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Measured in terms of sheer belly-laughs The Cure may well be the funniest movie Charlie Chaplin ever made. Not one moment is given over to sentimentality about childhood trauma, unrequited love, poverty or anything of the sort; this time around, Chaplin is single-minded in his drive to make us laugh, and he achieves his goal with ruthless and exhilarating efficiency.

The story's setting may require a bit of explanation for younger viewers. At the time this film was made there were a number of well-known health resorts in the U.S. and Europe built around mineral springs. It was fashionable for middle- and upper-class people to spend a week or two at these spas to address whatever health problems they might be struggling with, for it was believed that mineral water cured or at least alleviated a variety of ailments. The resorts were visited by well-to-do patients afflicted with everything from rheumatism, gout, or polio to chronic alcoholism, and someone in the latter category who went to a spa to get clean and sober was said to be "taking the cure."

When Charlie arrives at the spa that is our setting, pushed in a wheeled deck-chair by a uniformed attendant and obviously still tipsy, we know right away that despite the familiar mustache he's not the Little Tramp we usually encounter. Here, though slightly disheveled, Charlie sports a dapper ensemble of light jacket, straw boater, and spotted tie, indicating that he's a respectable bourgeois citizen who has come to this place -- probably at the insistence of family or friends -- to dry out. It's soon apparent that he has no intention of changing his ways, however, for his wardrobe trunk is full of booze and he wastes no time in refreshing himself. When an attendant tries to ply him with mineral water he reacts with disgust, and after taking a sip rushes back to his room to wash the taste out of his mouth with liquor. Just to demonstrate that he's not entirely a wastrel, however, Charlie gallantly rescues a young lady (Edna Puviance) from the unwelcome attentions of an obnoxious man (Eric Campbell), and even sobers up long enough to go for a massage and a very brief dip in the spa's pool. Eventually, Charlie's stash of liquor is discovered by the resort's manager and inadvertently dumped into the spring. Soon, everyone in the place except for Charlie and Edna is drunk and disorderly, and Charlie must once again come to Edna's aid.

The great sequences in this comedy begin almost immediately, when Charlie confronts a revolving door and has his first run-in with Eric Campbell, whose unpleasant personality determines that his gouty foot will be fair game for brutality thereafter. Campbell, who wears an especially nasty-looking beard, has a great moment when he appears behind Edna in the lobby, leering at her through a curtain like a crazed goblin. Things get a little risqué when Charlie misinterprets Eric's flirty gestures as meant for himself, but the real comic highpoint comes when Charlie heads for the pool and must fend off a beefy masseur (Henry Bergman). This sequence is absolutely hilarious no matter how many times you see it, and stands with the best work of Chaplin's career.

Perhaps the synopsis of The Cure will sound distasteful to anyone who hasn't seen the film; and granted, attitudes towards substance abuse have changed over time. I maintain that Chaplin was well aware of the seriousness of his subject matter -- his own father died young as a result of alcoholism -- and that he did not take it lightly. The true subject of this film was the contemporary fashion for health resorts, and much of the humor derives from poking fun at the proponents of the spring's curative powers. We see just enough of the spa's administrative staff to get a sense of their self-righteousness, a well-meaning but pompous attitude suggesting that they know all the answers and hold the key to health and happiness. Charlie with his trunk-full of booze is a dangerously subversive element in this atmosphere, and it's his (almost accidental) overthrow of authority that's funny and exhilarating.

The Cure is beautifully staged, expertly performed, and hilarious. Where health and happiness are concerned I'd say that viewing it is as restorative as the spring waters touted by the resort's staff in the film: it's good and good for you.

Very simply the most hysterical of all his Mutuals! Charlie is not only inebriated throughout his stay in rehab but makes sure everyone in the place gets crocked too! A masterpiece! A riot! You'll laugh until you wet your pants!

