The Champion (1915)

the audience applauded

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Charlie walks with his bulldog and finds a "good luck" horseshoe when he passes a training camp that is looking for a boxing partner "who can take a beating".Charlie won't take a beating, that he has decided.After watching the others lose, he puts the horseshoe inside his glove and wins.Now the trainer prepares Charlie to fight the world champion.Can Charlie win this time.There's also a nasty gambler who wants him to throw the fight.And there's also some love in the air with the trainer's daughter.What a great silent short from Charles Chaplin.The Champion is from 1915 and it also stars Edna Purviance (Trainer's Daughter), Ernest Van Pelt (Spike Dugan), Lloyd Bacon (Second Sparring Partner etc.) and Leo White (Crooked Gambler).You can also see Billy Armstrong, Ben Turpin and Broncho 'Billy' Anderson.This is a perfect comedy.There's no stop to laughter once you get started.When Charlie trains for his match and he keeps getting hits on his nose.When he shows off to Edna with the weights.How he kisses the dog on the head before going into ring.And the fight itself is priceless! How he gets exhausted and swings from one side to another in the ring.And then we see the dog in the ring hanging from the behind of the opponent.Hilarious, just hilarious!

It seems natural that at the very start of Chaplin's career he should make a movie in which he plays a grossly unqualified boxer who succeeds by sneaking horse shoes into his gloves. I only wonder why it didn't happen even earlier. He passes a sign saying that sparring partners are wanted, people who know how to take a punch, and heads in. We see him grow increasingly concerned as one guy after another, all bigger and stronger than him, get up to fight and return in a state of dazed semi-consciousness. A lot of times when I watch these early comedies from Chaplin, I get the feeling that he is often trying to create at least a mildly engaging story throughout which he can throw in a lot of kicking and punching scenes, but in this movie it's the kicking and punching the drives the plot, giving the film an unusually honest feel. High-energy physical slap-stick is what Chaplin did best at that time, and smacking around a huge mountain of a man while he dances carelessly around as only he can is certainly a treat to watch. And the climactic battle between Charlie and the meaty Bob Uppercut (or Young Hippo, depending on which cannibalized version you may see) is well-acted and fun. Mack Sennett like his comedies to be fast paced and high energy, without too much time wasted on things like characterization or even story. But in The Champion, Chaplin proves that we can have well-developed characters, an easily discernible story, and still have enough action and solid slap-stick to keep the shorter attention spanned audience members entertained. This is definitely one of the best short comedies that Chaplin had made up to that point.

A comedy in three acts, this Chaplin short depicts his tramp as a somewhat more sympathetic character than many of his other films from this period. The tramp's impoverished status is played up here more than in some of his other Essanay films, and it strengthens both his character and the story as a result. Finding a lucky horseshoe outside a gym advertising for sparring partners 'who can take a punch', Charlie decides to give it a go. The horseshoe is put to predictable use and Chaplin suddenly finds himself up against the hulking Bob Uppercut (Bud Jamison). Chaplin would return to the ring in CITY LIGHTS and, while the fight sequence here comes nowhere near to the brilliance of that film's prize fight, it is still an entertaining bout that forms the highlight of the film. Edna Purviance appears once more, and Chaplin acknowledges the audience (and, perhaps, media speculation about their off-screen relationship) when he lifts a beer jug in front of their faces as they kiss. This is one of Chaplin's better early efforts.

'The Champion' is a nice short film by Charlie Chaplin and of course with Charlie Chaplin. Watching him I always admire his skills. I don't know if you can call it acting but whatever you call it he is great with it. This short starts as a real story but soon it can come to the moment where Chaplin can show his skills. This time in a boxing contest and the preparation before it. There are some very funny moments and most of it was not that predictable. That is the case very often in the shorts of Charlie Chaplin but not so much in this one. I also liked the way the music played together with the performances, it made the whole thing funnier. Definitely worth a watch.