User Reviews

The Tramp never had much going on with authority and the police in the first place, but we never saw (well, at least I didn't) Chaplin quite as criminal as in 'The Police'.

In the first scene he's released from prison and a minister of some sort wants to guide him on the right path, but Charlie finds himself robbed by this imposter. So out of money and out of hope he runs into his old cell-mate, and the two of them decide to rob a big mansion.

When they finally get inside (after an encounter with a police-officer), the young woman living there (a part by Edna Purviance) is being alarmed by some noise, and she calls the police. They don't seem too interested though, as they finish their drinks before checking out the scene.

Meanwhile, Edna confronts the burglars and lets them take away some things, as long as they don't go up, as that would scare her mother. Charlie agrees but his mate doesn't, and they get into a fight just as the police finally arrives as well.

In the end, Edna feels sorry for Charlie and claims that he's her husband so he won't be arrested, and Charlie finally sees that robbing people isn't the right way to live.

Great ending there, with Charlie in love and standing in the sun, of a pretty good Chaplin short about forgiving and living well. 7/10.

Charlie Chaplin's penultimate film for Essanay is regarded as amongst the best of his output for the company. The film was actually released after his first film for the Mutual Film Corporation The Floorwalker, over five months after his previous Essanay film Burlesque on Carmen. Another interesting release related fact is that Police released over two years before his finally Essanay film Triple Trouble which was created in part by Chaplin regular Leo White by piecing together unused shots from other Chaplin films including this and the unfinished feature Life.

Police stars Chaplin as a recently released convict trying to make it in a cruel and hostile world. The initial plot follows along the same lines as much of Chaplin's work. There were portions of Police that reminded me of Modern Times and the idea of the Tramp struggling to survive was used by Chaplin time and time again. It has been suggested that Chaplin borrowed the plot from Broncho Billy's His Regeneration for which he had an uncredited cameo and I agree that the character development at least is shared between the two.

Having been swindled by a dodgy God botherer and having no money to pay for a bed for the night, the ex-con is held up at gunpoint by a man who turns out to be his ex-cell mate (Wesley Ruggles). The thief convinces the Tramp to assist him in robbing a nearby house and the two set about breaking in. Once inside they are confronted by the Daughter of the House (Edna Purviance) and chased by a number of Cops (Leo White, John Rand & Fred Goodwins). The Tramp manages to become the hero of the piece late on when he saves the Daughter of the House from a nasty attack.

Police begins very promisingly with some wonderful comic business early on. A highlight came when Chaplin visited a fruit seller and tried numerous apples, taking a bit and putting them back until he found one to his liking. The first time he put an apple back I actually snorted with laughter. I also enjoyed the scene in which Chaplin meets his ex-cell mate and sneakily robs him while the man is searching Chaplin for money. It's subtle and clever.

On a technical level the film is very good. I liked the scene in which Chaplin and Ruggles were shown only in shadow. This isn't something I remember seeing from Chaplin before and felt a bit German expressionist. I also thought that the use of filters was very accomplished. Filters are one of my least favourite aspects of early cinema but here Chaplin uses them well, leaving you in no doubt as to the time or setting of a scene.

I felt that the second half didn't quite live up to the first and certainly wasn't as funny. That being said it was actually more reminiscent of later Chaplin, forsaking jokes in favour of plot and character development. Unfortunately the romantic element just doesn't live up to the likes of City Lights and the film's ending is a little flat.

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This is one of the shorts on the three DVD set of Essanay films by Charlie Chaplin. While the quality of the films on this volume (3) lags significantly behind volumes 1 and 2, this particular short is pretty good. It and A NIGHT IN THE SHOW are my two favorites on the DVD. The original POLICE was apparently chopped to pieces by Essanay Studios and this version is reportedly the most complete to the original in existence.

In this film, the Little Tramp is released from jail at the beginning. While still in the mood to commit a little larceny, Chaplin's character is fundamentally decent as evidenced by the latter part of the film. A rogue that Charlie knew in prison gets together with him to do a burglary, but when the rogue gets violent and threatens the inhabitants, gallant Charlie comes to the rescue.

The movie has a few laughs, but really excels because of its use of plot and an actual story to provide a deeper movie watching experience.

One of my favorite things about watching these old short comedies that Chaplin was making before he really understood what his own message was is to watch the development not only of his style and on screen talent but also the development of his understanding of his audience. The tramp is the cinema's most famous everyman, and as far as I know this is his most criminal outing yet.

The movie opens with him being released from jail and immediately two things happen: first he is swindled by someone claiming to be trying to get him on the right path, and second, he stumbles across a drunk with a nice gold watch hanging from his vest, begging to be stolen. He fumbles with it a bit, but never once indicates that the thought of stealing it ever enters his mind, even though he could easily get away with it.

But before you go thinking that the tramp was just in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was convicted of whatever crime he was just released from prison for, he immediately becomes involved in a plot to rob a wealthy mansion in cahoots with none other than his old cell-mate. Apparently he didn't learn his lesson so well!

Luckily, the tramp lives in a world where mansions are populated by his old pal Edna Purviance who, when bothered by the robbers intrusion, calls the police, who are so indifferent to the emergency call that they hang out at the police station chatting and sipping drinks before responding.

