Topic: The Cure (1917) - Charlie Chaplin

[metaldams]

 
      THE CURE from Charlie Chaplin.  What a fun short.  I think sometimes this one gets overlooked because it is sandwiched between two Chaplin shorts that are a little more forward thinking, or daring, dramatically.  They’re also more memorable from a scenic point of view.  Alcohol is also not as risqué as heroin.  THE CURE is merely a straight forward comedy, God forbid.  Hey, I like straight forward comedies and Chaplin does them well.  The main premise of this short is Charlie is an alcoholic in a sanitarium.  This sanitarium holds a well of miracle spring water that will instantly cure alcoholism, so they say.  Charlie resists drinking it, no doubt inspired by fellow alcoholic W.C. Fields and his quote on why one should not partake in H2O (clears throat).  But yeah, a simple premise that results in a lot of funny comedy.

      My favorite bit of the short is in the beginning and it involves that revolving door.  Chaplin, especially in his Mutual period, always made great use of props, be it the clock in THE PAWNSHOP, the rolling column in BEHIND THE SCREEN, or the stairs in ONE A.M.  This revolving door involves a spinning, inebriated Chaplin going round and round in circles in the door.  He manages to get his head caught before trapping a gout footed Eric Campbell and a sanitarium worker in the revolving door.  He uses his cane in the door to achieve this.  As Chaplin is finally released from the door, his spinning continues as he goes all the way across the room, up the stairs and into his room.  A really funny scene and another great bit of physical comedy.

      My other favorite bit is Chaplin with the masseuse Henry Bergman.  Love the way Bergman twists the guy before Chaplin like a pretzel.  Always show the threat the heavy will do to another before getting to the comedian, a technique that will be used effectively in the next short as well.  Chaplin avoiding Bergman is an excuse for Chaplin to prance around like a ballerina (to bring up Fields again, I’m going to review him soon), and do some great dodging and slipping and sliding, in addition to wrestling.  Showing off Chaplin in his physical prime, still a young man able to pull off some astonishing physical movements.  Again, funny stuff.

      I could list off everything else in the short as good, but the two bits I mentioned above are my favorites.  I do want to add when Chaplin is telling Edna towards the end he will swear off the alcohol, he does a nice bit of pantomime with the acting.  I can tell in this small bit Chaplin would work well in features with more serious stuff.  So yeah, THE CURE?  Again, a fun film, nothing more, nothing less.

[Dr. Mabuse]

Excellent review . . . and one of my favorite Chaplin Mutuals. The fashionable delirium of "The Cure" contrasts sharply with the bleakness of "Easy Street." In this hilarious sanitarium satire, inebriated Charlie wreaks havoc upon a health spa when his liquor supply is dumped into the spa waters. A delightful record of Chaplin’s mastery as a comic drunk, with a strong assist from Eric Campbell as the gout-ridden patient. Ironically, "The Cure"  would have made a great vehicle for W.C. Fields — a devout Chaplin hater.

[metaldams]

You’re right, this would have made an excellent Fields film.

[HomokHarcos]

I like the short, a lot of fun gags. The spinning door bit was one of the standouts for me, I was laughing when Chaplins's head got stuck in the door. I also liked the part where there is shoe throwing, the drums being played on the YouTube video made it even funnier, along with Chaplin hiding behind the curtain.

This short works because it follows a premise that would be used by many comedians: take a high class setting and put a common man like Chaplin there, where he causes embarrassment for others and is not even aware of it. The well was kind of strange, though. Who would want to drink out of something that looks like a puddle on the ground? I did like that the alcohol got mixed into there, so everybody was getting drunk when they were supposed to be getting off of the booze.

[Paul Pain]

THE CURE was a fun short.  This is comedy short subjects, not ALL ABOUT EVE, after all.  We're here to laugh, and Chaplin accomplishes just that.  We get some excellent moments with John Rand, Henry Bergman, and Eric Campbell, which is the bare essence of a Chaplin film.  This, however, seems to be more directly focused, though I think it was intentional that the bell boy had that William Booth beard going.

The highlight really was the revolving door and all the chaos involved, but the artistic and choreographic talent definitely was the scene with Henry Bergman.  You would think Chaplin was a bar of soap in all that.

And how many gay jokes were in there?  We had the scene where Charlie thinks Eric Campbell is flirting with him.  Then, in the baths, Charlie thinks Eric and the other man are opening the curtain to "study" him.

[metaldams]

THE CURE was a fun short.  This is comedy short subjects, not ALL ABOUT EVE, after all.  We're here to laugh, and Chaplin accomplishes just that.  We get some excellent moments with John Rand, Henry Bergman, and Eric Campbell, which is the bare essence of a Chaplin film.  This, however, seems to be more directly focused, though I think it was intentional that the bell boy had that William Booth beard going.

The highlight really was the revolving door and all the chaos involved, but the artistic and choreographic talent definitely was the scene with Henry Bergman.  You would think Chaplin was a bar of soap in all that.

And how many gay jokes were in there?  We had the scene where Charlie thinks Eric Campbell is flirting with him.  Then, in the baths, Charlie thinks Eric and the other man are opening the curtain to "study" him.

Yeah, Chaplin did a lot of homosexual jokes, at least early on.  Makes me wonder if he tried to create some ambiguity with his onscreen character - clearly he liked Edna as well.  Or maybe he was just doing it for a laugh, who knows.  There’s this, BEHIND THE SCREEN and SHANGHAIED.

[Umbrella Sam]

Chaplin did quite a few drunk roles at Keystone and there it never really tended to be funny, usually repetitious. Here, though, the pacing is so much better and the increasing mayhem throughout makes it so much funnier. Just the idea of Chaplin trying to sober up at a hotel only to unintentionally get everyone drunk in the process is a funny idea itself. I also like when he’s trying to get away from Henry Bergman after witnessing how he handles his patients. The highlight, though, is definitely the revolving door. Such a simple and predictable idea, but Chaplin makes so much out of it that while also throwing in Eric Campbell so it never gets stale. Obviously not the type of direction Chaplin would continue down, which I’m glad as I couldn’t see him pulling this off in a feature, but for a short, it does work.

[Freddie Sanborn]

Yeah, Chaplin did a lot of homosexual jokes, at least early on.  Makes me wonder if he tried to create some ambiguity with his onscreen character - clearly he liked Edna as well.  Or maybe he was just doing it for a laugh, who knows.  There’s this, BEHIND THE SCREEN and SHANGHAIED.

It was a common trope, especially in the UK, for a comic to play mincing “nance” characters, only to reveal themselves to be hetero later. Frankie Howerd, Kenneth Williams, and Charles Hawtrey specialized in this. Great way to get around the censors.

[metaldams]

It was a common trope, especially in the UK, for a comic to play mincing “nance” characters, only to reveal themselves to be hetero later. Frankie Howerd, Kenneth Williams, and Charles Hawtrey specialized in this. Great way to get around the censors.

So a British Music Hall thing, that makes sense.  Probably a lot more of this stuff is than I realize.