Chaplin had a formula for The Tramp: outcast scuffles his way through life yet somehow finds love and prevails against the odds.
The Charlie Maudlin approach works if we fall in love with the female lead as quickly as The Tramp does. They must suffer their travails and enjoy their ''triumphs" together. Then we can overlook when Chaplin lays it on a bit thick.
What are we supposed to do with Georgia Hale's character, then? She doesn't even appear until Act 2. And when she does, she's a narcissistic glorified call girl in Bumbfk, Alaska, hitching a ride with some bully gold miner. She and her entirely unattractive (and one fat) friends treat The Tramp abominably.
Sadly, The Tramp has been stuck in a cabin with two fat guys for so long he's starved for female company. His efforts to woo Georgia aren't romantic, they reek of sick desperation.
When one of his cabin buddies hits the motherlode, fortune favors The Tramp. So we get a resolution that no way, no how, no matter one's romantic inclinations, strikes the right notes. The Tramp might not realize it, but we know he's still a first-class sap.
Acts 1 and 3 are basically set pieces in a snowbound cabin. It feels like the same gag gets recycled to pad the running time. It wore out my patience at times.
If you take out the famous dancing potatoes scene, this movie is a frozen turdsicle.
The Charlie Maudlin approach works if we fall in love with the female lead as quickly as The Tramp does. They must suffer their travails and enjoy their ''triumphs" together. Then we can overlook when Chaplin lays it on a bit thick.
What are we supposed to do with Georgia Hale's character, then? She doesn't even appear until Act 2. And when she does, she's a narcissistic glorified call girl in Bumbfk, Alaska, hitching a ride with some bully gold miner. She and her entirely unattractive (and one fat) friends treat The Tramp abominably.
Sadly, The Tramp has been stuck in a cabin with two fat guys for so long he's starved for female company. His efforts to woo Georgia aren't romantic, they reek of sick desperation.
When one of his cabin buddies hits the motherlode, fortune favors The Tramp. So we get a resolution that no way, no how, no matter one's romantic inclinations, strikes the right notes. The Tramp might not realize it, but we know he's still a first-class sap.
Acts 1 and 3 are basically set pieces in a snowbound cabin. It feels like the same gag gets recycled to pad the running time. It wore out my patience at times.
If you take out the famous dancing potatoes scene, this movie is a frozen turdsicle.