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"The Vagabond," on the other hand, is almost straight drama. This unique little picture is a prototype of "The Kid" and "The Circus." It has many enthusiasts though others find the emotional scenes awkward. They feel that Chaplin, as a director, was then not quite up to the effects he was to get so masterfully later on. Nevertheless "The Vagabond," in which Chaplin ventures into a new realm, is an important picture.
It opens with a shot of Charlie's familiar feet under the swinging door of a saloon. He is playing a violin but yields to a competing German brass band. Moving over to the free lunch, he switches signs so that an old Jew can help himself to some ham. Then he passes the hat, ostensibly for the brass band. He is caught and chased away.
Out in the country he plays for a pathetic gypsy drudge weeping over a washtub. As his tempo rises in a rhythmic gypsy number, the girl's rubbing speeds up until the tub upsets. Charlie bows like a maestro taking curtain calls, but gets no applause from the brutal chief who chases him and gives the girl a beating. From a refuge in a tree Charlie fells the pursuing gypsies, one by one, and makes an escape with the girl in the gypsies' wagon. Camping out happily, Charlie washes the girl's hair in a bucket, uses a hammer to open eggs, executes offending flies by making his pocket their death chamber. An artist meets the girl and paints her portrait. "His romance fading," Charlie makes pathetic competitive attempts at drawing but cannot wake the girl out of her dream of the handsome artist.
Taking first prize at an exhibition, the portrait is publicized. In it the girl's wealthy mother recognizes her daughter, abducted as an infant. "That birth mark — my child!" Arriving at Charlie's camp to claim her daughter the mother acknowledges Charlie's existence with a shoulder-high society handshake. Charlie refuses a money reward and bids the girl a fond goodbye. Watching the