The Kid (1921) on Netflix
An unwed mother leaves her baby in a car with a note. Thieves steal the car and abandon him in an alley, where a tramp finds him and takes him home.
- Netflix4.6/5
- IMDb8.2/10147,150 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
An unwed mother leaves her newborn in an expensive automobile with a handwritten note asking that he be loved and cared for. Two thieves drive off in the car and leave the child in an alley, where the Tramp discovers him. He tries to give the boy to people passing by, then reads the note and carries him home, naming him John. The mother returns for her baby and faints on learning that the car was taken.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Kid (1921)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- When Charlie Chaplin's first wife, Mildred Harris, sought to attach his assets in their divorce, Chaplin and his associates smuggled the raw negative of The Kid to Salt Lake City and edited it in a room at the Hotel Utah.
- First National wanted The Kid released as three two-reel comedies instead of a seven-reel feature, partly because releasing three separate shorts meant the studio owed Chaplin a much smaller salary. Chaplin insisted it be released as a complete work.
- Jackie Coogan, then a vaudeville performer, became the first major child star of the movies through his role as the Tramp's foundling son in The Kid.
- Chaplin removed scenes from The Kid he believed too sentimental for modern audiences and composed and recorded a new musical score for its theatrical reissue, which premiered on April 4, 1972, at Philharmonic Hall in New York City, with Chaplin present.
- The Kid was one of many silent films shot in a one-block alley near Hollywood and Cahuenga Boulevard; the alley was later renamed Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley in recognition of this and other films.
