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Shoulder Arms
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Shoulder Arms (1918) More at IMDbPro »

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Shoulder Arms (1918) -- Charlie is a boot camp private who has a dream of being a hero who goes on a daring mission behind enemy lines.

Overview

User Rating:
6.7/10   1,806 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 56% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Charles Chaplin
Writer:
Charles Chaplin (writer)
Contact:
View company contact information for Shoulder Arms on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
20 October 1918 (USA) more
Genre:
Comedy | War more
Plot:
Charlie is a boot camp private who has a dream of being a hero who goes on a daring mission behind enemy lines. full summary | add synopsis
NewsDesk:
I'm Not a Huge Charles Chaplin Fan but...
 (From Rope Of Silicon. 2 February 2009, 12:41 AM, PST)

User Comments:
The Tramp Does His Bit more

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Charles Chaplin ... Recruit
Edna Purviance ... French girl
Syd Chaplin ... Sergeant / The Kaiser (as Sydney Chaplin)
Jack Wilson ... German Crown Prince
Henry Bergman ... Fat German sergeant / Field Marshal von Hindenburg
Albert Austin ... U.S. soldier / German soldier / Kaiser's chauffeur
Tom Wilson ... Training camp sergeant
John Rand ... U.S. soldier
J. Parks Jones ... U.S. soldier (as Park Jones)
Loyal Underwood ... Short German officer
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Additional Details

Runtime:
46 min | 36 min (TCM print)
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System) (1959 re-issue) | Silent
Certification:
Canada:G (Ontario) | Argentina:Atp

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Originally planned at five reels; outtakes were preserved in Chaplin's private collection. True Boardman, Marion Feducha and Frankie Lee played Chaplin's sons in cut domestic scenes intended for the beginning of the film. Peggy Prevost and Nina Trask portrayed draft board clerks, Alf Reeves a draft board sergeant and Albert Austin a doctor in a cut scene at the draft board office. more
Goofs:
Miscellaneous: In the woods, where Chaplin runs to hide from the pursuing Germans, automobiles are visible traveling on a highway on the horizon. more
Quotes:
Officer: How did you capture thirteen?
Recruit: I surrounded them.
more
Movie Connections:
Featured in Cineastes en acció (2005) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful:-
The Tramp Does His Bit, 9 March 2008
9/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Considering all of the comedies with a military situation that have been done in history, someone had to be the first. One could make a case that in Shoulder Arms, Charlie Chaplin invented the genre.

Hard to believe that back then this was a daring move. When you consider that some of the best films involving such people as Bob Hope, Abbott&Costello, Laurel&Hardy involved military service and made during war time, it's just something you accept and laugh at.

In the First World War Chaplin along with fellow stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford went out on bond tours. He was a great supporter of the Allied cause, unusual for someone of his left wing views. It would seem only natural that the Tramp would be drafted and unfortunately would flummox around and wreak havoc on all.

A lot of things you'd see in the service comedies of World War II got their start in Shoulder Arms. Chaplin had no more imitators because within a few weeks of the film's release, the war was over.

But a comedy art form had been established by one of comedy's greatest geniuses.

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