Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

grantss Entertaining, but not among Chaplin's best.Interesting plot: the Tramp becomes a policeman! (It could happen...). From here many adventures ensue.Has the usual Chaplin slapstick and sight gags but also has some darker themes: bullying, abuse of power, power-madness, instant fame and even drug abuse (though here it appears more of an advert for drugs - it was 1917 I guess, so they didn't know better).However, it is not as powerful, clever or laugh-a-minute as Chaplin's later stuff. Chaplin's gags seem less well thought-out and more about cheap laughs here. I guess he was still honing his craft and exploring his own boundaries.Good performances. Eric Campbell is scary as the bully, he of the fearsome eyebrows.

John T. Ryan Mr. Chaplin,of course, had gotten his initiation into the Motion Picture Business with Mack Sennettat the Keystone Studio. The year was 1914 and Mack signed Charlie to a one year deal. Acting and physical comedy were all deeply embedded in the Chaplin personality as he had just about grown up on the stage. He had done a lot of different work, including the boy in the stage play, THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.At the time of his discovery by Sennett (There was no American Idol Show then!)he had just finished a tour of the States in a show called, "A NIGHT IN THE English MUSIC HALL", which was called "THE MUMMING BIRDS" in Britain. He had a featured part in a sketch where he played an annoying Drunk.* Also in the show was a fellow Englishman by the name of Arthur Stanley Jefferson, a Red Headed lad who took the Stage Name of Stan Laurel.** After this first year in the Sennett Stable, the young Chaplin's stock had risen considerably. He had started out as mostly a supporting player and quickly moved up the ladder to featured comic. By the end of 1914,he was writing, directing and acting in front of the camera. Enter Essanay.The Essanay Film Manufacturing Corporation of Chicago was founded by partners George K.Spoor and G.M. Anderson(better known as Broncho Billy).*** The name is derived from the 'S' in Spoor and the 'A' in Anderson. Hence we get S and A, or the single name, "Essanay".Spoor and Anderson opened up their coffers in order to obtain the services of Charlie. He also got plenty of perks in the deal. He would essentially be his own boss, writing, directing, etc. hat was good for 1915, but what next? In 1917 the Chaplin show moved on. Now a fresh new deal was inked with 'The Little Tramp' late in '16. Mr. Charles Chaplin now had big buck$ in $alary, lot$ of ca$h for budgetary consideration and full artistic freedom. He could make his films as he wanted, taking whatever time needed, employing what methods he saw fit to use.All that resulted was a fabulous 12 two reel films, each one a gem. He had elevated the 2 reeler Comedy Short Subject to the level of most Feature Films. The films would be released as a production of Mutual's Lone Star comedies. Much like Jackie Gleason's HONEYMOONERS episodes of '50's Television fame, it is just about impossible to pick a favourite.EASY STREET has always been rated right up at the top of the bunch to this writer. In it the Little Tramp is seen as a "Derilict", living on 'Skid Row' and will do just about any thing. After meeting up with a lovely Mission Lady (Edna Purviance), Charlie is smitten and vows to make himself. As he leaves the Salvation Army-Type Rescue Mission, he even gives back the collection basket that he has stolen.The Tramp soon answers a 'Help Wanted' sign hanging on the local Police Station. Then for the remaining three quarters of this film we see a great variety of the finest mixtures of sight gags and true sentiment. He proves to be firm, yet charitable. His persona as a Police Officer is multi-faceted. He is not only the 'Man', or the 'Big Heat'.The sequence leading up to his tangling with the Bully of Easy Street (Eric Campbell) is a magnificently engineered gag upon gag, finally reaching a crescendo. And, just when victory seems to be at hand, the 'Problem' returns.The end of the film shows that Beat Cop Chaplin not only has been successful in 'cleaning-up' of Easy Street crime conditions, but also has done okay with the Mission Lady.Just as an after thought, in looking at this 1917 Comedy, we may very well have a glimpse into the heart and soul of The Little Trasmp. In his later years in the U.S.A., Mr. Chaplin came under suspicion for his Political Beliefs. This was the era of one Joe Stalin and the "Red Scare". Charles had gotten a reputation for his inquiry about radical or 'Un-American Idologies, not that he ever opened up his check book to Moscow or anything like that. Anyway as we all know, he was refused re-admission into the United States following a European trip in 1952.You see, Chaplin had never become a U.S. Citizen and had been classified as an "Undesirable Alien". He did not return until 20 years later when he received a Special Oscar at the 1972 Academy Awards.Examination of the Morale at the End of EASY STREET would seem to contradict the presence of any Communist sentiments. A very poetic Title Card tells of the need for both Social Compassion and a Law Abiding citizenry. It's there, honest! Just watch it! * Elements of his act a very much in evidence in many of his early films at Keystone, Essanay and Mutual.** Yes, that same guy who later gained immortality as 1/2 of the Film Comedy Team of Laurel & Hardy. Besides his own parts, Stan also understudied Charlie's Drunk Act.*** "Broncho Billy" was the first Western Hero on the screen. While Chaplin was at the Essanay Company, He appeared in a cameo shot in the G.M. Anderson, "Broncho Billy" film, HIS REGENERATION. Mr. Anderson reciprocated and was in a Chaplin CVomedy.

