Horst in Translation ([email protected]) This is a 24-minute black-and-white short film and given the fact that this one is almost 100 years old, it will not come as a surprise that this is still a black-and-white film. Chaplin directed this film and teamed up with his regular co-stars Edna Purviance and Eric Campbell here. It is one of his most famous short films, but not among his best in my opinions. It is also among his final years as a short film actor and not too long he went on to work on full feature films. This one actually started promising as I always like Chaplin films when there is a bit more drama and not just the usual slapstick comedy. Unfortunately, after the rescue scene where the women almost drowned, it becomes pure slapstick comedy basically for the rest of the movie and I found this a bit disappointing. It also felt to me that Campbell could not show his actual talent as an actor in this one because the story was too much of a Chaplin show this time. Not recommended. Watch another Chaplin short film instead.

Steffi_P 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)

brando647 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.

hausrathman 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.