Charlie, an alcoholic, goes to a health spa for the water cure. He does so, however, only half-heartedly since his luggage is filled almost entirely with alcohol. Once at the spa, he flirts with the always-delightful Edna Purviance and battles with always-menacing Eric Campbell, who finds himself at slight disadvantage in this film since his character suffers from gout. This film, Chaplin's tenth under his twelve-film Mutual contract, doesn't quite scale the heights of his previous one, "Easy Street," but remains one of his most consistently funny shorts. A revolving door is used repeatedly for great comic effect, but the highlight of the film is the massage sequence where Charlie desperately tries to avoid the rough treatment masseur Henry Bergman deals out. Charlie interestingly abandons his normal tramp persona for this film. Although he felt rich drinkers were ripe targets for comedy, he felt that alcoholism in the working class was a serious problem which wasn't suitable for comedy. (Don't ask me for attribution, but I know he said that somewhere.)

Much of the delights in this short film involve a tipsy Charlie (whose luggage consists entirely of bottles, to the good fortune of the weirdly bearded porter) and a grouchy, gouty, Eric Campbell - a perfect foil for Chaplin, he'd be much missed after his death in a road accident later in 1917.

Edna Purviance, Charlie's usual sweetie in these short films, is a welcome presence, but it is Chaplin himself who shines throughout 'The Cure', whether struggling from the over zealous attention of a Turkish bath attendant, walking his funny walk up steps, or getting stuck along with Campbell in a set of revolving doors.

It doesn't get much better than this.

This is an odd film from the outset, as Chaplin doesn't play the Little Tramp--the poor but decent soul he usually played. Instead, he's a rich alcoholic who goes to a spa to "take the cure"; i.e., rest, drink lots of mineral water and kick his booze habit. It's obvious, though, that he's not the least bit motivated as his luggage consists of dozens of bottles of booze. When the staff find them, they throw them out the window and accidentally into the spring--thus "fortifying" the water significantly. Everyone there gets drunk and Charlie finds, for the first time, he actually LIKES water! Highly ridiculous and silly, but that's slapstick for you. All-in-all, a very good film but quite a departure for Chaplin.

By the way, some time after I first saw and reviewed this movie I saw the documentary "Unknown Chaplin" and a significant portion of the first part of this interesting British show was about THE CURE. It was very interesting to see how the film evolved. In the beginning, Charlie cast himself as a bellhop and another person as the drunk. But after seeing many takes and re-takes, he apparently decided to do the drunk role himself. Many of the bellboy scenes were re-shot--now with Charlie doing them as the drunk. This documentary is a must-see for Chaplin fans.

THE CURE (Mutual Studios, 1917), Written, directed and starring Charlie Chaplin, his tenth comedy short (20 minutes) for the Mutual studio, is one of his all time greats. For a title that indicates one to be set in a hospital with Charlie as an unruly patient who flirts with the nurses and drives his doctors crazy, in essence, it takes place in a sanitarium that wherever Charlie goes, trouble follows. For THE CURE, Chaplin breaks away from his traditional tramp character with derby and cane for straw hat, white suit and cane retained, stirring as much trouble as he can, intentionally or not, to those around him.

The story opens at a resort with an assortment of female gossips gathered together seated around the health spring where enters the new resident, the drunken Charlie (Charlie Chaplin), arriving for a rest cure, to nearly fall into the water well on the ground. After being escorted to his room by a frail and thin bellboy, Charlie opens his crate that reveals an assortment of liquor bottles. Once the bottles are discovered with the bearded bellboy found drunk in Charlie's room, the superintendent (Frank J. Coleman) orders the bottles thrown out. The attendant (Albert Austin) takes him literally and throws the bottles out the window where they end up inside the water spring below. In the meantime, Charlie makes his rounds about the resort, encountering an attractive woman (Edna Purviance) being annoyed by the burly gout (Eric Campbell), thus, saving the day by becoming a big annoyance for the big man and hero to the girl. Later at the massage parlor, Charlie begins to have second thoughts of treatment when witnessing how the sadistic masseur (Henry Bergman) works on one of his customers. Following a series of unforeseen circumstances, Edna, whose about to meet with Charlie, discovers, to her disbelief, the refined residents and attendants having way too much fun for themselves in the lobby without knowing the reason why. And if that isn't enough!!!

