Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

pyrocitor Charlie Chaplin as a police officer - if ever there was an inherently contradictory twist of character in cinematic history, there was one. How could Chaplin, who so frequently took a stand against the tyranny and ineffectiveness of authority figures ever cast his sweetly bumbling Tramp character in the role of one of the most present and disliked authority figures of the film's time with anything less than hilariously twisted results? It was certainly enough of a hook to guarantee promise for Easy Street, one of the many two-reeler films Chaplin created for the Mutual Film Company, but, ever the innovator, Chaplin refused to let the film coast by on its comedic concept, and instead infused enough socially conscious undertones to his film to make it a remarkably compelling and complex piece of work as well as being enormously funny. Despite the deceptively simplistic storyline, Chaplin manages to work an astonishing amount of subject matter and thematic content into a mere 22 minutes which could have been taken up by a simple serious of extended gags. While the wild fight scenes (astonishingly choreographed even by contemporary standards and alarmingly vicious for their time) and silly slapstick and sight gags suggest a typically flippant throwaway comedy (and Easy Street easily excels as such), the film lurking beneath the jovial exteriors is one of stark, devastating realism. The ironically named Easy Street proves a desolate, broken down block serving as a microcosm for the state of societal poverty, and Chaplin's depiction hardly shirks around the more unsettling elements, cheery comedy or not. From the rampant, incessant violence to the shockingly graphic depiction of drug abuse (squeezed by a more lenient age of censorship), both played mainly for laughs but with substantially dark undertones, the film paints a surprisingly despairing portrait only by its images and miraculously without ever jeopardising the comedy of the overall work. By casting his now firmly established Tramp character (here called 'A Derelict') as an unwitting policeman, Chaplin mocks authority in the spirit of his previous benefactor Mack Sennett and his infamously blundering "Keystone Cops". However, Chaplin proves more underhandedly sympathetic, suggesting the genuine plight of an organization of law enforcement so desperate that it would take the Tramp's unassuming good will and accidental good fortune to become the soul voice of reason and ultimately save the day. However, most poignantly, even when the film's primary antagonist has been defeated, the conflict is not resolved, as all of the townspeople the Tramp has saved turn on him. Despite the film's more standard sentimental ending (potentially ironically so) such dark allusions suggest that the conflict is never-ending, and brief moments of hope are only fleeting - such complexity melded into a potentially paper thin project mark Chaplin for the cinematic genius he was quickly on the way to developing into.It goes without saying that Chaplin's effortless performance as his timeless Tramp figure is easily the comedic highlight and heart of the show, capturing the audience's hearts from the first sight of him asleep huddled in a corner to every mirthful bodily twitch to wildly hilarious contortion. But Chaplin's exceptional work is not the sole performance worth noting, as his frequent co-star Edna Purviance proves as luminous and winsome as ever as a religious mission worker who captures the Tramp's heart, and character actor Eric Campbell is a truly foreboding presence despite his far over-exaggerated eyebrows as the near indestructible "bully" tearing a violent streak through the suffering town. The striking social critique lying beneath the irreverent surfaces easily make Easy Street one of Chaplin's most satisfying as well as inventively hysterical early efforts. Seldom is such humour, pathos and complexity melded so effortlessly into one concise 22 minute package, making Easy Street a perfect candidate for those looking to discover or cherish more of the timelessly endearing spirit of Chaplin.-9/10

rdjeffers Monday September 24, 7:00 pm, The Paramount Theater A derelict (Charles Chaplin) visits the local rescue mission where he finds encouragement and resolves to make "A new beginning." Hired as a policeman at a stationhouse where street violence rages uncontrolled, he vanquishes an enormous bully (Eric Campbell), twice, restores civility to the neighborhood, and gains the respect of the beautiful mission worker (Edna Purviance). Easy Street is without question Campbell's best performance, as the rampaging monster and ultimate challenge to Charlie's survival. The ninth of Chaplin's twelve productions for the Mutual Film Corporation, Easy Street is among the most popular and best remembered. It was the last of the twelve produced on a monthly basis and came at a point in Chaplin's career when his working methods became increasingly meticulous and greater amounts of time were required to produce fewer films. Chaplin used nearly as much time to produce the final three films as the nine they preceded.

