Charlie Chaplin’s The
Kid is unique among his films in that it’s the only time we see the Tramp
as a family man. Normally he’s on his own and breezing through life.
Occasionally there’s a girl and sometimes he even wins her in the end. But to
see the Tramp with a child to care for reveals a side of the character unseen
either before or after.
To be sure, the Tramp comes to fatherhood like most
things in his life – unwillingly and unwittingly. At the start of the film a
young woman leaves a charity hospital with baby in arms. Destitute and without
means to care for the infant she leaves it in the car of a wealthy man.
Regretful a short time later she returns, but the car has been stolen by two
thieves who leave the baby in an alley. This series of coincidences leads to
the Tramp finding the baby. He picks it up believing it belongs to a passerby.
Yet one more coincidence – a passing beat cop – precludes the possibility he
can put the child back in the alley. And so a father is born.