While there's not much plot nor character background development to go around, THE CURE is non-stop comedy, pure and simple. The carefully planned-out gags are enough to guarantee solid laughs with Chaplin stock character types in their proper roles for background support. As much as Chaplin is the sole attraction when it comes to both character and gags, Eric Campbell should not go unnoticed for his achievement in villainous comedy. Campbell, better known in later years as "Chaplin's Goliath," partakes in some of the greatest sight gags imaginable, including the revolving door, his reaction towards Charlie's misconducts involving his bandaged foot, his involvement with Charlie in both lobby and massage parlor, his trip down the stairs in a wheelchair, among others. Aside from Edna Purviance as Chaplin's frequent female co-star, other members of the cast include James T. Kelly, John Rand, Janet Miller Sully and Loyal Underwood.

In the well documented three-part 1983 documentary, "Unknown Chaplin," there are some detailed moments capturing behind the scenes preparation for THE CURE, with Chaplin directing various sequences that were rehearsed and filmed, but not making it to the final print, and how changes to THE CURE developed into what has become one of Chaplin's finest gems, especially when properly scored on the musical soundtrack.

When presented on public television in the sixties and seventies, this and other Chaplin's Mutual comedies (1916-17) were broadcast with sound effects and musical score taken from 1930s reissue prints. For THE CURE, underscoring consisted of current hit tunes of the day ranging from "Happy Feet" to "Happy Days Are Here Again." These reissue prints later became part of the Blackhawk/ Republic Home Video package dating back to the 1980s. In latter years, Chaplin's Mutual comedies were restored to accurate silent projection speed (25 minutes) with new orchestral score from KINO Video, the prints that have played on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 6, 1999). After listening to different scores from various distributors, nothing comes off better than those orchestrated ones from Blackhawk for that bad scoring takes away the impact for such a fine comedy, considering how these twelve Chaplin shorts for Mutual are simply the cure for what ales you. (****)

Before Chaplin got into films, he was well known on the English stage for his roles playing a drunk, yet these roles are undeniably the weakest performances of his early film career. The movie opens with him stumbling all over himself as an exasperated bellhop tries in vain to lead him into a hotel. There is the obligatory mayhem involved in getting through a revolving door, which goes on for as long as it can. Chaplin seems to have an almost prophetic knack for milking a gag until there's nothing left! Once inside, what seemed like just another drunk movie turns delightfully into something else.

Charlie reprimands a bellhop about to light a cigarette, and wags his finger at him, reminding him that smoking is bad for you health, and then casually opens a suitcase packed to the brim with every kind of alcohol imaginable. Needless to say, soon the bellhop doesn't seem to smoke much anymore, but spends most of his remaining screen time falling over drunk off of booze that he apparently "borrowed" from Charlie's suitcase. And by the way, seeing all of those bottles of 1917 alcohol reminds me of a long standing wish that I could have tasted Coca-Cola back in the old days, when it lived up to its name…

Soon Charlie checks into one of those establishments where you go to relax in the pool, spa, sauna, or get a massage, etc. I'm not sure what they're called in English, but I know that in Chinese it translates to "bath house." It's interesting to me to see what the place was like, because when I lived in America I never really spent much time in them, although I have been to some astonishingly nice ones in Colombia and China. It may be the third world, but I guess when a sizable portion of the population has no shower at home, public bathing spots are big business. There's an amusing scene involving a swimming pool and then a frighteningly vicious massage, which appears to be a mandatory experience in this particular bath house, and the massive masseuse chases Charlie all over the place, ultimately flat out fighting with him.

