Chaplin's "A Dog's Life"

“A Dog’s Life” (1918, USA, Chaplin)

“A Dog’s Life” is a pleasant even flow of Chaplin’s finer moments. His character is a good mix of a clueless boob and savvy street survivor without the violent streak Chaplin exhibits in other shorts. A scene where Charlie goes to an employment office and gets beat to the window several times for a brewery job when he was first in line shows Chaplin’s hobo to be the inept person he can be. However, this is a man who would take a thief’s buried loot to finance his own future with a farm, wife, dog and puppies rather than to drink it or gamble it away as it seems most of the other characters in his world would seem content to do. Great Chaplin gags throughout! The lunch cart scene of hilarious thievery marks the first collaboration between he and younger brother Sydney Chaplin. A personal favorite is when Charlie starts to explain to a cop that the brick in his hand is for playing fetch with his dog.

This film was the first picture on a new contract with First National Films in 1918 after spending the previous three years with Mutual establishing himself as one of films most highly paid actors. His pace of films would now slow, the films themselves getting longer and better, not quite so frantic. “A Dog’s Life” was Charlie’s 64th as an actor and 50th as director.