Shoulder Arms (1918) Online
Charlie is in boot camp in the "awkward squad." Once in France he gets no letters from home. He finally gets a package containing limburger cheese which requires a gas mask and which he throws over into the German trench. He goes "over the top" and captures thirteen Germans ("I surrounded them"), then volunteers to wander through the German lines disguised as a tree trunk. With the help of a French girl he captures the Kaiser and the Crown Prince and is given a statue and victory parade in New York and then ... fellow soldiers wake him from his dream.
Complete credited cast: | |||
Edna Purviance | - | The Girl | |
Charles Chaplin | - | Doughboy (as Charlie Chapman) | |
Syd Chaplin | - | Charlie's Comrade / The Kaiser (as Sydney Chaplin) | |
Loyal Underwood | - | Short German Officer | |
Henry Bergman | - | Fat Whiskered German Soldier / The Kaiser's General / Bartender | |
Tom Wilson | - | Dumb German Wood-Cutter | |
Albert Austin | - | American Officer / Clean Shaven German Soldier / Bearded German Soldier | |
Jack Wilson | - | Crown Prince |
Many in Hollywood were nervous that one of their most famous peers was going to tackle the subject of WWI. It was released shortly before the Armistice so it did not help boost national morale, but it did end up as one of Charles Chaplin's most popular films and it was particularly popular with returning doughboys.
Released two weeks and one day before the end of World War I.
Originally planned at five reels; outtakes were preserved in Charles Chaplin's private collection. True Boardman, Marion Feducha and Frankie Lee played Chaplin's sons in cut domestic scenes intended for the beginning of the film. Peggy Prevost and Nina Trask played draft-board clerks, Alfred Reeves a draft-board sergeant and Albert Austin a doctor in a cut scene at the draft-board office.
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