But the best part of the film is that Charlie doesn't just play a drunk, we see him the next morning, and his actual dependency on alcohol is brilliantly portrayed. There is a scene where he charms a young woman off her feet, and she offers him a drink which at first he refuses, given that he's still recovering from the night before. But he takes a sip anyway, and then downs the rest of the glass and pours himself another, eventually taking the whole jug and drinking it down in front of the young lady, who is unimpressed. It mirrors the end of the film, which quite literally illustrates the message of the movie, which is that too much alcohol will lead to your life falling "in the drink."

In "The Cure", one of those 12 marvelous shorts he made during his time at Mutual Films, Charlie Chaplin turns away for once again from his 'little tramp' image that had already become his 'trademark', and returns to a role he'd played LOTS of times back in England in his theater days: that of the wealthy drunkard. And of course, not only his great experience in this field, but also all the HILARIOUSLY funny ideas he fits into those two reels of sheer, GREAT comedy, provides today's audience with JUST the same amount of laughter as it did 100 years ago - Chaplin's films NEVER 'age'...

So our tipsy 'gentleman' arrives at the sanitarium, where he's supposed to get used to drinking water instead of whiskey; he makes us ROAR with laughter with the unbelievable things he does with the revolving entrance door, he flirts with Edna Purviance, just like huge Eric Campbell does (and for a short while, Charlie actually thinks it's HIM who's Campbell's love interest!), turns the massage by Henry Bergman into a wrestling match... While at the same time, the porter starts emptying the liquor bottles Charlie's brought along with him just in case - but that's not all: he throws the remainders of the bottles out of the window right into the sanitarium's water well...

In short: "The Cure" is certainly one of the VERY best silent comedy shorts; and so it's not only a REAL treat for Chaplin fans, but also an IDEAL way for today's audiences, both grown-ups and kids, to discover the magic world of silent movies!

"The Cure" has Chaplin arriving tipsy to a health clinic to supposedly dry out, but he shows up with a trunk full of booze. This film has some memorable scenes but the premise of it is very funny. There are plenty of run-ins with Eric Campbell's character with the foot cast. Campbell is also Chaplin's rival for the girl as well, although, poor girl, has to(?) choose between an ogre and a recovering alcoholic who is failing miserably at the recovering part.

Outside of the hotel is some sort of little fountain or well that has a stone terrace around it and stone benches. Mostly women it seems sit around the 'ol water cure hole and drink. At some point in the movie, a dude that Charlie had been rough with earlier comes back. The man goes into Chaplin's hotel room and throws every last bottle of booze (that is the ones that the crazy long-bearded old bellhop didn't drink) directly into the water hole below. So much for health clinic security! Before long, the entire hotel is trashed.

There's a good sequence when Chaplin goes into the spa for a massage with a large guy who looks like he's practicing wrestling moves on people. "The Cure" seems to lack a number of good sequences but makes up for it a bit with the overall funny factor. It still doesn't appear to be his best of the Mutual period (this was the 10th film for Mutual, 45th time directing and 67th overall)

Charlot is an alcoholic and gets a suitcase full of alcohol in a sanatorium. Charlot dances as if massaging the screen. Chaplin's cinema becomes a dance that eludes sadness like when Charlot tries to evade the brutal masseur. The director discovers alcohol, which makes throwing out but ending up in water, which has strange effects: patients dance in the sanatorium until they stagger. The following day he reveals to Charlot that the water is full of alcohol and Charlot falls into the pool. The movie anticipates movie like "Hard times", where substances end up in water and create comic situations. In "Hard Times", instead, Viagra ends up in the water.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

From his post-Essanay period after leaving Keystone, 'The Cure' is among the very best of his early output, one of his best from his Mutual period and one of his first classics. As said with many of his post-Keystone efforts, it shows a noticeable step up in quality though from his Keystone period, where he was still evolving and in the infancy of his long career. The Essanay and Mutual periods were something of Chaplin's adolescence period where his style had been found and starting to settle. Something that can be seen in 'The Cure'.

