With the amount of pure vulgarity and raunchiness that finds its way into so many movie comedies today, it is hard to believe that anyone could have ever found a movie like Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921) objectionable. However certain censors were not happy with the film. This actually ended up backfiring as even back then people knew that the movie was a brilliant work of art and definitely not objectionable. This story is told in an article from Exhibitors Herald (dated October 9, 1926). Here is that article.
"Death of Chief Justice Timothy D. Hurley of the superior court of Chicago recalls his historic debate with William A. Bradley on the motion at an open meeting of the Chicago City Council several years ago.
"Judge Hurley was leader and spokesman for a large group of women's organizations, who were demanding more rigid censorship of films in Chicago. Several newspapers sided with them. Brady at the time, was president of the N. A. M. P. I. and heading a large delegation of film people, who came to Chicago to fight the proposed ordinance.
"Censorship advocates seemed to be gaining the upper hand, when Judge Hurley made the mistake of attacking 'The Kid' Chaplin's masterpiece, as 'unfit for any child or adult to see.'
"Newspapers the following day branded the entire movement as 'fanatic,' basing their conculisions entirely on 'The Kid.' The new ordinance was defeated in Chicago and many believe that Judge Hurley's widely quoted attack on 'The Kid' turned public sentiment against the censorship movement which was gaining headway in all parts of the country."
It is telling that in 1926 (the year after The Gold Rush), The Kid was still being heralded as Chaplin's masterpiece. While Chaplin has made too many film I love for me to hail any as his masterpiece, The Kid certainly shows the filmmaker at his absolute best. It blends comedy and drama together perfectly. An opening intertitle of the film states "A picture with a smile - and perhaps a tear." The Kid definitely supplies both featuring some Chaplin's funniest moment as well as some of his most touching. You can watch the film below.
Update: Some times a researcher finds something accidentally after he has published a post. Maybe he (in this case its a he) should have maybe waited to publish the post until later so he could have found this first. So I found an article in Moving Picture World (dated February 19, 1921) that gives further insight into this. Here is a brief quote that is important to this conversation, "but the high point of comedy reached in the proceeding, which decidedly farcical value was touched on by Mr. Hurley in making a charge against the popular picture, 'The Kid,' recently released, which he said displayed the extreme ignominy of prenatal neglect, in showing a mother leaving her child in an ash barrel." Maybe I'll post that whole article in a later post, but I feel adding this brief quote adds more important insight to this point.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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