Load of rubbish!!

Excellent but underrated film

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There are almost too many pratfalls in this short (then again when is there enough when done right). Chaplin plays a prisoner who escapes (his entrance in the movie is just fantastic on the beach), and is chased for a little while by the guards- as he does daring-do to escape like rushing up a cliff-side or doing a fun way of pulling a gun on someone- and then gets away by helping two women from drowning and is sucked up into their bourgeois existence. There's barely a beat when a gag is missed, and Chaplin takes every one. It was in the style of the 'Keystone Kops" series where there were chases and chases and more chases, and just lots of variations on gags. What makes it work is that it's gut-bustingly funny, from how he saves the pretty woman and leaves the other woman still drowning until he goes back (or how he knocks the big man back into the water, having to use his big fake beard to pull him out!). He also uses sliding doors to great usage here. And if memory serves there's even a fun gag involving ice cream! It's nothing brainy, it's just a really fun comic-book like short that utilizes all of Chaplin's physical prowess and his guts, and his timing running up those stairs in the house is one of the most brilliant things out there.

Charlie Chaplin made a dozen short films for Mutual Films and this is one of them. It's a very good film, but also very odd because the Little Tramp is in this case the Little Jail Bird! Charlie playing an escaped prisoner is not that unusual in his early years, but those used to the sweeter character he played in his full-length films won't really recognize this characterization.Despite being a wanted man, Charlie seems pretty decent as he helps several people who fall into the sea. As a result of his efforts, he is taken back to the home of one of the rich people he saved. When he awakens, he thinks, initially, he's in prison. But, once he realizes where he is, he relaxes and has a good time--until the police arrive and a series of mad dashes and chases occur--much like the very beginning of the film.Cute, fun and, all in all, pretty insignificant fare from Chaplin.

I've seen The Adventurer well over a dozen times and each time it is just as funny as the time before. I repeatedly find myself thinking during the first scenes (where Charlie is on the beach and on the lamb from the police) that those scenes must be the high of the movie and as such that the movie will progessively sink from the close of those scenes on. Yet each time I watch the film I am pleasantly refreshed to the fact that the whole film is equally great.Chaplin is excellent in the film, and his frequent foil in the early movies, Eric Campbell, is also perhaps at his best.This film is well worth watching (several times).

Certainly, in my opinion, the Greatest comedy short of all time. Charlie, an escaped convict, saves life of rich woman and is taken in by her family(and jealous Eric Campbell - who tragically died in an automobile accident a year after). How long will it be till the law catches up with him? There's an absolutely SUPERB sequence as him dodging the law using sliding doors, it will leave you laughing loud. This film alone demonstrates Chaplin's unique and incredible talent. Many people get turned off by Chaplin's shorts as they are silent. It's a shame as some of them represent his best work.