User Reviews

All good things come to an end, and when that good thing was Charlie Chaplin's tenure at a studio, it tended to come to an end in style. This was Chaplin's last picture for Mutual, and his second studio finale to have the apt if disparaging theme of the little tramp's escape from the long arm of the law.

But really, the man-on-the-run angle is just a bit of trivial cheekiness. This is not one of Chaplin's great story pictures. Instead, he appears to be simply having a bit of fun with his last fling at Mutual. The Adventurer consists of a varied series of escapades, linked loosely by the narrative, but all of which could easily have come from another picture or even been expanded into a short in their own right. So we move from Charlie the fugitive to Charlie the rescuer of drowning women, to Charlie the party-crasher and so on. And yet The Adventurer is not vague or bitty. Instead this is perhaps Chaplin's most flowingly funny picture to date. The comic now had the professional ease of a seasoned acrobat, and here he reels off the gags with an almost casual comedic agility.

Supporting Charlie here are the usual familiar supporting players – Edna Purviance, John Rand, Albert Austin, Henry Bergman – all of whom would follow him to his next stable, First National. And yet these are all in relatively minor functional parts in the Adventurer. Chaplin's real partner here is Eric Campbell, who sadly would not follow the tramp on any more adventures. Campbell died several months after the picture's release. Here however you can see him at his best, as he seemingly relishes playing one of his most unforgivably mean characters. He exhibits a wonderful knowledge of what his job is in the comical scheme of things, brilliantly treading that line between authoritative ogre and buffoon.

And so we end again with that all-important statistic – Number of kicks up the arse: 8 (5 for, 3 against)

Not all the early Chaplin films are classics, but this one is. The best bits are the chasing scenes, especially at the beginning (Charlie escaping from prison) and in the middle. The way Chaplin makes excellent and varying use of a humble lampshade should put many modern filmmakers with their inflated budgets to shame.

Chaplin is a funny man that can do a lot with very little. His humour is slapstick and he is very good at it.

Here we follow a convict on the run through diverse escapades in which he amongst other things saves a woman's mother and steals the woman from her suitor.

His jokes are very simple and effective, that said they can be a bit repetitious and today obvious.

Funniest part is in the beginning when he bumps into police everywhere and repeats his mistakes all the time and also the bit with the sliding doors.

When I was a young boy (about five years old), my parents couldn't afford a TV and, in order to give me entertainment, my dad bought a second hand silent cine projector and showed me some silent westerns (which I have all but forgotten) and - oh joy, oh bliss - the Essanay and Mutual Chaplin films. The greatest of these - by a long way, in my estimation is 'The Adventurer' indeed, it is one of the very few short films worthy of the term 'masterpiece'.

The Adventurer is a sonata on the number 3. There are three main locations - the beach, the pier and the house. The cliff location in the beach scene is triangular, Charlie and his two pursuers make an hilarious trio, with every combination of characters and apexes of the triangle being explored...

Then we go onto the pier... There we have three sub-locations - the top of the pier, the car and the sea. Charlie explores all of these and then moves onto the house.

Here we also have three locations - upstairs, downstairs and the terrace. You can see dozens of other 'threes' in the film, but the coda, in which Charlie is chased three times round the set is like the delirious coda to Mozart's 41st Symphony when the orchestra seem to take off. There is noting like it in all cinema.

Of course I had no idea about all this subtlety when I was a kid, I just looked and laughed in wonder and said with a pleading thrill in my voice.... 'Play it again, Dad.'

Without these wonderful Chaplin films, I doubt that I would have given my life to the cinema for the last fifty years.

Certainly, in my opinion, the Greatest comedy short of all time. Charlie, an escaped convict, saves life of rich woman and is taken in by her family(and jealous Eric Campbell - who tragically died in an automobile accident a year after). How long will it be till the law catches up with him? There's an absolutely SUPERB sequence as him dodging the law using sliding doors, it will leave you laughing loud. This film alone demonstrates Chaplin's unique and incredible talent. Many people get turned off by Chaplin's shorts as they are silent. It's a shame as some of them represent his best work.

Charlie Chaplin made a dozen short films for Mutual Films and this is one of them. It's a very good film, but also very odd because the Little Tramp is in this case the Little Jail Bird! Charlie playing an escaped prisoner is not that unusual in his early years, but those used to the sweeter character he played in his full-length films won't really recognize this characterization.

Despite being a wanted man, Charlie seems pretty decent as he helps several people who fall into the sea. As a result of his efforts, he is taken back to the home of one of the rich people he saved. When he awakens, he thinks, initially, he's in prison. But, once he realizes where he is, he relaxes and has a good time--until the police arrive and a series of mad dashes and chases occur--much like the very beginning of the film.

Cute, fun and, all in all, pretty insignificant fare from Chaplin.