The story is slight and slightly too simple but is at least discernible and is never dull, and does it while not being as too busy or manic.

On the other hand, 'The Cure' looks good, not incredible but it was obvious that Chaplin was taking more time with his work and not churning out countless shorts in the same year of very variable success like he did with Keystone. Appreciate the importance of his Keystone period and there is some good stuff he did there, but the more mature and careful quality seen here and later on is obvious.

'The Cure' is one of the funniest and most charming early efforts of Chaplin. It is hilarious with some clever, entertaining and well-timed slapstick and the charm doesn't get over-sentimental. It moves quickly and there is no dullness in sight. The second half is both hilarious and enchanting.

Chaplin directs more than competently and the cinematic genius quality is emerging. He also, as usual, gives a playful and expressive performance and at clear ease with the physicality and substance of the role. The supporting cast acquit themselves well, with a charming Edna Purviance, their chemistry is sweet to watch, and Eric Campbell being both amusing and formidable.

On the whole, great. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The Cure from 1917 is a Charles Chaplin film in which he doesn't play The Tramp character.He plays an alcoholic who enters a health spa with a big suitcase full of alcohol.There he meets a beautiful girl (Edna Purviance), who could help him become sober.At some point, all of the spa's inhabitants are loaded after the liquor ends up at the health waters.I have never been drunk in my entire life, and intend never to be, but it can be funny to watch comedians portraying drunkards on films.And Chaplin sure plays a funny drunk.And the absence of The Little Tramp isn't a problem, he was in that costume in many other movies.But how funny the movie is, that's the main issue here.And this movie is pretty funny.

Chaplin heads to a spa, which was all the rage back in the day, in the tenth film he edited, wrote, produced, and directed for the Mutual Film Corporation. Although perceptions of alcoholism have changed significantly since Chaplin's time, the rising tide of the temperance movement was influential in passing the eighteenth amendment a couple years after this film was released. Alcoholism was perceived as more a battle of will power than environment or genetics. In The Cure, Chaplin descends on a health spa catering to the hoity-toity and creates chaos as usual. Instead of the tramp, we get Chaplin playing a regular character this time. Chaplin's character, like probably many real life people who went to these spas, has no intention of actually drying out. There are many moments of slapstick, sight gags, and poking fun at the high and mighty. Eric Campbell is on hand as a rich masher with gout. Edna Purviance plays the girl Chaplin helps of course. Henry Bergman plays the bathhouse masseuse as, what Chaplin's character perceives to be, a wrestler. This sequence builds laughs upon laughs and is uproarious, as Chaplin attempts to extricate himself from what he fears to be a very intimidating situation. Revolving doors also play a role in some terrific sight gags. Like many Chaplin films, the film starts slow and picks up as it goes along, an enjoyable departure from the tramp. *** of 4 stars.

This is one of the more dated of Chaplin's short comedies, but it still has some funny parts. A great deal of the humor comes from elements that either do not seem quite as funny today (habitual drunkenness) or that are not as familiar today (gout, "taking the cure"), but there are other parts that demonstrate Chaplin's usual comic genius. Charlie is a rich idler who is at a spa to "take the cure", but he is most reluctant to give up his dissolute ways. The best moments are probably the scenes with a wobbly Charlie and a gouty Eric Campbell trying to negotiate a revolving door - they get a lot of laughs out of a simple gag.

While dated, there are still enough very funny parts to make "The Cure" worth a look.

This time, Charlie Chaplin plays a drunk who has to spend some time in a health spa. Sure enough, he creates chaos everywhere he goes! "The Cure" was also one of Edna Purviance's early roles. The two of them have a couple of scenes together. But above all, this is an excuse for Chaplin to strut his stuff, and boy does he! It must have been weird for Chaplin, going as he did from being a poor boy in England to being an international superstar. Nonetheless, he gave us some of the greatest comedies of all time. That makes it all the more disgraceful that the US government - mired in McCarthyism - wouldn't let him reenter the country in 1952, forcing him to spend the rest of his life in exile. Fortunately, Chaplin got the last laugh: he won an Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 1972, and he remains one of the most beloved entertainers ever.

