and a dance saloon. His nemeses are cops, crooks, and the owners of anything, and his allies are a dance hall waif (Edna Purviance) and an awesomely talented mutt called Scraps. The little white dogs tender, devious alliance with Chaplin became a direct prototype for THE KID (1921), the other great apotheosis of the Tramp in this expansive, creative period when Charlies craft was spiritually transfigured into art. In this first totally controlled feature to go more than a half hour, one can almost feel the avid experimentation in prolonging and topping gags and modulating tender moods in the intervals. The balletic timing of the petty triumphs and gallant frustrations is especially breathtaking, and for decade after decade has been quite capable of inciting an audience into titters of recognition that build relentlessly into gales of approving laughter, A DOGS LIFE should be appreciated as a crucial growing stage for the archetypal Tramp from such seedbeds as EASY STREET (1917) to the full fruition of CITY LIGHTS (1931).
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 00:35:21 +0000
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