There are almost too many pratfalls in this short (then again when is there enough when done right). Chaplin plays a prisoner who escapes (his entrance in the movie is just fantastic on the beach), and is chased for a little while by the guards- as he does daring-do to escape like rushing up a cliff-side or doing a fun way of pulling a gun on someone- and then gets away by helping two women from drowning and is sucked up into their bourgeois existence. There's barely a beat when a gag is missed, and Chaplin takes every one. It was in the style of the 'Keystone Kops" series where there were chases and chases and more chases, and just lots of variations on gags. What makes it work is that it's gut-bustingly funny, from how he saves the pretty woman and leaves the other woman still drowning until he goes back (or how he knocks the big man back into the water, having to use his big fake beard to pull him out!). He also uses sliding doors to great usage here. And if memory serves there's even a fun gag involving ice cream! It's nothing brainy, it's just a really fun comic-book like short that utilizes all of Chaplin's physical prowess and his guts, and his timing running up those stairs in the house is one of the most brilliant things out there.

The last movie he made to conclude his contract with Mutual Films, originally scheduled for a one year period but stretched out to nearly two years, was October 1917's "The Adventurer." The movie's opening of convict Chaplin escaping from a manhunt is seen as a metaphor to his personally escaping Mutual's commitment, allowing for greater personal freedom.

One of Chaplin's funnier skits in "The Adventurer" was the choreography of sliding hall doors and his use of them to frustrate his two pursuers. The sequence was a memorable way to round out what was once the richest contract in the young movie industry.

Chaplin's slapstick comedy with a lot of body work and some good gags, although its 26 minutes do not have all the same level, and too much large share of the film is just police chase. Not Bd, with nice moments, but far from the best short films by Charlie Chaplin.

While The Adventurer (1917) may not be the strongest of Charlie Chaplin's shorts in terms of plot, characterization, or coherence, but by God, is it a fun romp. Ably supported by the lovely Edna Purviance and the deliciously villainous Eric Campbell, Chaplin gets into all sorts of trouble by the sea and in a seaside resort. The gags come at the viewer nonstop and all are inspired. The whole thing is a breathless bit of fun, effortlessly transitioning from one set-up to the next without ever feeling choppy.

Of course, Chaplin would move on from Mutual after this. I cannot think of a finer finale to that phase of his career.

The Adventurer (1917) : Brief Review -

The Tramp, The Criminal, The Fugitive, The Comedian, The Lover, The Polymorph and The Adventurer.. All In One - The Charlie Chaplin. The Adventurer is truly "One Man Show." Charlie Chaplin had gone onto archive something of unseen level with this film and yes i am referring to its release time. By 1917, i don't think any other Hollywood Celebrity had done so much in one film and so well too. I mean yes, there was Harold Lloyd (quite unpopular then) and yes even Keaton debuted in the same year so yes that proves the point that Chaplin was running ahead. The Adventurer is a comedy that suits its title. It is an adventurous comedy indeed. It's about a Little Tramp who escapes from prison; saves a girl and her mother from drowning; and creates havoc at a swank party. Naturally we need a villainous character here so a Father's character is there. And subsequently cops enter into the picture which more or so predictabile. I loved the way this story runs. It has all the scenes lined-up properly, you know that one after another thing. Chaplin's drowning scene is just fantastic, the way he looks at the mother and then the girl and then drops down her Father unknowingly. It was all so much Fun to see. Next, that entire cat and mouse thing in the party, that tit for tat fights, that newspaper scene everything was a complete chaos. The Adventurer could have had a positive end, i was actually expecting one because i though that it's fair for a 1917's film. I thought that expecting something realistic and bittersweet would be too much for an 104 years old film but it proved me wrong. I felt so good when I saw that the climax is actually not the typical 'Happy Ending'. Chaplin was thinking way ahead of his time and that's why I always call him a Genius Film-maker. Overall, The Adventurer is a brilliant comedy plus drama with Chaplin scoring his early merits in Hollywood.

RATING - 7.5/10*

By - #samthebestest.

I've seen The Adventurer well over a dozen times and each time it is just as funny as the time before. I repeatedly find myself thinking during the first scenes (where Charlie is on the beach and on the lamb from the police) that those scenes must be the high of the movie and as such that the movie will progessively sink from the close of those scenes on. Yet each time I watch the film I am pleasantly refreshed to the fact that the whole film is equally great.

Chaplin is excellent in the film, and his frequent foil in the early movies, Eric Campbell, is also perhaps at his best.

This film is well worth watching (several times).

I wonder if this might be Chaplin's first real classic. He made a ton of movies prior to this, but most aren't that popular on IMDB, or apparently with critics.

In this one the Tramp is first seen escaping from jail. He rescues a woman, and goes from prison clothes to gentleman's attire as he schmoozes at a society function, but of course causes trouble when he accidentally drops ice cream down a rich woman's dress, and starts a kicking fight with a much larger man.