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.

wmorrow59 I've been a Chaplin fan since I was in grade school, and Easy Street was the movie that converted me for keeps. It wasn't the first of his films I saw, but once I'd seen it I knew that Charlie Chaplin was truly as great as his reputation proclaimed. He's wonderful here, at the peak of his powers, funny and moving and seemingly super-human, like some kind of cartoon dynamo. And today, more than 30 years since I first encountered it (and almost 90 years since it was made!) this is a film I could watch again anytime, not just because it's funny -- although it is -- but also for darker, more melancholy reasons. Easy Street is certainly a comedy, but it's no one's idea of a light-hearted romp: the humor in this story is rooted in poverty, violence and substance abuse, and unfortunately all of these things are just as relevant today as they were in 1917. It's well known that Chaplin grew up in dire poverty, and it's reasonable to assume that the squalid world of this ironically titled work is based on his childhood memories. This film stands as proof that the greatest comedy is born out of pain, and that's why I can return to it again and again, for although human suffering is always topical and always relevant, so is the urge to transcend suffering through humor. In this film Chaplin triumphs over the deprivations of his own childhood, and viewers can share in his triumph.In the opening scene we find Charlie fallen on hard times, no longer the dapper Gentleman Tramp of earlier appearances but a real derelict, ragged, pale, and sleeping on the ground. He is drawn to a nearby mission by the sound of singing, joins the congregation and soon pledges to go straight; he even proves his conversion is genuine by pulling the collection box from his baggy pants and returning it to the startled minister. Before long Charlie has applied for the job of police officer in the roughest neighborhood imaginable, Easy Street, a slum ruled by an enormous bully, magnificently portrayed by actor Eric Campbell. The unfortunate Mr. Campbell, who would be killed in a car accident less than a year after giving this performance, deserves a belated nod of respect for making Easy Street such a memorable experience. Although clearly intended as a comic caricature, Campbell's nameless bully is nonetheless a formidable figure, a mighty beast with a shaved head and heavy eyebrows, and the close-ups that reveal Campbell's stage makeup do nothing to diminish his powerful aura.The film's most unforgettable sequence comes when Officer Charlie, dressed in a Keystone Cop style uniform as he nervously walks his beat for the first time, suddenly comes face-to-face with Campbell, an ogre several times his size. The scene is filmed in a single lengthy take, beginning with a tracking shot as Charlie strolls down the sidewalk, encounters the bully, and then tries to stand up to him. The bully, who appears to be made of granite, becomes increasingly sure of himself as Charlie falters. When Charlie finally resorts to clubbing him over the head, the blows have no effect whatever; in fact, the bully impassively offers his head for more clubbing, just to demonstrate how little it bothers him. Charlie tries to flee, but the bully yanks him back and starts toying with him, like a cat tormenting a mouse before moving in for the kill. Scary, right? Well it's funny in the movie, but scary too, and it comes as a relief when Charlie (in an iconic moment as familiar as Harold Lloyd dangling from the clock) resourcefully uses a nearby gas lamp to subdue the bully -- temporarily, anyway.While the scenes with Campbell are moments to savor, there are also a number of low-key sequences involving the lady from the mission, played by Chaplin's perennial leading lady Edna Purviance, and during these scenes we get a vivid picture of life on Easy Street. Edna takes Charlie to a flat full of kids whose exhausted-looking parents obviously can't cope. Charlie, impressed with the scrawny Dad's ability to father so many children, quietly pins his own badge on the man's chest. It's a sadly funny moment, but the larger picture is bleak, and before the story is over we've been presented with images of domestic abuse and drug addiction. None of this material is prettified or sentimentalized in the "Hollywood" manner; this looks more like newsreel footage, and some viewers may well find it depressing. Easy Street is no stroll in the park, but somehow Chaplin is able to leave us on a note of hope, even while making it clear (with one last gag involving the reformed bully and his wife) that he's fully aware of the wishful thinking involved. Still, it's a beautiful ending to a great movie, one that demonstrates Chaplin's artistry as beautifully as any short film he ever made.