The Kid (1921) comes to the Criterion Collection

On February 16, 2016, the Criterion Collection released The Kid on Blu-ray. Charlie Chaplin directed the film starring Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, and Jackie Coogan.

‘The Kid’ Criterion Synopsis

Charlie Chaplin was already an international star when he decided to break out of the short-film format and make his first full-length feature. The Kid doesn’t merely show Chaplin at a turning point, when he proved that he was a serious film director—it remains an expressive masterwork of silent cinema. In it, he stars as his lovable Tramp character, this time raising an orphan (a remarkable young Jackie Coogan) he has rescued from the streets. Chaplin and Coogan make a miraculous pair in this nimble marriage of sentiment and slapstick, a film that is, as its opening title card states, “a picture with a smile—and perhaps, a tear.”

Read the full summary, and listen to our film review.

Special Features

• New 4K digital restoration of Charlie Chaplin’s 1972 rerelease version of the film, featuring an original score by Chaplin, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New audio commentary featuring Chaplin historian Charles Maland
• Jackie Coogan: The First Child Star, a new video essay by Chaplin historian Lisa Haven
• A Study in Undercranking, a new program featuring silent-film specialist Ben Model
• Interviews with Coogan and actor Lita Grey Chaplin
• Excerpted audio interviews with cinematographer Rollie Totheroh and film distributor Mo Rothman
• Deleted scenes and titles from the original 1921 version of The Kid
• “Charlie” on the Ocean, a 1921 newsreel documenting Chaplin’s first return trip to Europe
• Footage of Chaplin conducting his score for The Kid
• Nice and Friendly, a 1922 silent short featuring Chaplin and Coogan, presented with a new score by composer Timothy Brock
• Trailers
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar Tom Gunning

New cover by F. Ron Miller

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