In his last movie for First National, Charlie is once again a convict who just escaped from jail - and to disguise himself, stole the clothes of a priest! And, as fate would have it, on his train trip to 'nowhere', he gets off in a small Texan town where the people are just awaiting their new parson... So, without ANY knowledge about his new 'job', he's got to play the role - and his first church service becomes, of course, an INIMITABLE farce! (While he, from force of habit, always keeps an eye on the boxes with the collection money...) The only story from the Bible he seems to know is that of David and Goliath (and that's NO coincidence at all - for that was the very part Charlie played so often in all kinds of variations in his films!); and he tells it in a WONDERFULLY funny pantomime, which of course was ONLY possible back in the good old silent days...
Then, he gets to know the family where he'll live; and the lovely daughter is, of course, once more Edna Purviance (this is the last movie he made together with her), and a romantic bond develops immediately... But very soon, complications turn up for the fugitive: his old jail mate happens to come to the same town - and although he plays the 'nice guy' in the beginning, in fact he intends to steal the family's money Edna's mother keeps in a drawer... So what is the 'parson' to do now??
Just like all the comedies Charlie Chaplin made for First National, "The Pilgrim" is another WONDERFUL example of comedy at its VERY best, FULL of funny scenes (like the one where the neighbors come to see Edna's family with their spoiled little boy; and Charlie has got to pull himself together while the brat keeps slapping him and pouring water over him - not quite unlike W.C. Fields in "The Old-Fashioned Way"...), not without a meaning, and with beautiful sentiments throughout, which however never slip into 'sentimentality' - a TREASURE for every fan of classic movies, and a PERFECT way to get the younger generations to know and love silent cinema!
Then, he gets to know the family where he'll live; and the lovely daughter is, of course, once more Edna Purviance (this is the last movie he made together with her), and a romantic bond develops immediately... But very soon, complications turn up for the fugitive: his old jail mate happens to come to the same town - and although he plays the 'nice guy' in the beginning, in fact he intends to steal the family's money Edna's mother keeps in a drawer... So what is the 'parson' to do now??
Just like all the comedies Charlie Chaplin made for First National, "The Pilgrim" is another WONDERFUL example of comedy at its VERY best, FULL of funny scenes (like the one where the neighbors come to see Edna's family with their spoiled little boy; and Charlie has got to pull himself together while the brat keeps slapping him and pouring water over him - not quite unlike W.C. Fields in "The Old-Fashioned Way"...), not without a meaning, and with beautiful sentiments throughout, which however never slip into 'sentimentality' - a TREASURE for every fan of classic movies, and a PERFECT way to get the younger generations to know and love silent cinema!