The Mutuals - 60, 61, 62

The Cure (1917)

An affluent inebriate (Charles Chaplin) visits a health spring for "the water cure" and inadvertently pollutes the well with liquor, intoxicating all the guests. The Cure was Chaplin’s tenth of twelve "Mutual Specials" and dealt with a socially sensitive issue only months before the eighteenth amendment established a national prohibition of alcohol.

Charlie arrives at the spa, under the influence, and dodders into the revolving glass entry door. An enormous guest "With The Gout" (Eric Campbell) entangles himself in the door with Charlie and an attendant (John Rand). Chaplin’s use of this device rivals the clever originality of the escalator in The Floorwalker. Campbell’s bandaged foot is smashed in the door and stepped on repeatedly throughout the film. Charlie wrestles with the violent masseur (Henry Bergman), swims without getting in the pool, and rescues the girl (Edna Purviance) from drunken aggressors while engaging in his typically playful and humorous "business."

The Immigrant (1917)

A group of steerage class passengers is observed as their steamer crosses the ocean to the New World. When a girl (Edna Purviance) and her elderly mother are robbed, a young man Charles Chaplin) rescues them anonymously. Later, they meet in a café, struggle with the bill, and find employment as models to a wealthy artist.

As Chaplin produced his next to last film under contract to the Mutual Film Corporation, he was becoming an obsessive perfectionist. The final version of The Immigrant ran 1809 feet in length. Chaplin exposed over ninety thousand feet of film in its creation. The resulting images may be the most beautiful example of narrative pantomime ever committed to film, from Chaplin’s bizarre wind-up dice rolling, card shuffle-without-shuffling techniques and the simplicity of eating beans, to the subtle range of emotional exchanges with the girl. Players from Chaplin’s troupe all perform to their finest abilities.

The Adventurer (1917)

The final episode of Charles Chaplin’s Mutual period has more in common with Keystone than with the films that followed. The Adventurer is a silly bit of business involving an escaped convict (Chaplin), who evades the prison guards searching for him, then passes himself off as “Commodore Slick” in the home of Judge Brown (Henry Bergman) who comments, “Your face is familiar, Commodore!”

Swimming away from the guards (in a stolen swimsuit), Charlie hears the Judge’s daughter (Edna Purviance) crying “Save mother! Save her!” The girl’s monstrous suitor (Eric Campbell) looks appropriately foolish after Charlie fishes Mrs. Brown from the water. He recuperates as the Brown’s guest, until his true identity is discovered from a newspaper photo. Charlie is again on the lam, racing through the house with a dozen policemen on his heals. Funny bits with a scoop of very cold ice cream and a pocket door are highlights

Silent Movie Mondays: The Chaplin Triple Play, September 10, 17, 24 and October 1. Musical accompaniment for the series features Dennis James on the Paramount’s original Publix 1, 4/20 Wurlitzer.