
Shoulder Arms. 1918. USA. Written and directed by Charles Chaplin. With Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Sydney Chaplin. Silent. 46 min.
The Bond. 1918. USA. Written and directed by Charles Chaplin. With Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Albert Austin. World premiere. Silent. 11 min.
Charles Chaplin’s World War I comedy Shoulder Arms was released at the height of the 1918 influenza pandemic. So powerful was Chaplin’s appeal to his public, the film still played to packed houses. But when Chaplin went to release it for use by the US Army during WWII he found that the original negative had been damaged beyond repair, and he asked his longtime cameraman Rollie Totheroh to reconstruct it using outtakes and alternate footage. (The reconstructed version was released theatrically in 1959 as part of The Chaplin Revue, a compilation that also included A Dog’s Life and The Pilgrim.)
This presentation is a work in progress from MoMA’s Department of Film that attempts to recreate the 1918 release using what footage does survive from the original prints, gathered from archives around the world. Though the anarchic spirit remains the same in both versions, there are significant differences between the original and the reissue. Some scenes were removed entirely, and the entire film was subjected to the process of “stretch-printing,” a not-very-satisfying way of forcing modern sound projectors to imitate the slower frame rate of many silent films.
Shoulder Arms will be accompanied by MoMA’s new digital restoration of The Bond, a seldom seen propaganda short produced by Chaplin for the 1918 Liberty Loan drive. On a stylized set, Chaplin demonstrates the various sorts of bonds—friendship, marriage, Liberty—culminating in an encounter with the Kaiser. (Spoiler alert: a giant mallet is involved.) This restoration is based on a 35mm reissue print held by MoMA, with the titles revised to reflect the 1918 version distributed by First National.
Digital restorations by The Museum of Modern Art. Funding provided by the Lillian Gish Fund for Preservation.