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The Champion, Chaplin’s third film for Essanay, is easily one of the funniest and is his most advanced film to date in plotting and characterisation. We meet Charlie and his bulldog sharing a hot dog. As they pass a gymnasium advertising for sparring partners, Charlie finds a lucky horseshoe and decides to give sparring a go, putting the horseshoe into his left boxing glove. Obviously Charlie has a special advantage and eventually wins his way through to the big championship fight against Champ (Bud Jamison). Along the way the beautiful daughter of the Gym owner,(Edna Purviance) is attracted to Charlie and likewise Charlie is interested in her. The hilarious slapstick prizefight is pretty even at first but when Charlie appears to be getting the worst of it, his bulldog springs to the rescue.
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Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
505482
Sound/audio
Silent
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)
16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)