At this time, he may have been making his most effective story-based short pictures like Easy Street and The Immigrant, but Charlie Chaplin still had time for a good old chaotic mess around, such as was the staple in his days at Essanay studios.

In fact The Cure is very much like his Essanay pictures, in that it takes an established environment, which Charlie's character then invades and turns topsy-turvy, much as he did in His New Job, Work, A Night in the Show and more. However it is done with the polish and professionalism of the Mutual pictures. The scene is set with a couple of brief images of prim Edwardian ladies sipping daintily at the waters of a health spa. This is the world Charlie will overturn. When Chaplin arrives we are treated to over five minutes of uninterrupted gags, all in a seamless flow. He lampoons revolving doors, pummelling masseurs, and of course Eric Campbell, before building up to a grand scale bit of mischief as the whole clientele and staff become unwittingly intoxicated. What makes it extra funny is the way Chaplin whirls around seemingly unaware of the trail of destruction he leaves behind him.

You can also see in The Cure how neat and effective Chaplin's use of space and timing is now. He first pulls up in a wheelchair quite far back in the shot. In the foreground is that badly-placed waterhole, like an accident waiting to happen. Chaplin builds up a kind of comic suspense in making us wonder how long it will be before he puts his foot in it. There's also a great little arrangement in the shot where Eric Campbell is flirting with Edna Purviance and Chaplin comes walking down the stairs. Campbell is the most animated in this shot, but the camera tilts down as Chaplin descends. Thus are eyes are drawn to Eric but we are also made conscious of Charlie's arrival on the scene.

There's little else to say – this is an all-round good effort, and perhaps Chaplin's best "just for fun" picture yet.

But we mustn't forget the all-important statistic – Number of kicks up the arse – 1 (1 for)

This is among Chaplin's most successful shorts and is certainly one of the funniest. There's no sense in describing any of the gags, I don't suppose, because for instance how can you describe an exquisitely choreographed pratfall in print? A visual medium like film loses something in translation into language, just as written works lose in translation to film.

Humor in silent films must be difficult to begin with. Because speech is conveyed only by a handful of title cards, the situations we see must be universally understood before gags can be built on them. Chaplin was a genius at showing us a situation and then turning it funny.

I'll have to add a couple of more specific notes though. One is that there is a scene in which Eric Campbell, the huge guy with the gout, is rolled too quickly in his wheelchair and when it suddenly jerks to a halt he falls out of it and goes head first down a well that is barely wide enough to accommodate him. The figure isn't Campbell's. It's a stunt man, who instructed the crew to keep filming as long as his legs were kicking out of the well. When they stopped kicking, the stunt man was quickly retrieved.

Another point is that Chaplin's work has been chopped up over the years and reassembled as if by the drunken character he plays here. Most available tapes are fuzzy and incomplete, but the DVD, Chaplin's Mutuals, is crisp and clear and about as good as it's likely to get.

Another is Chaplin's astonishing nimbleness. Portraying a drunk in a silent movie is much harder than actually BEING drunk. The revolving door scene shows him at his most adroit. He tries drunkenly to enter the building through a revolving door, whirls around 360 degrees, and emerges at the same spot he entered. A few more staggering steps while he looks curiously around, apparently pleased at what the building looks like from the inside.

Well, see, it does lose in the translation. See it if you can.

Charlie goes to a spa with a suitcase full of liquor, as he's obviously an alcoholic. Other guests are Eric Campbell, who has apparently broken his foot (you know what is stepped on numerous times in this film) and Edna, who takes the liking of both men.

Funny scenes include several with a revolving door, in particular at the end, when Campbell takes a dive from his wheelchair into a small pool with special water... how did they manage to do that!

The ending is pretty good as well, as 'The Girl' is Charlies cure for alcoholism. In short, nice little Chaplin (in which he isn't The Tramp for a change) flick, which I'll give 7/10.

