Chaplin's third Essanay picture and he finally appears to have found his feet with the new studio. Chaplin's tramp, destitute and famished spots a sign offering money to act as a sparring partner. He watches as three men go in before him and return battered and bruised. Chaplin however has a trick up his sleeve or rather in his glove; a lucky horseshoe, which he uses to knock out his larger, more adept opponent. Spotting his potential a trainer prepares the slight Chaplin for a big fight against the champion Bob Uppercut (Bud Jamison) but Chaplin has other things on his mind, namely the trainer's daughter Edna Purviance.I was so glad that this film was good. I was really disappointed with Chaplin's first two Essanay films His New Job and A Night Out. This is a real return to form. The idea was actually taken from a Fred Karno sketch that Chaplin performed before entering the movie industry. Perhaps one of the reasons for the film's success is that Chaplin knew what he was doing before he went in rather than partially making it up as he went along.The film really shows its age with its inter-titles. There wasn't one occasion where I understood every word! But you have to remember that this film is 97 years old and language changes. Another thing that changes is people's attitudes and sensibilities towards kissing. It's hard to believe now but Hollywood once enforced a self censorship ruling that meant that no on screen kiss could last more than a couple of seconds. Although made in pre-code Hollywood, Chaplin got round this type of censorship by having his Tramp kiss Edna from behind a large beer bottle. It's a clever device that works around censorship.The film is much slower and more measured than much of Chaplin's other work of the period and especially the work of Keystone. The opening scene in which Chaplin shares a hot dog with his equally starving dog is both very sweet and very slow and reminiscent of his later work. It's a complete opposite of his previous Keystone films.The highlight of the film is undoubtedly the boxing. Watching Chaplin train in his trademark bowler hat is brilliant and the big fight itself is hilarious and extremely well choreographed. Chaplin and Jamison spend half the fight either falling over or in embraces, punching themselves in the face and the umpire obviously gets a few punches thrown his way too. Raging Bull this is not. You have to feel that the film is a precursor to Chaplin's massively successful City Lights which features his famous boxing scene. Another highlight is the fantastic makeup and over the top fake facial hair of the film's villain Leo White, a motif of Chaplin's early work. Without dialogue you are still always sure who the bad guy is with his deep dark eyes, pale face and enormous moustache.This film is not up there with Chaplin's later work but shows great potential. It is a marked improvement on his earlier Essanay films and introduced a lot of action into his repertoire.www.attheback.blogspot.com

The real leap forward that Charlie Chaplin made in screen comedy, the thing that put him ahead of his peers, was that he staged his comedy within a straight and serious world. His first two Keystone pictures had little plot but allowed his little tramp to interact (chaotically) with a realistic environment, albeit with a handful of supporting comedy characters thrown in. With the Champion he moved on to develop stronger story lines which were not funny in themselves, but which gave the tramp a world to be funny in.The set-up of an up-and-coming boxer who fights his way to the top, is then bribed into throwing a fight and has to choose between his integrity and the payoff was an established cliché even back then. This well-known sequence of events allows Chaplin to mess around with stereotypes or subvert conventions. For a start, there is the fact that Charlie is a scrawny little feller, who essentially cheats his way to the championship. Then there's the farcical training routine, which Chaplin cross-cuts with the opponents more serious routine to give it more comedy impact, followed by the tramp's nonchalant seeing-off of Leo White's over-the-top sinister villain.Throughout Chaplin is showing more confidence in his staging and arrangements. He allows himself to become a more marginal figure in some sequences – for example when Spike Duggan is knocking out one challenger after another, Charlie isn't doing very much, and is off-screen half the time, but it's his reactions to the growing number of defeated men that is funny. The other characters simply act naturally, whereas Chaplin is the originator of all the comedy.In Chaplin's previous picture, A Night Out, he came dangerously close to becoming a double-act with Essanay's resident comic Ben Turpin. A large part of Chaplin's humour was based on reacting to other comedy characters, so he needed to have his supporting cast of burly bullies and pompous twerps to antagonise. However in the Champion you can see he is being careful not to let any of them have too much screen time. Although Bud Jamison, Leo White and Ernest van Pelt all do a great job, each of them is a walk-on, walk-off character; none of them shares the picture with Charlie. Ben Turpin has a tiny part as a vendor, but even in this one-shot role he manages to violate Chaplin's rule of the tramp being at the comedic centre of attention, stealing the laughs as he scrambles over the crowd to reach a customer. This would be Turpin's last picture with Chaplin.And now, we finish with the all-important statistic – Number of kicks up the arse: 1 (1 for, 0 against)

Chaplin was certainly the champion of silent films and was rapidly becoming well known in early 1915 when he edited, wrote, directed, and starred in The Champion. Chaplin plays a hapless guy with a dog, who still retains its dignity even in desperate straits. Chaplin seasons the stubborn dog's sausage; otherwise, it appears the dog refuses to eat. They happen upon a local fighter needing a sparring partner where Chaplin gets the brilliant idea of utilizing a horseshoe in his boxing glove in order to even the odds. Chaplin becomes invincible and later secures a match with a champion. The championship boxing match predates the one in City Lights by over 15 years, but Chaplin is magnificent dancing around the ring as the champ tries in vain to put him away. The referee takes as much of a beating as the fighters in the ring. This is pure slapstick fun with just enough plot to balance the film, unlike most other Chaplin films up to this time. Edna Purviance is Chaplin's love interest in their second film together. Ben Turpin appears as an obnoxious vendor. The silent screen giant of westerns Bronco Billy Anderson is the enthusiastic man in the audience. Warner Brothers director of 1930's and 1940's films Lloyd Bacon appears as one of the sparring partners. **1/2 of 4 stars.

A comedy in three acts, this Chaplin short depicts his tramp as a somewhat more sympathetic character than many of his other films from this period. The tramp's impoverished status is played up here more than in some of his other Essanay films, and it strengthens both his character and the story as a result. Finding a lucky horseshoe outside a gym advertising for sparring partners 'who can take a punch', Charlie decides to give it a go. The horseshoe is put to predictable use and Chaplin suddenly finds himself up against the hulking Bob Uppercut (Bud Jamison). Chaplin would return to the ring in CITY LIGHTS and, while the fight sequence here comes nowhere near to the brilliance of that film's prize fight, it is still an entertaining bout that forms the highlight of the film. Edna Purviance appears once more, and Chaplin acknowledges the audience (and, perhaps, media speculation about their off-screen relationship) when he lifts a beer jug in front of their faces as they kiss. This is one of Chaplin's better early efforts.