{"id":34574,"date":"2014-09-03T21:38:03","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T04:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=34574"},"modified":"2020-10-08T14:22:56","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T21:22:56","slug":"charlie-chaplin-the-lone-adventurer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/charlie-chaplin-the-lone-adventurer\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Chaplin, the Lone Adventurer"},"content":{"rendered":"

“In the meantime, it may be that his present series of pictures – The Kid<\/em>, The Pilgrim<\/em> and The Gold Rush<\/em> – with their gags and their overtones of tragedy, their adventures half-absurd, half-realistic, their mythical hero, now a figure of poetry, now a type out of the comic strips, represents the height of Chaplin’s achievement. He could scarcely, in any field, surpass the best moments of these pictures. The opening of The Gold Rush<\/em> is such a moment. Charlie is a lone adventurer, straggling along after a party of prospectors among the frozen hills: he twirls his cane a little to keep his spirits up. On his way through a narrow mountain pass, a bear emerges and follows him. Any ordinary movie comedian, given the opportunity of using a bear, would, of course, have had it chasing him about for as long as he could work up gags for it. But Charlie does not know that the bear is there: he keeps on, twirling his cane. Presently the beast withdraws, and only then does Charlie think he hears something: he turns around, but there is nothing there. And he sets off again, still fearless, toward the dreadful ordeals that await him.”<\/p>\n

– Edmund Wilson, 1924 (excerpted in American Movie Critics<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“In the meantime, it may be that his present series of pictures – The Kid, The Pilgrim and The Gold Rush – with their gags and their overtones of tragedy, their adventures half-absurd, half-realistic, their mythical hero, now a figure of poetry, now a type out of the comic strips, represents the height of Chaplin’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":[],"categories":[3316],"tags":[2554,186],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34589,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/american-movie-critics-robert-e-sherwood-and-edmund-wilson\/","url_meta":{"origin":34574,"position":0},"title":"American Movie Critics: Robert E. Sherwood and Edmund Wilson","author":"Jandy","date":"September 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ryan McNeil of The Matinee and I are reading through the American Movie Critics anthology and discussing each chapter as we go, crossposting on each of our blogs. After a few weeks of interruption (thanks, TIFF!), Ryan and I are back with another installment of our conversations about the American\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Movie Critics"","block_context":{"text":"American Movie Critics","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/american-movie-critics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Greed-1924-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7587,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/charlie-chaplin-in-one-a-m\/","url_meta":{"origin":34574,"position":1},"title":"Charlie Chaplin in One A.M.","author":"Jandy","date":"October 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Cinefamily rep cinema has been doing a Chaplin series for the past couple of months (all the features and a bunch of silent shorts), and they capped it off last night with Modern Times - but first they played probably my all-time favorite Chaplin short, One A.M. Chaplin is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/oneam-featured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35371,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/moviegoing-children-in-the-1920s-according-to-the-book-half-magic\/","url_meta":{"origin":34574,"position":2},"title":"Moviegoing Children in the 1920s (according to the book Half Magic)","author":"Jandy","date":"October 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm spending a good portion of my time lately reading elementary and middle-school books as I think about and plan for homeschooling my daughter, and I picked up one this week that's about fifth-grade level called Half Magic, by Edward Eager. I hadn't heard of this before, but the cover\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books and Reading"","block_context":{"text":"Books and Reading","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/tf-Half-Magic-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36554,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/challenge-week-47-limelight\/","url_meta":{"origin":34574,"position":3},"title":"Challenge Week 47: Limelight","author":"Jandy","date":"December 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been wanting to see Limelight for quite some time, as what most people consider Chaplin's last great film, so I really appreciate the push to see it. I had high hopes and they were both met and exceeded. Interestingly, the FB group where I've been tracking this challenge seemed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/tf-feat-limelight.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14185,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/my-2010-in-film-playtime\/","url_meta":{"origin":34574,"position":4},"title":"My 2010 in Film: Playtime","author":"Jandy","date":"December 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"[My list of favorite films released in 2010 will be going up on Row Three in mid-January, so I want to do something a bit different here. This series will include any films I saw for the first time this year and loved, regardless of release date. It may also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Playtime-banner.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":586,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/buster-keaton-series-at-webster-university\/","url_meta":{"origin":34574,"position":5},"title":"Buster Keaton Series at Webster University","author":"Jandy","date":"September 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"For those of you in St. Louis, Webster University is running a Buster Keaton Retrospective starting September 28th and running through October 14th. If Charlie Chaplin is the king of silent comedy with a streak of pathos, then Keaton is the kind of silent deadpanning. Both are incredible filmmakers, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}