Out of all of Chaplin's short films, this is the one I could watch over and over again. Chaplin is at his absolute best as a reluctant guest at a spa. His daring escape from a massage, and the funniest use I have ever seen of an escalator are the highlights of this gem.

Charlie Chaplin's 24-minute short "The Cure", written directed and produced by the master himself as always, takes him playing an alcoholic to a health spa this time. It has his usual companions Eric Campbell, very bearded and wearing a cylinder, and Edna Purviance. Early on, we get some mindless revolving door fun, which gets a bit repetitive quickly and afterward inside the spa, as always all kinds of hilarious complications ensue, especially for Campbell's character, when Chaplin displays his usual devastating routine. He turns away Campbell's chair the the moment he wants to sit on it, so the colossus lands on his his giant butt. He jokingly kicks Campbell's plastered leg and many more. I don't think it's as funny as Chaplin's best, but if you're a fan of his, you'll probably like it. Also, besides Chaplin's comedic efforts, it includes a nice message for audiences almost 100 years ago about how devastating alcohol can be to the extent that it can possibly destroy your life and doesn't make you exactly attractive to women (Purviance here) either.

I have the disadvantage of having grown up in the MTV generation so it's harder for me to really appreciate some of Charlie Chaplin's short films. They have to be pretty consistently funny to leave an impression on me, but THE CURE falls into the group of shorts that fall out of mind soon after watching it. It finds Charlie Chaplin's alcoholic arriving at a sanitarium/resort spa where men and women go to clear their minds and cleanse their bodies. But he's a drunk, and hence hi-jinks. There are a few fun gags; in my opinion, the best was Chaplin's total lack of understanding in how a revolving door functions. It's good for a few laughs before it's milked a shade too long. The same could be said for just about every gag in the movie (e.g. when Chaplin is unknowingly dumping his water cup into his hat). The rest of the movie is just Chaplin stumbling around from room to room, aggravating just about everyone he crosses. There are a few chuckles here and there, but nothing memorable. Both Edna Purviance and Eric Campbell make their usual appearances here, but Purviance disappears pretty fast and Campbell (as the man with the gout) does nothing but chase Chaplin and repeatedly stub his bad foot on furniture. I guess the whole concept was just a little too simplistic and there just wasn't much to be gleaned from it for laughs. Fans should give it a watch, but it's no EASY STREET.

The Cure (1917) was another one of Charlie Chaplin's shorts that featured a few members of his troupe. Charlie stars as a drunk who goes to a health spa. His day their is filled with all kind of crazy situations. The funniest one involves a burly masseuse who manhandles his clients. After witnessing the masseuse's style of massage, Charlie is a little more than reluctant to participate and the burly dude chases him all over the room very eager to give our hero a "treatment". Edna Purviance co-stars as well.

An interesting look at Chaplin as he assumes more control over his films. A few more of these shorts would lead him to direct, produce, write and star in his first feature length film.

Highly recommended

Monday October 1, 7:00pm, The Paramount Theater

An affluent inebriate (Charles Chaplin) visits a health spring for "the water cure" and inadvertently pollutes the well with liquor, intoxicating all the guests. The Cure was Chaplin's tenth of twelve "Mutual Specials" and dealt with a socially sensitive issue only months before the eighteenth amendment established a national prohibition of alcohol. Charlie arrives at the spa, under the influence, and dodders into the revolving glass entry door. An enormous guest "With The Gout" (Eric Campbell) entangles himself in the door with Charlie and an attendant (John Rand). Chaplin's use of this device rivals the clever originality of the escalator in The Floorwalker. Campbell's bandaged foot is smashed in the door and stepped on repeatedly throughout the film. Charlie wrestles with the violent masseur (Henry Bergman), swims without getting in the pool, and rescues the girl (Edna Purviance) from drunken aggressors while engaging in his typically playful and humorous "business."