Shoulder Arms is a 1918 silent film directed and starring Charlie Chaplin.
Chaplin as his signature Tramp character, is a recruit in the United States army during World War I. After capturing thirteen enemy soldiers by way of "surrounding" them, Charlie gets a pat on the back from the Sergeant (Sydney Chaplin). Later, Charlie is sent to spy on the enemy whilst disguised as a tree. During the venture within enemy lines, he meets a French girl (Edna Purviance), who aids in his mission. While impersonating as an enemy officer, Charlie discovers that his pal, the Sergeant, has been captured by the opposition. Charlie improvises by convincing the enemy soldiers to leave the prisoner in his hands, which they do, and soon enough when no one is looking, Charlie frees his friend. Together, the team of three save the day, capturing the Kaiser (also played by Sydney Chaplin) and turning him over to the U.S. superior officers. Celebration thus ensues, until that is, Charlie is awoken by his fellow soldiers.
Too bad it was all just a dream.
Hey, Jorgé - did you hear about the newly discovered Chaplin film? Ivan mentions it over at www.thrillingdaysofyesteryear.blogspot.com but apparently it's all over the net... how cool is that?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, Matthew. I heard something about it, but not in that detail. VERY cool!
ReplyDeleteTime for more on this site?
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is...
This place has been rather neglected, hasn't it? Though, not something I've completely forgotten about... it always bothers me when I start something that seems to have good potential, and then give it up. Which is why I've told myself that this place hasn't been abandoned, but instead is just in a hibernation of sorts. I've been so preoccupied with making videos lately, that it's given little time to focus on other projects. (Right now it's a stop-motion that was ONLY suppose to be a weekend side-project made for complete amusement whilst waiting for my room to finish being painted as so I could go in there and film a 50's sci-fi B-movie themed video. But then became too absorbed with the stop-motion film, and now it's been well over a month and I'm still far from finished with it.) Anyhoo. Back to the topic somewhat strayed from. As said, this site has not been forgotten. There have been a good number of times in which films have crossed my mind in means of writing about on here... though, between all the other things going on, and admittedly, just plain ol' laziness, they always halt me from doing anything about it. I do appreciate you stopping by, and reminding me that people do actually bother to check out this site... it does provide some level of motivation.
ReplyDeleteTo make this comment even more longer than it needs to be. I've wondered that what if part of my avoidance from this blog might be due to the format of writing. In the beginning, it was intended to be short, and just a straight through, simple review. Sure, it sounds just that, a SIMPLE thing to do. However, I have a horrible attention-span, becoming extremely bored by working on repetitive things to the point it becomes a chore. So, to keep that from happening, perhaps when I do return for more posts, the boredom inducing limitations of the writing arrangement should be thrown out, thus allowing myself to write about films, yet with the leisure to ramble about this and that concerning them, and sharing more of a personal opinion. That just may be the ticket to getting back on the posting train, or then again, maybe not. Currently though, there's that stop-motion waiting for work to be done to it, so once again I shall disappear from the face of the earth! Well, okay, not just yet. Thought you might be interested to know that I've begun building up a plot line for the someday far in the future film "How Mildred Got Away With Murder". "The Half-eaten Fruit Puppet Show", however, still has a long, long way to go though. You wouldn't think so, but it's quite difficult building an entire film around half-eaten fruit... the cast keeps rotting. Rimshot!--Okay, okay. Now I'm finished with the way too long unnecessary ramble that is this comment.
And nearly two months later, I've finally read it!
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear the site is only hibernating, and yes, I think more of a ramble could be the way to go.
My Cameos site, which I started planning to post on every time I watched a movie, suffers from similar periods of ice and thaw, for what I guess is the same reason: I want to just jot down what I thought of the film while it's still going round in my head, but I've committed myself to a specific format that entails finding a still and a poster, and copying the credits from the imdb, and keeping to a predecided layout, and after all the preliminary effort the enthusiasm is waning... and often as not I think 'sod it' and don't bother.
So perhaps we can encourage each other?
Anyway, great to hear that Mildred is a step nearer to cinematic reality. But don't give up on the half-eaten fruit: the potential's there...
Cheers!
Matthew