ofpsmith In this film the tramp (Charlie Chaplin) becomes a police officer because he is desperate for a job. The police are desperate for another officer because they need help to take down a criminal named Bill Bashem (Eric Campbell) who is a giant who enjoys thieving and fighting the police. Chaplin goes to arrest Bashem but finds that his riot shield seems to be useless. Bashem gets mad so he bends a lamp for some reason but Chaplin puts Bashem's head in it and arrests him. He takes Bashem back to the station. After that he goes to help Bashem's wife get food as he is now considered a hero. Bus Bashem escapes jail and he and his thugs go to beat up Chaplin. Chaplin protects the law, Bashem's wife from Bashem and his girlfriend (Edna Purviance). He saves the day and soon everyone is happy. I recommend it. It's funny, and endearing. Give it a watch.

binapiraeus Of all the 12 two-reelers that Charlie Chaplin made for Mutual Films, "Easy Street" remains the probably most famous one until today, because of its artistic value, its strong social message, and the charming humor that, as always, lightens up his movies, even if they occupy themselves with such serious subjects as here. It's also been accused by some as being 'over-sentimental', though - alright then, call it that if you like; if you've always lived in a nice, secure, warm home with a loving family, a thorough education and a good job; unlike Charlie, who had lived EXACTLY the slum conditions he depicts here from his earliest childhood on...We find the little tramp, lonely, cold and hungry, outside a mission; he steps in, follows the service - and is just about to leave with the collection box when he's literally being reformed by the pretty mission worker Edna; he gives back the money, hanging his head in shame, and starts wandering the streets again - when he passes by a police station where a big sign says: 'Policeman wanted at once'... And so he makes his decision: for once, he becomes a cop; what an unusual picture of our little tramp! Anyway, he's told that his beat is 'Easy Street' - BUT it's not at ALL an easy beat, because it's one of the worst slum streets, dominated by the big bad bully Eric Campbell, whose favorite hobby seems to be to make mincemeat out of every policeman that comes near him! So, as soon as he meets the huge muscle-man, he understands that he hasn't got the ghost of a chance to beat him in any way - EXCEPT by using his brains: he applies the famous trick with the old-fashioned gas street lamp, which he pulls over the bully's head, sending him to sleep and to jail. And now HE is the hero on Easy Street! But of course, in a slum quarter like this, there are endless problems for the good-hearted young cop: starving women, hungry orphans, drug addicts... And since Edna also works for the mission there, they meet again, and he helps her relieving the pain and the poverty of the people - until the Bully escapes from jail, hungry for revenge...This UNIQUE movie is perhaps the VERY best example of a tragicomic short film ever made: classical slapstick chase scenes almost intertwine with moments of despair, crime, violence - life in the raw, mercilessly realistic and yet at the same time bearing hope and a vision for a better world. THIS is Charlie's message, and it's JUST as current today as it was in 1917...

Tom Gooderson-A'Court Comedy wise this is probably the most disappointing of Chaplin's Mutual films that I've seen so far. In the entire film I only laughed out loud once and generally there were very few funny moments anywhere. What the film does contain though is another tender story about overcoming the odds, hard work, temperance and love which is something that Chaplin was becoming the master of at this stage of his career.Easy Street itself looks to be modelled on the sort of South London streets that Chaplin would have grown up on himself. They don't look very American to me and it's only when a late chase takes us outside of the confines of Easy Street that it becomes obvious that we are in America. Like much of Chaplin's work, Easy Street is routed in a Dickensian world that predates film altogether. The crime and violence on Easy Street may well have been a satirical response to pre Prohibition America where if history is to be believed the masses drank until they passed out or were knocked out. The saving grace of the Policeman and the Christian Mission is very appropriate to the era.What is nice about Easy Street is that Chaplin's character is without selfishness. In many of his early films he was the reluctant hero or came to be the hero through mistake or after he had attempted to con or rip people off. Easy Street shows a further departure from this and towards his later incarnation as the victim/underdog of his future films. It's a shame that in Easy Street though Chaplin wasn't able to balance the character, story and comedy and that the latter suffers. The basis of an excellent film is in place but like most people I watch a Charlie Chaplin film to laugh and I didn't do that in this film.www.attheback.blogspot.com

Robert J. Maxwell Not all of Charlie's two reelers could shoot out the lights but this is among his most amusing. He has the tramp role down pat but for most of the film he takes a job as a policeman on the roughest street in town, ruled over by the Gargantuan Eric Campbell, here with beetling black eyebrows.There's hardly any point in going over the plot. Charlie manages to subdue Campbell -- twice -- which the entire police force has been unable to do. There is a slight disjoint as Charlie cleans up a drug den and saves Edna Purviance from the advances of a crazed addict. Charlie winds up presiding over a new Easy Street. The residents are now all respectable and polite. Even Campbell, newly dressed, makes sure he escorts his lady friend to the New Temple while walking on the side towards the curb. The street is now cleaned with no garbage in the gutters. All ends well.It's amazing that the silent comedians could do so much with so little. I mean -- a funny movie in which nobody can speak? And the sets are rudimentary -- basically one room (altered in appearance) and one T-shaped street. The camera couldn't move. Yet, in the best of the silents, these obstacles were overcome and little gems like "Easy Street" were the result.