UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Ketrivie
It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
ofpsmith
In this film the tramp (Charlie Chaplin) becomes a police officer because he is desperate for a job. The police are desperate for another officer because they need help to take down a criminal named Bill Bashem (Eric Campbell) who is a giant who enjoys thieving and fighting the police. Chaplin goes to arrest Bashem but finds that his riot shield seems to be useless. Bashem gets mad so he bends a lamp for some reason but Chaplin puts Bashem's head in it and arrests him. He takes Bashem back to the station. After that he goes to help Bashem's wife get food as he is now considered a hero. Bus Bashem escapes jail and he and his thugs go to beat up Chaplin. Chaplin protects the law, Bashem's wife from Bashem and his girlfriend (Edna Purviance). He saves the day and soon everyone is happy. I recommend it. It's funny, and endearing. Give it a watch.
rdjeffers
Monday September 24, 7:00 pm, The Paramount Theater A derelict (Charles Chaplin) visits the local rescue mission where he finds encouragement and resolves to make "A new beginning." Hired as a policeman at a stationhouse where street violence rages uncontrolled, he vanquishes an enormous bully (Eric Campbell), twice, restores civility to the neighborhood, and gains the respect of the beautiful mission worker (Edna Purviance). Easy Street is without question Campbell's best performance, as the rampaging monster and ultimate challenge to Charlie's survival. The ninth of Chaplin's twelve productions for the Mutual Film Corporation, Easy Street is among the most popular and best remembered. It was the last of the twelve produced on a monthly basis and came at a point in Chaplin's career when his working methods became increasingly meticulous and greater amounts of time were required to produce fewer films. Chaplin used nearly as much time to produce the final three films as the nine they preceded.
DKosty123
This is as complete a 2 reeler (each reel was about 10 minutes in the old days) as you can get in a silent film. Charlie Chaplin is really in character & in stride in this movie. The setting of the plot in the mission & on a poor neighborhood street is drawn from Chaplin's own childhood. The bully was too, although he was probably a composite of those who mistreated Chaplin as a child. The tramp becoming a hero is no better done than in this story.The film not only has excellent comedy, but manages to pull a little on the heart strings without getting too emotional. Edna Purviance provides an excellent female lead. Eric Campbell plays the giant bully very well too. Charlie is in great form too. If your into checking out 2 reel comedies,I highly recommend this film. This is one that made 2 reeler's an art form during this era of silent films.
hausrathman
Easy Street starts with Charlie with as a poor, destitute tramp. After attending a storefront revival service, and meeting the always delightful Edna Purviance, he decides to turn his life around. He quickly gets a job as a policeman and he finds himself assigned to Easy Street, the worst neighborhood in the city ruled by tough Eric Campbell. Using his own unorthodox tactics, Charlie eventually subdues Eric and neighborhood and they all live happily ever after.Easy Street was one of the twelve films Chaplin made for Mutual. Mutual gave Chaplin unprecedented freedom and responded by giving them, overall, twelve of the best comedy shorts ever made. Easy Street is easily the best of them. It is a very funny short. This is the film I show when I want to introduce someone to Chaplin or silent films in general. The gags are inventive, and they are extremely well-played by his regular company of Mutual performers. Chaplin himself is at his best in this film, but where would he be without Eric Campbell, the best heavy he ever played against. (Sadly, Campbell would die in a car accident after the completion of the Mutual comedies. His loss would be felt in the First National comedies, which rarely reached the heights of the best Mutual work.)But there is more to Easy Street than laughs. It is unusually mature for a silent comedy of its period. Chaplin usually presented his tramp character as a happy-go-lucky figure - a vagabond by choice, not circumstance. This film starts with the tramp as a down-and-out character, much in need of the new beginning he gets at the mission. In perhaps his first attempt at social commentary, Chaplin provides an unblinking view of ills of the society of the time. The most graphic example is the drug addict shooting up with a needle. People often have a misconception of silent comedies being simply quaint. That isn't quaint. This is a must see.
