Shoulder Arms (1918)

Director:

Charles Chaplin

Writer:

Charles Chaplin (writer)

Release Date:

20 October 1918 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | War

Plot:

Charlie is a boot camp private who has a dream of being a hero who goes on a daring mission behind enemy lines.

Plot Keywords:

Capture | Gas Mask | Behind Enemy Lines | Limburger | Espionage

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

Runtime:

46 min | 36 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) (1959 re-issue) | Silent

Certification:

Canada:G (Ontario) | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Chaplin Studios - 1416 N. La Brea Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Charles Chaplin Productions

Trivia:

Many in Hollywood were nervous that one of their most famous peers was going to tackle the subject of WWI. It was released shortly before the Armistice so it did not help boost national morale. But it did end up as one of Charles Chaplin's most popular films and it was particularly popular with returning doughboys.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: In the woods, where Chaplin runs to hide from the pursuing Germans, automobiles are visible traveling on a highway on the horizon.

Quotes:

Officer: How did you capture thirteen?
Recruit: I surrounded them.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Cineastes en acció (2005)

A Lot Of Creativity And Talent

In these modern times (as subject known quite well to the director of the short film that this German count is going to talk about…), politically correct films are the "leitmotiv" of the modern young filmmakers' projects. "Shoulder Arms" directed by Herr Charlie Chaplin during WWI (the film was released only a few weeks before the armistice) is an obvious example of why the early cinema pioneers were a very bold people, certainly! To direct a humorous film inspired in the terrible, bloody First World War was a complicated matter that only few directors with those dangerous and daring ideas could be allowed to do… to venture upon such delicate enterprise and with success was reserved only to geniuses.

As this German count said, "Shoulder Arms" was made during WWI, that time in where definitely the whole world lost its innocence (fortunately not the German fat heiresses of this aristocrat…) and it is a hilarious, inventive social satire about that and any war. The film it is full of great gags and entertaining film continuity for a story in where that tramp will live though risky and courageous adventures in the front …whether a hero for the allies… or not.

To mock the war trenches, the unhealthiness, the frontal attacks and the Germans (how you dare!!... by the way, there are a lot of inaccuracies in the film … the German soldiers by that time had moustaches and longer beards not to mention that the Kaiser lacks many medals in his uniform…) in an elegant, funny and delicate way it is even today a film miracle impossible of being surpassed. Keeping in mind those terrible wartime circumstances, the difficult task is only possible thanks to a lot of creativity and talent. Obviously Herr Charlie Chaplin had very much of it.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must go back to the Schloss trenches.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/