''Easy Street'' is a 1917 short action-comedy film starring and directed by

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

Plot

In a slum area called Easy Street, the police are failing to maintain law and order. The Little Tramp, a down-and-out derelict, is sleeping rough outside the Hope Mission near the streets of a lawless slum. The sounds of a service in progress draws him wearily inside. After the sermon from the preacher, he is entranced by a beautiful mission worker and organist and he stays after the service. Holding his hand, she pleads him to join the mission, inspiring his religious "awakening". He vows to reform, returning the collection box that he slipped into capacious pants. Spotting a help-wanted ad for a job at the police station, the Tramp accepts and is assigned the rough-and-tumble Easy Street as his

beat Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of inte ...

. Upon entering the street he finds a bully roughing up the locals and pilfering their money. The Tramp gets on the wrong side of the bully and after a brief chase, the Tramp finds him impervious to his blows. In a display of his great strength, the bully bends a gas streetlamp in two, whereupon Charlie leaps on his back, covers his head with the lamp, and turns on the gas, rendering him unconscious. After giving him one more shot of gas, he calls the squad to retrieve the Bully. For the moment, the Tramp becomes the cock-of-the-walk in the locality, frightening away the denizens by simply spinning around to face them. Then he helps a woman (who turns out to be the Bully's wife) who has stolen food from a street vendor but she rather 'rewards' him by nearly dropping a flower pot on his head. The mission worker happens by and takes him across the way to another apartment where a couple has a large brood of children whom Charlie feeds by scattering bread crumbs among them as if he were feeding chickens. The bully is put in handcuffs by the police but manages to escape from the station and returns to Easy Street. After a battle with his wife, he attacks the Tramp. He chases the Tramp fanatically until he manages to knock the bully unconscious by dropping a heavy stove on his head from a two-story window. On returning to his beat on Easy Street, the unruly mob knocks the Tramp unconscious and drops him into a nearby cellar where he manages to save the Mission worker from a nasty junkie after accidentally sitting on the drug addict's upturned needle. Supercharged by the effects of the drug, he takes on the mob and heroically defeats them all, and as a consequence restores peace and order to Easy Street. By the end of the film, a New Mission is built on Easy Street and the inhabitants flock to it, even including the former bully: now a well-dressed respectable, churchgoing citizen. Arm in arm, The Derelict and The Mission Worker follow them into the church.

Inspiration

It could have been inspired by the similarly named

East Street market East Street Market also known locally as 'East Street', 'The Lane', or 'East Lane', is a street market in Walworth, London, Walworth in South London, South East London. Location East Street is in the London Borough of Southwark and is betwee ...

in the

Walworth Walworth ( ) is a district of South London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. It adjoins Camberwell to the south and Elephant and Castle to the north, and is south-east of Charing Cross. Major streets in Walworth include the ...

district of London (where Chaplin is believed to have been born), a suggestion made as early as 1928 in the film ''The Life Story of Charlie Chaplin'' by Harry B. Parkinson and reasserted in David Robinson's introduction to the most recent edition of ''My Autobiography'', while the famous trousers and boots of Chaplin's trademark tramp costume may have been drawn from the everyday clothes Chaplin saw worn there.

Review

The Moving Picture World The ''Moving Picture World'' was an influential early trade journal for the American film industry, from 1907 to 1927. An industry powerhouse at its height, ''Moving Picture World'' frequently reiterated its independence from the film studios. ...

offered the following praise: "In 'Easy Street,' Charlie Chaplin's latest and best, if we may venture to obtrude so decided an opinion, an original key has been struck. At any rate, it is Chaplin at his funniest; and nothing much more entertaining, by way of comedy, could be imagined..." A reviewer from ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote, "The resultant chaos and several new stunts will be bound to bring the laughter, and the star's display of agility and acrobatics approaches some of the Douglas Fairbanks pranks. Chaplin has always been throwing things in his films, but when he 'eases' a cook stove out of the window onto the head of his adversary on the street below, that pleasant little bouquet adds a new act to his repertoire. ''Easy Street'' certainly has some rough work in it--maybe a bit rougher than the others--but it is the kind of stuff that Chaplin fans love. In fact, few who see ''Easy Street'' will fail to be furnished with hearty laughter."

