Synopsis
The Cure (1917) is a silent Charlie Chaplin short you can watch online on iFILM. Across roughly half an hour, a wealthy drunk arrives at a spa resort to be cured of his habit — and brings an entire trunk of liquor along for the treatment.
Chaplin drops his usual Tramp for a dapper, straw-hatted souse who tips the whole establishment into disorder just by walking in. Edna Purviance plays the woman he half-tries to behave for. The hulking Eric Campbell, hobbled by gout and a bandaged foot, becomes the target of a string of precisely timed run-ins at a revolving door and a poolside ledge. It all peaks when the contents of that trunk reach the spa's spring and every guest gets drunk at once.
Made for the Mutual Film Corporation during the stretch Chaplin later called the happiest of his career, this is pure physical comedy with no moral and no sentiment. The bits with the door and a tub of water are choreographed like ballet. It's a great look at the raw machinery behind everything Chaplin built later. Stream The Cure online on iFILM.
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