The Tramp (1915 Silent Comedy film)

The Tramp is Charlie Chaplin's sixth film for Essanay Studios and was released in 1915. Directed by Chaplin, it was the fifth and last film made at Essanay's Niles, California studio.
The Tramp marked the beginning of The Tramp character most known today, even though Chaplin played the character in earlier films. This film marked the first departure from his more slapstick character in the earlier films, with a sad ending and showing he cared for others, rather than just himself. The film co-stars Edna Purviance as the farmer's daughter and Ernest Van Pelt as Edna's father. The outdoor scenes were filmed on location near Niles.

Plot
The film starts with Charlie Chaplin walking down the road. He doesn't see a car come by and he barely manages to escape. A few seconds later, another car floors Charlie.

Not being able to fathom what just happened, he dusts himself off and decides to seek refuge in a nearby farm. There, he does the classic gag of doffing his hat to a tree. He sits underneath it and decides to eat his sandwich.

However, a hobo exchanges Charlie's sandwich for a brick, so Charlie must eat grass. Charlie sees this, and knows he cannot do anything, so he just sits there. The same hobo, however, molests a farmer's daughter (Edna Purviance), and she runs up to Charlie, who comes to her aid with the help of the brick. The hobo tries getting Charlie out of the way, but Charlie kicks him off.

Two more hobos show up when the angry hobo tells them about how Charlie humiliated him, but these are no bother for Charlie, who throws all three into the lake. However, they have their fifteen seconds of fame when they throw stones at Charlie, and he sits down on a bunch of logs and sets his posterior on fire. He sits down in a sewage pipe to cool his posterior off, where Edna finds him.

Cast
Charlie Chaplin as The Tramp
Edna Purviance as Farmer's daughter
Lloyd Bacon as Edna's fiancé/Second thief
Leo White as First thief
Bud Jamison as Third thief
Ernest Van Pelt as Farmer, Edna's father
Paddy McGuire as Farmhand
Billy Armstrong as Minister

Reception
Like many American films of the time, The Tramp was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors cut, in Reel 1, the scene of Chaplin sitting in a sewage drainage pipe after burning his posterior.