Cast

... The Derelict *

Edna Purviance Olga Edna Purviance (; October 21, 1895 – January 13, 1958) was an American actress of the silent film era. She was the leading lady in many of Charlie Chaplin's early films and in a span of eight years, she appeared in over 30 films with him ...

... The Mission Worker * Eric Campbell ... The Bully *

Albert Austin Albert Austin (13 December 1882 – 17 August 1953) was an English actor, film star, director, and script writer, remembered for his work in Charlie Chaplin films. Biography Austin was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, and was a mus ...

... Minister/Policeman *

Lloyd Bacon Lloyd Francis Bacon (December 4, 1889 – November 15, 1955) was an American screen, stage, and vaudeville actor and film director. As a director, he made films in numerous genres, including westerns, musicals, comedies, gangster films, and c ...

... Drug Addict *

Henry Bergman Henry Bergman (February 23, 1868 – October 22, 1946) was an American actor of stage and film, known for his long association with Charlie Chaplin. Biography Born in San Francisco, California, Bergman acted in live theatre, appearing in ''Henri ...

... Anarchist * Frank J. Coleman ... Policeman * William Gillespie ... Heroin addict *

James T. Kelley James or Jim Kelley may refer to: People *James Kelley (Pennsylvania state senator) (James Reeves Kelley, born c. 1933), Pennsylvania judge and politician *James R. Kelley (Pennsylvania state representative) (1839–1871), speaker of the Pennsylvan ...

... Mission Visitor/Policeman *

Charlotte Mineau Charlotte Mineau (March 24, 1886 – October 12, 1979) was a tall and thin American film actress of the silent film, silent era appearing in 65 to 80 films. Biography Mineau appeared in 65 films between 1913 and 1931. She supported Charlie ...

... Big Eric's Wife * John Rand ... Mission Tramp/Policeman *Janet Miller Sully ... Mother in Mission * Loyal Underwood ... Small Father/Policeman *Erich von Stroheim Jr. ... Baby *

Leo White Leo White (November 10, 1873 – September 20, 1948), was a German-born British-American film and stage actor who appeared as a character actor in many Charlie Chaplin films. Biography Born in Germany to Julius White and Ida Berg White, White g ...

... Policeman (uncredited) *Tom Wood ... Chief of Police (uncredited)

Charlie On The Beat

An edited version of this film was released as "Charlie On The Beat". It was available in 8mm silent cine format and ran for about 3.5 minutes.

Sound version

In 1932, Amedee Van Beuren of Van Beuren Studios, purchased Chaplin's Mutual comedies for $10,000 each, added music by

Gene Rodemich Eugene Frederick Rodemich (April 13, 1890 in St Louis, Missouri – February 27, 1934 in New York) was a pianist and orchestra leader, who composed the music for numerous films in the late 1920s and early 1930s, mostly cartoons and live-action sh ...

and

Winston Sharples Winston Singleton Sharples (March 1, 1909 – April 3, 1978) was an American composer known for his work with animated short subjects, especially those created by the animation department at Paramount Pictures. In his 35-year career, Sharples ...

and sound effects, and re-released them through

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...

. Chaplin had no legal recourse to stop the RKO release.SilentComedians entry

References

External links

*
Article at InDigest Magazine about the film recently being scored by Justin Vernon (Bon Iver)
{{Charlie Chaplin filmography 1917 films 1917 comedy films 1917 short films 1910s action comedy films 1910s police comedy films 1910s American films 1910s English-language films American action comedy films American black-and-white films Articles containing video clips English-language action comedy films English-language comedy short films English-language crime comedy films Films set in slums Mutual Film films Short films directed by Charlie Chaplin Silent American comedy short films 1917 crime films