User Reviews

This film was one of three that were later combined by Chapin into a compilation that was released to theaters in the late 1950s under the title "The Chaplin Review".

The film, though a short, was a very complete story and had a lot more depth than earlier Chaplin shorts. In other words, less emphasis was placed on sight gags and more on the story itself. As a result, it played almost like on of his full-length films.

Charlie is an escaped prisoner--an odd situation for Chaplin, I would think. However, being the good guy at heart, he is able to reform himself through the course of the film and live up to the image he created by the 1920s of the lovable Little Tramp (as opposed to the earlier incarnations which were often much more violent and mean).

This film is beautiful technically and I have nothing negative to say. It's a fine short film.

1923's "The Pilgrim" put an end to a significant chapter of Chaplin's career. It was the last silent short film he did after his career centered around these for almost a decade, easily the most prolific phase of his life. In the 20 years afterward, he directed all his notable full feature films he is most know for these days. With "The Pilgrim", Chaplin surely went out on a high note. It's one of his longest short films and also the last one with his long-time partner Edna Purviance. It was almost too long for his own good. He never really managed the perfect balance between drama and comedy here, one of the strongest achievements in his feature films. It occasionally drags, but all in all it's not bad. Of course it has its moments, like Chaplin looking at the girl and then in his very own shy fashion into the camera when he's going through albums with the old lady. The flower-picking ending is truly hilarious as well. And there's quite some significance to the ending about Charlie and film entering new territories (Mexico) with the rising significance of sound. Decent job from everybody involved and it's even better if you watch the restored version including Matt Munro's beautiful rendition of "Bound for Texas" and a pretty good score beyond that too.

I regret giving THE PILGRIM a "9". It is so well done it deserves a "10" but one so wishes it had more scenes to it one's disappointment makes it lesser than say THE GOLD RUSH or CITY LIGHTS or MODERN TIMES.

Chaplin was trying to get away from his classic tramp figure, but public love of the character forced him to use it in his last four major silent films as well as traces of it in his first sound film THE GREAT DICTATOR. Yet in the middle years of the 1920s he considered projects avoiding the tramp entirely. He would make Edna Purviance's A WOMAN OF Paris as director, and played a cameo as a porter. He would consider a variant on the tramp "Professor Bosco" who had a flea circus (the sequence from this film survives in the anthology THE UNKNONW CHAPLIN). He would even consider a film on the life of Napoleon (a still of him dressed as Napoleon exists - the resemblance is uncanny). Finally there was this, the one feature he did prior to his sound period where he really isn't the tramp. But he's close.

Chaplin is a convict who manages to break out of prison. He heads for the Texas-Mexican border, and by circumstances he is dressed as a clergyman (hence the title). It is odd that Charlie never delved into the field of religion before. He believed in the Judeo-Christian code of ethics, but was basically indifferent to organized religion (a point used against him as a "godless atheist" by his right-wing critics from the 1930s onward). Occasionally he shows a minister in one of his comedies. In EASY STREET he is partly convinced to reform and join the police by a minister at a mission house (whom is glad to see the success of his sermon, but is shocked when Charlie turns over the collections plate and some other items he pinched). But no full scale film emerged - possibly due to Chaplin the businessman thinking shrewdly ahead about box office results. The 1920s was not only the age of bathtub gin, Al Capone, the discovery of Freud, the kicking up the traces of the Victorian period...it was also the time of the reemergence of the K.K.K., the beginning of such figures like Aimee Semper McPherson among Christian religious leaders, the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee. The Religious Right was very much alive in the 1920s, and while they loved Charlie's tramp they would have scowled at a serious spoof on religious leaders. Two years after the film Sinclair Lewis did just that in ELMER GANTRY, which won the Pulitzer Prize (Lewis refused it for personal reasons). Although a best seller, GANTRY did not get made into a film until the 1960s.

Charlie arrives in a small town in Texas, close to that border he wants to cross. Once across in Mexico he'll be safe. He is met at the station by a group of church elders led by Matt Swain. They have been expecting the new minister, and they think it is Charlie. As the town Sheriff (Tom Murray) is with them Charlie can't disavow them of their error without causing further questions being asked. He goes along hoping to find an opportunity to flee before long. Of course one complication after another arises testing his abilities to maintain his role. The most critical one is the appearance of a fellow jail bird (Charles Reisner) who blackmails Charlie into assisting him in robbing the Church or face exposure. Charlie goes along - or does he?