The movie begins with a chase and ends with one, and these are the best scenes, a kind of controlled chaos that must have taken a lot of time to get right. The movie is frequently funny, also.

Except for the opening and closing, Charlie isn't given quite as much to do in this short as in his earlier films, and this one has more of a plot than a lot of them. But Eric Campbell, as the jealous lover of Charlie's romantic interest, was masterful at turning such a small performance into comedy brilliance. My favorite moment was when Eric finds Charlie's picture in the newspaper, which Charlie promptly draws a beard over, only to make the picture look like Eric! It is evident that Chaplin's split-second sense of comedic timing was there, even in these early films, as exemplified in the two chase scenes. There's even a funny but slightly ambiguous ending, showing that his sense of storytelling was developing as well. If I were to introduce someone to silent films, I would probably do so with this one.

THE ADVENTURER (Mutual, 1917), Written and Directed by Charlie Chaplin in his twelfth and final comedy short for the studio, is certainly one that's fit for a chase. Charlie does not play a world traveler here, but a fugitive from justice. A big change of pace from his earlier EASY STREET (1917) where the little man with the mustache played an officer of the law.

The story begins on a beach by a cliff where prison guards are hunting down an escaped convict. As one guard rests for a moment, the convict (Charlie Chaplin), in striped prison clothes, emerges from under the sand beside him. Moments later, a chase up and down the country road begins, with Charlie outsmarting the guards at every turn possible. While swimming out from their reach, Charlie steals a bathing suit from a man on a rowboat about to take a morning dip for himself. Shortly after making his change, Charlie hears a call for help from a woman (Marta Golden) in the water trying to keep herself from drowning. At the same time, Edna (Edna Purviance), the woman's daughter, on the seaside pier with her suitor (Eric Campbell), hears the cry for help and dives into the water, as does Eric and another passerby only by mistake. Naturally Charlie rescues the pretty one, before helping the others on shore. Passing himself as Commodore Slick, a millionaire with a yacht, Charlie, because of his heroic deed, is taken to Edna's luxurious home. The following morning, Charlie, in borrowed tuxedo, joins the party of guests, leading to a kicking contest with Eric as they both vie for Edna's affections, coming face to face with Edna's father, Judge Brown (Henry Bergman), followed by a series of unforeseen circumstances resulting to further chases about the house. Then the fun really begins.

For Chaplin's eleventh encounter with the big and bearded Eric Campbell, many of the laughs undoubtedly fall their way. Their greatest moments occur as to when Charlie outsmarts the conniving Campbell after exposing Charlie's wanted photo he found in a newspaper, along with how Charlie gets even with Eric in a now classic scene involving sliding doors. Though Chaplin and Campbell are great together, this was to be the last of their modern-day David and Goliath collaboration. While Campbell could parted to star in a series of comedy shorts of his own, or resume his screen partnership with Chaplin in future comedies rather than Mack Swain for instance, Campbell reportedly died in an automobile accident shortly after completion of this film, thus ending one of the finest screen collaborations in movie comedy history. Edna Purviance resumed playing Chaplin's female co-star for another few years as would Albert Austin (The Butler), another member of Chaplin's stock company. Others appearing in THE ADVENTURER include Frank J. Coleman (The Prison Guard); Phyllis Allen (The Governess); Janet Miller Sully, Loyal Underwood and Toraishi Kono playing Edna's Japanese Chauffeur.

After many years of availability on commercial or public television in the sixties and seventies, and on home video from Blackhawk/Republic Home Video in the eighties accompanied by orchestration lifted from a 1930s reissue with sound effects, THE ADVENTURER was later restored to clearer visuals, silent correction speed advancing from reissue twenty to twenty-four minutes, and new scoring that would either add or take away from the fineness of this Chaplin comedy. With restoration prints available on DVD through Kino Video, the same prints used for broadcasting on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 6, 1999), THE ADVENTURER still holds up as the sort of comedy that made Chaplin famous, reasons why his name is still remembered, even today. And Eric Campbell, too. (***1/2)

Whereas the other eleven shorts Charlie Chaplin made for Mutual Films, having for the first time full artistic freedom to develop his VERY own style, all had some serious or even tragic elements in them, this last one of them (and the biggest box-office success) gives us just plain, simple comedy that reminds us of his beginnings at the Keystone Studios - only with more wit and artistic ambition; and with quite an unusual protagonist, too: Charlie (who usually wasn't on the best of terms with the police in his movies, anyway) is a convict here who, just with the beginning of that wonderful 25-minute short story, escapes from prison in the most hilarious way! (He'd do the same thing 6 years later in "The Pilgrim", but in a different style that time...)

