A Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) is on the road when he rescues a farmer's daughter (Edna Purviance) from thieves out to steal her money. As a reward the Tramp is taken in and offered work by Edna's father (Ernest Van Pelt). On the farm the Tramp is asked to halt a second attempt by the criminals and ends up in a love triangle.This was Chaplin's 6th Essanay film and the first I had seen before watching the studios output in full. It marks the first time that the Tramp is seen fully formed although Chaplin had played the character before. Here the tramp is a much more rounded character and although he still looks out for number one he is more inclined to help others and in fact ends up leaving the farm so that he doesn't get in the way of Edna and her boyfriend. This is a quite different Tramp from say In the Park and The Champion.The humour is much less slapstick that in previous Essanay films although it is still there. It feels cleverer and more nuanced than the likes of doors opening on people's faces in His New Job. A highlight for me was when Chaplin trips over a kerb and doffs his hat in apology even though the kerb is an inanimate object and it was his fault. Another highlight was Chaplin's attempts at milking a cow. After placing the bucket and turning away thinking the cow needed to 'go to the bathroom' a confused Chaplin tries pumping the tail like at a gas station before stealing a full bucket from elsewhere. Although this comedy is cleverer than some of his previous output there is still slapstick to be found. In the opening scene the Tramp is nearly run over and does a pirouette before falling head over heels and when on the farm a pitchfork comes out which creates numerous forks in bum gags.Another slight change from his previous form is the constant breaking of the forth wall. This is something that Chaplin did often during his career but is done constantly here. Sometimes it is to let us in on a joke while at other times Chaplin looks at us as if to say "look at this, what am I doing?" or words to that effect. The film is also tinted blue in certain scenes to depict night. This is something which Chaplin hadn't really used before but was very popular during the period.This is a film which is more story focused than much of Chaplin's previous work and as a result has a slower pace and fewer laughs. I don't think this is a problem though and it shows Chaplin's development as a film maker. He isn't afraid to make us wait for the laughs and is interested in developing a story and characters rather than finding something to fall over or someone to hit in the face. It also features an ending which is not entirely happy and this is something that even today raises eyebrows but works very well and helps to further flesh out the character of The Tramp.www.attheback.blogspot.com

Charles Chaplin is a tramp who gets in trouble with three hobos.He also saves a girl of his dreams from the hobos, a beautiful farmer's daughter played by Edna Purviance.The girl is grateful at the little tramp and he takes him home with her and he starts working at the family farm.Being a farmhand isn't really his cup of tea and also the hobos show up again causing some trouble.Happiness doesn't often seem to follow the tramp and he notices the girl of his dreams is already taken.Chaplin's The Tramp (1915) marked the beginning of his most known character as we know him today.The difference between this and his more slapstick character in the earlier films was the sad ending and showing he cared for others, rather than just himself.Chaplin works so great together with Edna Purviance, just like he did in so many other films.Ernest Van Pelt plays The Farmer.Paddy McGuire plays Farmhand.Lloyd Bacon is Edna's Fiancé/Second Thief.Leo White is First Thief while Bud Jamison plays Third Thief.The Minister is played by Billy Armstrong.This short comedy holds some funny stuff inside.Charlie walking around with that pitchfork is funny.Or Charlie trying to milk the cow from its tail.Obviously The Little Tramp hasn't spent too much time on a farm.Also using the mallet in the end.Charles Chaplin was born 120 years and one day ago.For his second film, Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) he wore baggy pants he borrowed from 'Fatty' Arbuckle, size 14 shoes that belonged to Ford Sterling, a tiny jacket from Keystone Kop Charles Avery, a bowler hat belonging to Arbuckle's father-in-law and Mack Swain's mustache trimmed down to toothbrush size.The Tramp was born!

Chaplin's favorite character and one of the world's most indelible images is introduced in this movie, The tramp. Chaplin also sets up the theme that recurs in all of his best movies, the thing that man will do for love, whether real or imagined. It is a well known fact, that man is essentially a slave to woman, to her whims, fantasies, and urgings. It is what creates the love that is often opaque in the brusqueness and machoism that beguiles the maturity of man. Chaplin knew this and studied and exacerbated it in his movies, id est to ask the question; What is a man? What is a man without a woman? The yin and yang of the two creates humanity, so to speak. In this movie, he rescues a farmer's daughter from a bunch of thugs, and is brought by the woman home to the farm where he gets a job from her father. He stays because he loves the woman but does she love him? The melancholy of this movie eschews the laughs for the audience and the ordeals that Chaplin endures for her approval. A funny and touching movie.

This is the short feature in which Chaplin introduced his famous "Tramp" character, and it would be worth watching for that alone. The character is pretty well-defined, and is already recognizable as the one who would appear in many later films. The movie itself is pretty good, although not one of Chaplin's best, and it features the kinds of material that Chaplin would soon afterward learn to film as well as anyone of his time.The story takes "The Tramp" through a series of events, from his desperate efforts to scratch up some food, to finding a sympathetic family, to facing up to his lot in life. It has some good comic moments, a little bit of excitement, and also some worthwhile thoughtful moments, just as in all of Chaplin's best movies. Here, the main thing keeping it from being better is that the best material is interspersed with some more routine sequences. On the whole, there's certainly enough to make it worth watching in itself, and it is also one that all Chaplin fans will want to see so that they can watch the origins of Charlie's trademark role.