I looked back on my original review for the DVD release from Artificial Eye, I realise that their is much I cant add and more I could. You can read this review by searching for it above. Todays Criterion Collection review is thus. THE KID is a mainstay of masterpieces from the silent era. Charlie Chaplin, a person still recognised today by film fan and not, first feature length film is up there with Keaton and Lloyd (one is on offer in the Criterion catalogue). However it has so much heart that even today, with cynical viewers choking over their offense at emotional manipulation (by the way person anything you watch is doing this via frame and sound, focus and others).

Chaplin was already an international star when THE KID was created. He had established his still known character, The Tramp character, who is raising an orphan (Jackie Coogan), found in an alley abandoned. Trying to unsuccessfully return it to a nursing mother, a crippled man and even back to the street, he has to live with it. Five years later and the two are father and son, thick as thieves, which they kind of are. Their grift? the kid smash’s windows and The Tramp fixes them. Well for a price of course. The owners think it providence but the cops otherwise. Then one day fortunes and family changes, The Tramp has to fight for the son he never knew he wanted and well, film history is served to us on a plate.

I complained before about how the film and the silent film oeuvre had been underserved. Of course that is not Criterions Stich. They go hammer and tongs here. Using the 1972 re release (it is missing two scenes). They then deliver a 4K restoration that is about the final say in the films history. No loss of image, sharpness and you can, true you may, to wipe the dirt off. There are loads of extras and all are of a very high quality. The best is the Lisa Haven video essay. Its more a chart of stardom than a statement on Coogan or the film per say. Its very good. Charlie” on the Ocean is a historical document of stardom that leaves a lot out but is just so absorbing to see. Then add the essay from Tom Gunning (available online people) that is a history of Chaplin that quantifies him for his work and richly so.

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