In true Chaplin form, the tramp manages to win Edna's sympathy, and when the police finally arrive (in true Chief Wiggam form, as it were), he convinces them that he is her husband, and the tramp cheerfully enjoys a quick smoke with the three officers, tapping ashes into one of their hands on the way out, just as the one officer who knows what's going on arrives and throws himself against the door.

The tramp has already slammed the door shut by this point, so he casually drop kicks his cigar as only Chaplin can and relishes in the fact that he has won. The unpleasantness that is sure to follow is unimportant, because soon Charlie falls in love and learns that there are more important things in life than robbing people. This is also one of the earliest films where Chaplin so clearly illustrates his almost Robin Hood-like contempt for the police's oppression of the people. Great stuff!

Chaplin is released from prison and immediately everyone wants to help him go straight. He runs into his old cell-mate and together they break into a house. Edna Purviance lives in that house and she even helps the guys, but only when they are quiet since her mother is very ill.

This Chaplin two reeler is boring in the beginning but once they enter the house it gets pretty entertaining. It is definitely not his best though.

I disagree with everyone who says that 'Police' is uneven. This little one is probably one of the best structured early Chaplin's short. There is a story, and it is logical. Simple, yes, but it follows the classic rules of story development. 'Police' is not just a random collection of gags taking place somewhere. There are nice subtle gags which some become a running joke, and then there is over-the-top fast-paced slapstick. Although the film is cleverly constructed, and Chaplin tries something different with his Tramp character (Tramp has never before been so straightforward criminal) it still is not that inventive or interesting as some of his later (short) films. Still, 'Police' is not the movie to pass on, this is quite important Charles Chaplin picture, mainly because here his story creating ability gets to shine beside his creative gags.

This short comedy marked an impressive leap forward for Charlie Chaplin: it tells a good story in a clear and economical manner, Charlie himself is a sympathetic and even dignified figure though down-and-out, and there are elements of social commentary that don't overwhelm everything else. Oh, and 'Police' also happens to be quite funny, even laugh out loud funny at times. Nothing feels forced, for the gags all spring naturally from the situation and from Charlie's character, and we never get the sense he's straining to make us laugh, nor is there any gratuitous knockabout. Barely two years after facing a camera for the first time, Chaplin the director demonstrates real maturity as a filmmaker while Chaplin the performer is at or near his early peak.

The setting is certainly gritty. As the film opens Charlie is being released from prison after serving time for some unspecified crime, and almost immediately he's set upon by an oily fake preacher who urges him to "go straight" while quietly picking his pocket. (After learning this hard lesson Charlie is suspicious of all others who use the phrase, and no wonder.) When he arrives at a flophouse to lodge for the night, Charlie sees an obviously ill man who is allowed in free of charge by the proprietor; so he coughs, sucks in his cheeks and tries to pass himself off as consumptive, but the proprietor isn't fooled. Funny? Well, yes, it's an amusing gag, but only in the bleakest sense. Charlie is a genuine tramp here, not just an eccentric in a derby, and your enjoyment of the film may depend on your tolerance for this brand of grim, whistling-past-the-flophouse humor. Chaplin experienced dire poverty as a child, so the milieu isn't the product of idle speculation on his part: he knew all too well what hard-scrabble life was like. At any rate, repeated scrapes with cops suggest that our hero may not be out of jail for long, and when he bumps into a former cell-mate who recruits him to participate in a burglary we get the sinking feeling that Charlie is doomed.

As soon as the burglary is underway we recognize that Charlie has been a criminal out of necessity, not from any natural aptitude for crime; that is to say, he is the most inept burglar imaginable, unable to pry open windows, sure to knock furniture over with his cane, and inclined to take the least valuable items in the household. The young woman on the premises (Charlie's perennial leading lady Edna Purviance) confronts the thieves, but Charlie shows us what he's really made of when his partner attempts to get rough with her, and he immediately acts as her protector. While the ending isn't exactly a happy one, we are left with some hope for his redemption.

This was Chaplin's last official release produced for the Essanay company, although his former employers later cobbled together a short they called 'Triple Trouble' out of scraps and outtakes from various unfinished works, over his protests. Meanwhile however, after he completed this film Chaplin went to the Lone Star Studio to make some of his greatest short films for release by the Mutual company. But 'Police' can hold its own alongside the Mutual series, and ranks with Chaplin's best work from this early period. Unlike most of his Keystone comedies and some of the earlier, slapstick-y and disjointed Essanays, this film requires no special patience or tolerance to watch: it's a pleasure from beginning to end, beautifully photographed as well, and a fine introduction to its star for a newcomer to silent comedy who might wonder what Charlie Chaplin was all about.

Just a couple of years into his film career and, while Chaplin had already come a long way since his first outings, he was still far from the finished article. In this film he's both villain and victim: an ex-con who is immediately fleeced by a fake preacher upon his release from prison and then teams up with an old cell mate to rob the house of Edna Purviance and her sick old mum.

