FILM · 1921 · USA
The Kid
- Directed by
- Charlie Chaplin
- Runtime
- 68 min
- Studio
- Charles Chaplin Productions
35 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (35)
- #001
The off-screen chemistry between Charles Chaplin and Jackie Coogan was as strong as their on-screen relationship. During the first few weeks of shooting, Chaplin took Jackie to amusement parks, pony rides and other outings every Sunday. Some saw Chaplin's relationship with Coogan as an attempt to reclaim his own unhappy childhood, while others interpreted his interest in the boy as a way of reshaping Coogan into the child he had recently lost.
- #002
A dedicated perfectionist, Charles Chaplin took five and a half months to shoot the film, an enormous amount of time for a 1921 production.
- #003
Because Jackie Coogan's mother and stepfather had spent all of the young man's money before he reached adulthood, the "Coogan Bill" was enacted to ensure that child actors' earnings could no longer be squandered by their parents or guardians.
- #004
The depiction of poverty and of the cruelty of welfare workers recalls Charles Chaplin's childhood in London, making this the most autobiographical film he had made up to that point.
- #005
This was the first feature-length film directed by Charles Chaplin.
- #006
The production company tried to cheat Charles Chaplin by paying him for this six-reel film what he would normally have received for a two-reeler (about $500,000). Chaplin took the unfinished film out of the state and held it until the company agreed to pay him the $1.5 million he was owed plus half the rental profits, and he secured the film's return to him after five years on the rental market.
- #007
Production on the film took so long that First National Pictures, the company with which Charles Chaplin had signed a contract, complained. To placate the company, Chaplin invited its executives and theater exhibitors on a grand studio tour to inspect the production and meet the stars. The visitors were so impressed by their experience, especially with performers such as Jackie Coogan, that they agreed to be patient. That patience proved worthwhile when the film went on to become a major critical and commercial success.
- #008
Silas Hathaway, who played the baby in the opening scene, was the film's last surviving cast member; he died in 2017 at the age of 98.
- #009
Charles Chaplin's biographer Jeffrey Vance writes of the film's legacy: "The Kid remains an important contribution to the art of film, not only because of Chaplin's innovative use of dramatic sequences within a feature-length comedy, but also because of what it reveals about its creator. Surely Chaplin had his own artistic credo and his life in mind when he wrote the preface to The Kid, 'A picture with a smile — and perhaps, a tear.' Mary Pickford said of the film: 'The Kid is one of the finest examples of screen language depending on actions rather than subtitles.'".
- #010
For the scene in which the child is taken from the Tramp and nearly carried off to a workhouse, Charles Chaplin stated in his autobiography that young Jackie Coogan was made to cry by his father, who told him he would be sent to a real workhouse if he did not cry on set.
- #011
In 1971 Charles Chaplin re-edited and re-released the film and composed a new score.
- #012
As an adult, Jackie Coogan fell on hard financial times. In desperation he reached out to Charles Chaplin, who gave him $1,000 without hesitation.
- #013
Charles Chaplin decided to make a film with Jackie Coogan after seeing him perform in vaudeville with his father, Jack Coogan Sr. The elder Coogan suspended his career to coach young Jackie throughout the shoot. Chaplin rewarded Jack Sr. for his role in coaching the boy and, to soothe the performer's ego, paid him $125 a week, nearly double the $75 a week Jackie received. Jack Sr. also played several roles in the film, including a bum who picks the Tramp's pocket, the Devil in the Heaven sequence and a party guest.
- #014
Lita Grey, who played an angel in the film, was 12 years old. At 16 she began a relationship with Charles Chaplin and was forced to marry him when she became pregnant. They divorced two years later. She bore two sons during their marriage.
- #015
The main theme of Charles Chaplin's musical score is based on a theme from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony.
- #016
In his autobiography, Charles Chaplin described the scene in which the Tramp wakes to the child cooking him pancakes as inspired by real life from his childhood: "I would wake up in a small tidy room with a small fire burning, and I would see the teapot steaming on the stove and a bulge kept warm beside the haddock or the muddle as he made toast. The mother's cheerful presence, the warmth of the room, the soft padded sound of boiling water poured over us. The earthenware teapot as I read my weekly comic, the pleasures of a quiet Sunday morning."
- #017
Taking a great risk, Charles Chaplin borrowed $500,000 from an Italian bank to make the film.
- #018
The shooting ratio (the amount of footage shot versus the amount that appears in the final film) was 53:1, far higher than in other Charles Chaplin films.
- #019
Charles Chaplin was divorced from his first wife, Mildred Harris, while he was making this film.
- #020
In December 2011, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry on the grounds that it is "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
- #021
In December 2011, The Kid was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. The Registry called the film "a masterful blend of poignant drama, social commentary, and creative comedy," and praised Charles Chaplin's ability to "move his art beyond his usual short subjects and, by skillfully blending slapstick with pathos, to deftly evoke a range of emotions in his audiences."
- #022
The original copyright holder's failure to renew the film's copyright caused it to fall into the public domain, meaning almost anyone could copy and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. As a result, many of the versions of the film available on the market are either heavily (and often badly) edited and/or of extremely low quality, copied from a second- or third-generation (or later) copy of the film.
- #023
Many of the street scenes were shot on Los Angeles's famous Olvera Street, almost 10 years before it was turned into a Mexican-themed tourist attraction.
- #024
The working title was "The Waif."
- #025
It was included on the American Film Institute's 1998 list of 400 films nominated for the 100 Greatest American Movies.
- #026
The large car in which Edna Purviance abandons her baby is a 1918 Pierce-Arrow Model 48-B Vestibule Suburban Limousine. Purviance later drives a 1917 Locomobile Touring Car. In the end, the police take Charles Chaplin to Purviance's house in a 1918 Hudson Super Six Sedan.
- #027
It was Lita Grey's debut.
- #028
The Tramp sees everyone he meets as an angel and a devil.
- #029
As of March 2015, The Kid held a rare perfect 100% rating on the film review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 30 critic reviews, along with a user score of 8.4 on the Internet Movie Database, placing it 95th on the latter site's Top 250 Films.
- #030
The film is part of spine number 799 of the Criterion Collection.
- #031
It was included on the American Film Institute's 2000 list of 500 films nominated for the 100 Years...100 Laughs list of the funniest American films.
- #032
In 1922, 11 seconds were cut from it in the United Kingdom.
- #033
In an AFI poll, filmmaker Wayne Wang chose the film as his favorite film of all time.
- #034
It was Gloria Faythe's debut.
- #035
In May 2017, it was announced that FilmNation Entertainment would remake The Kid as an animated science fiction film. The untitled film was to be directed by Christian Volckman and Rupert Wyatt, and was said to be "inspired by the characters and themes in The Kid."
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