Synopsis
The Immigrant (1917) is a Charlie Chaplin silent short you can watch online on iFILM — barely twenty minutes, and one of his most pointed. Sea-sickness, New York harbor and the Tramp without a coin to his name.
Chaplin's Little Tramp crosses the Atlantic in steerage, flirts with a fellow passenger named Edna (Edna Purviance) and lands in a New York that greets the poor with shoves and suspicion. The shot of huddled migrants framed against the Statue of Liberty still lands like a punch. Eric Campbell looms over the second half as a glowering restaurant waiter.
Underneath the gags with a stray coin and a plate of beans runs real sympathy for people no country wants — which is why the Library of Congress later preserved it in the National Film Registry. Stream The Immigrant (1917) online on iFILM.
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