The film's OK, but it's nothing great and, while it amuses for most of it's running time - apart from the last five minutes when things start to become a little flat - it doesn't raise any real belly laughs. Chaplin would get much better.

With this picture Charlie Chaplin ended his fruitful tenure at Essanay. While he had produced a handful of better shorts in that period, Police does show off everything he had developed and perfected during his time at the studio. So let's recap with Charlie.

The first thing that is very evident is Chaplin's confidence in his own material. In contrast to the high-speed slapstick that made up virtually all silent comedy up to this point, Police contains lots of slow and subtle visual gags that rely upon the audience's ability to relate to the situations and pay attention to detail. So we get moments like Charlie drying his eyes on the preacher's beard, or getting into the habit of patting his pockets for change every time someone offers to help him go straight. The sedate pace of the bulk of the picture means that when we do get a bit of fast-paced action it has more impact.

However, the clearest and perhaps the most important development Chaplin made at Essanay was the ability to create stories. His first few Essanay pictures don't really have plots, and are just half an hour of antics based around a single location. With Police there is a well-defined structure, and this is probably the strongest and most carefully balanced story he has made so far. There is a consistent theme of Charlie trying to give up crime, and this is set up in the first scene and resolved in the last one. The love angle with Edna Purviance is also neatly established, with them running into each other part way through the burglary, and their relationship built-up and woven into the redemption idea. Perhaps this all sounds a bit high-minded for a comedy, but it is important because it helps the audience connect to the character and gives the jokes a bigger pay-off.

Ever the pragmatist, Chaplin would soon be lured to Mutual studios with the promise of a higher salary. At Mutual he would make what are generally agreed to be his finest short features. Still, his Essanay output, while very much the product of a learning phase, is full of fun and funniness, and the first time the world got to see the little tramp really flourish.

But that's not all; there's still the all-important statistic –

Number of kicks up the arse: 6 (2 for, 1 against)

Charlie Chaplin's "Police" is rather uneven, as are so many of his Essanay features, although it does have a few good parts. In one respect, it's somewhat like his later movies, in that on a number of occasions some social commentary is obviously intended. But such ideas are not expressed nearly so well here as they would be in Chaplin's later, better-remembered films. Here, in fact, it is just these parts that usually slow things down. In this movie, at least, the slapstick generally works a little better than do the attempts to say something.

In "Police", Chaplin plays a just-released convict, who gets involved with police officers, street preachers, and a variety of other characters as he tries to figure out what to do with himself. Some of his predicaments are good for some laughs, while others really do not come off. It's worth seeing, but there are many other Chaplin comedies, even from his early years, that are more satisfying. His efforts to combine social commentary with slapstick seemed to work much better later, when he not only had more experience, but also had complete control over his projects.

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 Essanay period after leaving Keystone, 'Police' is not one of his very best but is one of his best early efforts and among the better short films of his. 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, from 1914, The Essanay period is something of Chaplin's adolescence period where his style had been found and starting to settle. Something that can be seen in the more than worthwhile 'Police'.

The story is more discernible than usual and is never dull, but is sometimes a bit too busy.

On the other hand, 'Police' looks pretty 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.

While not one of his most hilarious or touching, 'Police' is still very funny with some clever, entertaining and well-timed slapstick and has substance and pathos that generally were not there with Keystone. It moves quickly and there is no dullness in sight. The ending is great fun.

Chaplin directs more than competently, if not quite cinematic genius standard yet. He also, as usual, gives an amusing and expressive performance and at clear ease with the physicality and substance of the role. The supporting cast acquit themselves well, particularly a charming Edna Purviance.

In summary, very good and one of the best from Chaplin's Essanay period. 8/10 Bethany Cox

A simple early comic headliner from Charlie Chaplin, who's caught halfway between lighter early fare and the more mature, complete works that would typify his best years. He's mid-transition, in other words, from a basic rodeo clown to an accomplished dramatic player. As such, Police is an admirable effort, an important building block, if not a great standalone. We get the framework of a story - Charlie as an ex-con who's quickly swindled and forced back into a life of crime - but it's extremely loose and rushed, hurrying to hit the key plot points before they've had enough time to cook.

The slapstick stuff is entertaining (Chaplin having already mastered the little foibles and traits that make his Tramp persona so delightful) but that material also hasn't adapted to fit the constraints of a narrative and usually feels clunky or disjointed. There's a touch of heart in the ending, where the Tramp shows compassion and remorse at the end of a botched burglary, but again, it doesn't seem like that roast was ready to come out of the oven just yet. An essential growing pain, one which we know (in hindsight) bears worthwhile fruit, but far from essential viewing material.

The final movie Chaplin made for Essanay was "Police," which the studio held back for release until May 1916. Chaplin's tramp is released from prison, and sees the promise of the righteous life from a minister who greets him at the jail's gate. However, his entry back into society is difficult. Through a series of hardships and a regression back into crime, the tramp is offered hope and kindness by Edna Purviance, whose character was being burglarized by the tramp and a cohort. The theme of the transition from a person down on his luck fitting into society by trying to do good, only to face roadblocks on the way, would be a reoccurring one throughout Chaplin's movie career up until 1936's "Modern Times."