Tammy’s Reviews > Why Literature Still Matters > Status Update

Chaplin gives her his seat and he stands. She cries and he gives her a hanky. They fall out of the paddy wagon right before it wrecks. He helps her escape. They walk a long time and are in a neighborhood where the grass is long. They flirt and he realizes they are both homeless. He proposes to her and they imagine what it would be like to live in a house with a self-milking car.

Rom coms have not changed in 90 years. The baker accuses her of theft but Chaplin takes the blame. She is accused anyway. He eats a huge meal while the cops carry her away. He has a cop watch him as he says to the waitress he has no money for the bill. He steals cigars and gives them to some boys while the cop makes a phone call. He finds himself in the paddy wagon with the gamin who looks like Molly Shannon.

He shuts it off; there are more awkward sounds. The pastor and his wife leave. The warden tells him he is a free man but he is happy in jail. He gives him a letter to help him get work. He gets a job building boats but it is a disaster. The man lacks common sense. He and Mr. Bean would get along well. LOL The barefoot gamin’s clothes are tattered. Her face is dirty. She steals a loaf of bread and knocks over Chaplin.

She runs off. Meanwhile Chaplin enjoys life in his comfy cell getting three square meals a day. He is number seven and he is called to the overseer of the jail. The minister and his wife show up for his weekly visit. Chaplin sits and drinks tea with the wife while the minister visits the men. Someone’s stomach growls and her dog barks. I think it is his. Very awkward. He turns on the radio. An ad plays for gastritis.

He single-handedly takes out the prisoners and frees the guards. Outside the unemployed get restless. The timeframe is 1936 when unemployment was coming down but not fast enough for people who needed to feed their families. The gamin and her sisters are gathering wood from the side of the docks during the march. She hears a gunshot and her father is shot. They are now orphans. The younger sisters are taken.

Powder flies and he rubs his nose. OH MY! He acts weird and becomes bolder in fighting over food with his cellmate. The cops blow the whistle and all rise and line up. He spins as he walks in line. He goes the wrong way and ends up in the courtyard. Then he tries to get back in his cell but some prisoners have held up the guards who are locked up. Chaplin interferes and prisoners shoot at him.

Prisoners are marched in single file like plebes and sit for a meal. He and his cellmate scuffle over the bread which is supposed to be shared. Detectives search them for drugs. The real druggie pours his powder into a salt shaker (this sounds like what a sailor told me when he was up for court martial). After the druggie is hauled out, Chaplin puts salt on his food. What should happen is that his mouth goes numb.

Chaplin is held in prison as a communist. Quicksilver? A barefoot gamin on a boat cuts bananas and throws them to hungry children. The owner chases after her but she escapes. She is the eldest sister. Their mother is dead and their father is unemployed. She cheers him up with the stolen bananas.Meanwhile, Chaplin’s gruff cellmate sews, embroidery hoop and all. They almost get into a fight but are saved by a bell.

He has lost his job. The doctor tells him to take it easy and avoid excitement. He leaves in his classic tramp outfit. Then scenes of hustle and bustle at weird angles are shown. Freedom does not last long. He strolls around town and a flag drops off a truck. He picks it up to take to the truck and ends up at the head of a union march with signs in English and Spanish. The police accuse him of being the ringleader.

He prances back to his work. The conveyor belt continues but nobody has replaced him. Now workers are chasing him. He runs up stairs and grabs onto a hook and travels by air through the factory. He lands in a circle of workers, the boss, and two officers and begins squirting people. They carry him to the ambulance which hauls him away. He stays at the psych ward long enough to recover from his nervous breakdown.