From being an opportunistic crook, Charlie's performance is wonderful in showing how sometimes a person's new role brings out values he or she never realized existed (think of party boss Chester Arthur made President of the U.S. by the assassination of his predecessor in 1881, and subsequently showing a zeal for reform in Civil Service, Naval Construction, and vetoing pork-barrel legislation that nobody ever thought he had in him). Here Charlie the opportunist did think of using Church money to defray expenses in Mexico, but gradually he gets to take his role very seriously. First time he does is a cute little joke about the collection plates. There are two boxes passed around by Swain and the other elders (the congregation is large and divided into right and left sections of the pews). Chaplin is watching the congregation, but notices more activity on one side than the other. The boxes are given to him for safe-keeping. He feels the heaviness of the well-filled box and smiles beatifically at that portion of the congregation. Then he sees how light the other one is. He gives the other side a dirty look!

He turns out to be a very effective preacher, delivering a sermon on David and Goliath. Done in pantomime it is one of the best bits he ever concocted, managing to show the story without having to speak at all. He never forgets he's a comic, and the final bit in the sermon after the death of Goliath (when he shows David's disposal of the corpse) is a typical "tramp" gesture with his foot.

There are other bits in the story that are worth treasuring. Swain (shortly to get his great role in Chaplin's films in THE GOLD RUSH) shows for all his marked piety a degree of failing in his drinking. His and Charlie's discomfiture regarding a side flask (keep in mind an illegal one - it's Prohibition in 1923 America!) is cleverly handled.

The others in the film are quite good - particularly Murray who proves to be one lawman with a human heart. And the conclusion, wherein Charlie wonders if his idea of escape was so really smart is clever too. THE PILGRIM is not the top tier Chaplin, but is wonderful enough as it is - and well worth viewing when one can.

Chaplin edited, wrote, produced, and directed this final film he made for First National Pictures. It was also the final film he made with Edna Purviance playing a major role. Chaplin plays an escaped convict who happens upon a town near the Mexican border. The town's residents mistake him for the new minister they're expecting. It's another mistaken identity plot with Chaplin poking some fun at religion. It was surely as taboo of a subject to address on film then as it is today, if not even more so. Chaplin finds himself in a bind when he falls for Edna Purviance in the town but is simultaneously forced to join with a former cell-mate to rob the town's church. Meanwhile, Chaplin must dodge lawmen who may recognize him as an escaped convict. Chaplin has hilarious scenes trying to uphold the sanctity of his new title while fighting the pickpocket in the minister's house with guests present. That particular scene is a visual metaphor for Chaplin's character's battle with his old and new lives. Chaplin follows the pickpocket to a gambling hall where he mischievously reacquires the church's money in disguise while the townsfolk discover who Chaplin really is. Chaplin is humanely allowed to leave town, but he is set upon by Mexican bandits and wants to return at the fadeout. It's odd Chaplin never took on religion previously, since he wasn't particularly fond of organized religion in real life. This film was later used against Chaplin by overzealous HUAC supporters resulting in his banishment from the United States, a sad and pathetic chapter in American history. **1/2 of 4 stars.

Well the plot is very simple, an escaped convict is set free by the policeman himself. But, that's not important. It's the techniques the genius master storyteller employs.

There is only three shots in the opening to show us that a prisoner has escaped and roaming around as a different person. We see the reward poster of chaplin's picture and someone after taking bath in the river, comes out to change clothes and he is petrified by seeing a prisoner's costumes instead.

Then he goes as a pastor and so on but the thing with chaplin is the little nuances and he is such a detailer and knows people behavior very well. You could see many different characters like kids, adults of all shapes etc.., What i meant to say is that he is so good with the craft, writing and also knows human behavior and values so much that you cant resist praising.

A gifted filmmaker and the cinema is so privileged.

Enjoyable overall, those little smiles and excitement is all over the movie.