The unwed Mother (Purviance) leaves a charity hospital with her newborn child, disconsolately passes a church wedding, and leaves her baby in a limousine with a note. But car thieves hijack the limo and dump the baby in the garbage where he is discovered by a Tramp (Chaplin). The Tramp rescues the infant and takes him along to raise him. Five years pass. The Mother has become an opera star and does charity work in the hope of relocating her son. The Tramp has raised the kid to work a scam in tandem: the boy breaks windows by tossing rocks, and the tramp shows up immediately and offers to repair them for a fee. A doctor tips off the Mother, who has the authorities pick up the child, but the Tramp steals him back and a chase ensues. This was Chaplin's first six-reel feature; he had to hold it hostage to get the studio to pay him the 1-1/2 million he was entitled to when they tried to pay him for only a two-reeler. A 12-year-old girl named Lillita McMurray appears briefly in the film as a flirtatious angel; three years later she would become pregnant by the writer-director, and marry him at age 16. "The Kid" was one of the first classic silent films.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