DKosty123 This is as complete a 2 reeler (each reel was about 10 minutes in the old days) as you can get in a silent film. Charlie Chaplin is really in character & in stride in this movie. The setting of the plot in the mission & on a poor neighborhood street is drawn from Chaplin's own childhood. The bully was too, although he was probably a composite of those who mistreated Chaplin as a child. The tramp becoming a hero is no better done than in this story.The film not only has excellent comedy, but manages to pull a little on the heart strings without getting too emotional. Edna Purviance provides an excellent female lead. Eric Campbell plays the giant bully very well too. Charlie is in great form too. If your into checking out 2 reel comedies,I highly recommend this film. This is one that made 2 reeler's an art form during this era of silent films.

wmorrow59 I've been a Chaplin fan since I was in grade school, and Easy Street was the movie that converted me for keeps. It wasn't the first of his films I saw, but once I'd seen it I knew that Charlie Chaplin was truly as great as his reputation proclaimed. He's wonderful here, at the peak of his powers, funny and moving and seemingly super-human, like some kind of cartoon dynamo. And today, more than 30 years since I first encountered it (and almost 90 years since it was made!) this is a film I could watch again anytime, not just because it's funny -- although it is -- but also for darker, more melancholy reasons. Easy Street is certainly a comedy, but it's no one's idea of a light-hearted romp: the humor in this story is rooted in poverty, violence and substance abuse, and unfortunately all of these things are just as relevant today as they were in 1917. It's well known that Chaplin grew up in dire poverty, and it's reasonable to assume that the squalid world of this ironically titled work is based on his childhood memories. This film stands as proof that the greatest comedy is born out of pain, and that's why I can return to it again and again, for although human suffering is always topical and always relevant, so is the urge to transcend suffering through humor. In this film Chaplin triumphs over the deprivations of his own childhood, and viewers can share in his triumph.In the opening scene we find Charlie fallen on hard times, no longer the dapper Gentleman Tramp of earlier appearances but a real derelict, ragged, pale, and sleeping on the ground. He is drawn to a nearby mission by the sound of singing, joins the congregation and soon pledges to go straight; he even proves his conversion is genuine by pulling the collection box from his baggy pants and returning it to the startled minister. Before long Charlie has applied for the job of police officer in the roughest neighborhood imaginable, Easy Street, a slum ruled by an enormous bully, magnificently portrayed by actor Eric Campbell. The unfortunate Mr. Campbell, who would be killed in a car accident less than a year after giving this performance, deserves a belated nod of respect for making Easy Street such a memorable experience. Although clearly intended as a comic caricature, Campbell's nameless bully is nonetheless a formidable figure, a mighty beast with a shaved head and heavy eyebrows, and the close-ups that reveal Campbell's stage makeup do nothing to diminish his powerful aura.The film's most unforgettable sequence comes when Officer Charlie, dressed in a Keystone Cop style uniform as he nervously walks his beat for the first time, suddenly comes face-to-face with Campbell, an ogre several times his size. The scene is filmed in a single lengthy take, beginning with a tracking shot as Charlie strolls down the sidewalk, encounters the bully, and then tries to stand up to him. The bully, who appears to be made of granite, becomes increasingly sure of himself as Charlie falters. When Charlie finally resorts to clubbing him over the head, the blows have no effect whatever; in fact, the bully impassively offers his head for more clubbing, just to demonstrate how little it bothers him. Charlie tries to flee, but the bully yanks him back and starts toying with him, like a cat tormenting a mouse before moving in for the kill. Scary, right? Well it's funny in the movie, but scary too, and it comes as a relief when Charlie (in an iconic moment as familiar as Harold Lloyd dangling from the clock) resourcefully uses a nearby gas lamp to subdue the bully -- temporarily, anyway.While the scenes with Campbell are moments to savor, there are also a number of low-key sequences involving the lady from the mission, played by Chaplin's perennial leading lady Edna Purviance, and during these scenes we get a vivid picture of life on Easy Street. Edna takes Charlie to a flat full of kids whose exhausted-looking parents obviously can't cope. Charlie, impressed with the scrawny Dad's ability to father so many children, quietly pins his own badge on the man's chest. It's a sadly funny moment, but the larger picture is bleak, and before the story is over we've been presented with images of domestic abuse and drug addiction. None of this material is prettified or sentimentalized in the "Hollywood" manner; this looks more like newsreel footage, and some viewers may well find it depressing. Easy Street is no stroll in the park, but somehow Chaplin is able to leave us on a note of hope, even while making it clear (with one last gag involving the reformed bully and his wife) that he's fully aware of the wishful thinking involved. Still, it's a beautiful ending to a great movie, one that demonstrates Chaplin's artistry as beautifully as any short film he ever made.