Reel Life (1916-1917)

CHARLES CHAPLIN in •THE CURE” Tenth of Chaplin’s Great Comedy hits for Mutual Release Available April the sixteenth. HARLES Chaplin’s next Mutual comedy, “The Cure,” scheduled for re¬ lease on April 16, affords the $670,000 a year star more really side-split¬ ting opportunities than did any one of the prior Chaplin releases, accord¬ ing to expert opinion, this verdict including even those uproarious hits, “The Count,” “The Rink,” and “Easy Street.” Chaplin appears in “The Cure” as one who has loved conviviality “not wisely, but too well,” and when the genius of the screen makes his appearance wearing that preternaturally grave expression which con¬ trasts so vividly with the pervasive Chaplin grin, there is irresistible comicality, in the introduction. Concommitantly humorous is the behavior of the Chaplin feet which refuse to answer their steering wheel and convey the comedian involun¬ tarily into a series of extraordinary situations. “The Cure” is a hospital resort, dedicated to the elimination of hu¬ man ills and perversities, populated, as such resorts usually are, by human freaks bent on physical regeneration and mental relaxation. This crowd furnishes a comedy caste never be¬ fore equaled even in the vivid im¬ aginings of the screen comedy king. It would have been easy enough, with clumsy handling, to have over¬ played a story which calls for Chap¬ lin’s appearance at “The Cure” with a trunkful of plain and fancy drinks in assorted bottles, plus one extra collar, a shirt and a stubby tooth¬ brush, but it is a tribute to the genius of the world famous actor that he has succeeded in making the action of the play excruciatingly comic without permitting a trace of vulgarity to appear in it anywhere. The fun really becomes riotous when Chaplin’s trunkload of tangle¬ foot is discovered by the resort pro¬ prietor and ordered destroyed, the halfwit attendant given the order dumping it into the medicinal well from which every patient in the place is supposed to drink five pints a day. Of course pretty Edna Purviance, The esteemed Mr. Chaplin plots to boot the distinguished Mr. Campbell — 348 pounds F. 0. B. Los Angeles — into the limpid pool. in the role of a dashing widow, is one of the patients, taking a cure for “nerves,” and equally of course Charlie has his eye on the young woman before he is out of the bus. In the natural sequence of events Edna discovers that in some inex¬ plicable manner the well has become vitalized over night, and, feeling so much better herself after the ma¬ tutinal pint, she doubles the dose and rallies every one of the male and female patients to participate in the newly virtuous waters. Chaplin and Edna continue to sample the contents of the well until life, even at “The Cure”, assumes a roseate hue — a thing worth having and worthy of being made the most of pronto. There and then they pro¬ ceed to make the most of it. Eric Campbell, the 6-foot 4-inch giant of the screen, withal a merry Mastodon, becomes cumbrously frolicsome with the fair Edna and thus slips automatically into his ac¬ customed role of taking punishment from the active Chaplin, who is all over his quarry at once like fleas on a woolly dog. From that moment until the play ends Campbell chases Chaplin hard but vainly, gnashing his huge molars in frantic rage and fanning the air with tremendous fists. The fun, becomes irresistible from the moment of Chaplin’s meeting with Edna and the big patient until the end of the play, laughable sit¬ uations follow without cessation. There is a swimming bath scene in which Chaplin half drowns the giant, Charlie exhibiting himself in a new role — that of expert swim¬ mer and diver. As the Chaplin specials are un¬ folded to the public gaze it becomes increasingly apparent that the great comedian is a master of innumerable arts. For instance, it was not known until he produced “The Rink” that Charlie could skate like a profes¬ sional, and it was not until he de¬ vised the swimming bath scene in “The Cure” that anyone realized what an expert swimmer he is. In that scene Chaplin dives under the vast bulk of Campbell with the speed and agility of an otter, circles him in the water, sits on his head and nearly drowns him and in other ways disports himself as an expert waterman. Altogether “The Cure” is certain to enhance Chaplin’s popularity for he has never produced anything funnier. REEL LIFE— Page Three