So we see him running and hiding from the cops with his usual, inimitable movements; only not in his 'tramp' apparel this time, but in prisoner's clothes... We see a whole bunch of policemen hunting him, shooting at him, and yet ending up rolling down hills or being tricked out by the little fellow in some other way! And then - something entirely different happens: down at the beach, where he's finally found rescue, he's got to save a mother, daughter and her fiancée from drowning; and the thankful family, of course, take him to their home and dress him like a real gentleman!

And of course, our hero develops tender emotions very soon for the lovely daughter (a blonde Edna Purviance this time) and vice versa, while he and the big fat fiancée (Charlie's friend Eric Campbell at his best once again) pick on each other with every opportunity - until the jealous suitor sees Charlie's 'WANTED' picture in a newspaper... Well, from that moment on, of course, the chase continues!

So, for all those who keep accusing Charlie Chaplin of being 'too much of a sentimentalist': they should SURELY watch "The Adventurer", to see that Charlie could also be just plain funny - and INGENIOUSLY funny, for that matter! Even after almost 100 years, this wonderfully crazy, fast-paced short FULL of unbelievable ideas still looks as fresh and entertaining as the day it first reached the movie theaters!

My favorite film by and starring sir Charlie Chaplin. The comedic timing, characters, and brilliance of Chaplin makes this timeless classic a must watch for cinephiles. Check it out of you appreciate comedy gold.

Charlie Chaplin's THE ADVENTURER fell a bit flat in my opinion. I love the man's films and I consider myself a fan, but this 1917 short failed to get much of a reaction out of me. In the short, Chaplin is a convict who manages to evade capture from the police and finds himself at a pier where he saves the lives of a beautiful woman, her mother, and her jealous suitor. He is brought to their home and nursed to health in time for an extravagant party where he must evade capture once again when the suitor recognizes him from a newspaper article. It's a promising formula but the movie had more than a few moments when the pace slows to a crawl and I found myself a bit bored. I was also distracted by the over-exposure in some of the outdoor scenes (but I can't fault them for that seeing as how film was still a new medium). There were a few bits I loved, such as the stop-motion used for the police officer falling down the cliff-side, Charlie's constant drinking, and his use of a sliding door as a trap. Unfortunately, for every laugh, there was a long period of mediocrity, be it the run-around on the pier or the drawn-out final chase scene. As usual, Chaplin's ensemble does a great job, including the beautiful Edna Purviance and the goofy Eric Campbell. It's not Chaplin's best moment but it's good for a few chuckles.

In The Adventurer, Charlie plays an escaped convict who briefly manages to enjoy the good life after rescuing a drowning rich woman before the police find him again.

The Adventurer is the last of Chaplin's twelve films for the Mutual Company. Lacking any attempt at the pathos and social commentary that Chaplin injected in some of his previous Mutual shorts, this chase comedy almost appears to be a throwback to his rough-and-tumble roots at Keystone. However, there is one major difference, this film much funnier than anything did at Keystone. While I do not consider this to be his best short, it is arguably his funniest. The chases that bookend the film are hilarious. The middle is hilarious too. The film is a laugh fest through and through. If this film doesn't put a smile on your face, check your pulse.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

From his post-Essanay period after leaving Keystone, 'The Adventurer' is among the very best of his early output, one of his best from his Mutual period and one of his first classics. As said with many of his post-Keystone efforts, it shows a noticeable step up in quality though from his Keystone period, where he was still evolving and in the infancy of his long career. The Essanay and Mutual periods were something of Chaplin's adolescence period where his style had been found and starting to settle. Something that can be seen in his final Mutual effort 'The Adventurer'.

The story is slight and slightly too simple but is at least discernible and is never dull, and does it while not being as too busy or manic.

On the other hand, 'The Adventurer' looks good, not incredible but it was obvious that Chaplin was taking more time with his work and not churning out countless shorts in the same year of very variable success like he did with Keystone. Appreciate the importance of his Keystone period and there is some good stuff he did there, but the more mature and careful quality seen here and later on is obvious.

'The Adventurer' is one of the funniest and most charming early efforts of Chaplin. It is hilarious with some clever, entertaining and well-timed slapstick and the charm doesn't get over-sentimental. It moves quickly and there is no dullness in sight. The second half is both hilarious and enchanting. The sliding doors gag is uproarious.

Chaplin directs more than competently and the cinematic genius quality is emerging. He also, as usual, gives a playful and expressive performance and at clear ease with the physicality and substance of the role. The supporting cast acquit themselves well, with a charming Edna Purviance, their chemistry is sweet to watch, and Eric Campbell being both amusing and formidable.

On the whole, great. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Charles Chaplin plays an escaped convict, who saves a rich girl and her mother, and is treated as a hero.But how long can he hide from the law.The Adventurer is a great short silent comedy movie from 1917.The movie has many funny scenes, like when Charlie is chased by the cops.It is great fun to watch these old silent movies and see how much the movies have changed from those days.