The Pilgrim

An escaped convict steals a clergyman's robes and runs. Getting off the train in a Texas town called Devil's Gulch, he is taken for the new pastor and finds a welcoming committee waiting at the station. He has to keep the part up, delivering his first sermon as a mime of David and Goliath. Then a man he knew in prison turns up in town. Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, produced and starred. Edna Purviance is his leading lady, the last time she played opposite him. It was also his last film of less than feature length and the last under his First National contract; after this he made only features. It ran into serious trouble with censors. It was cut or banned in the stricter states and cities of the United States, and in Pennsylvania and South Carolina groups affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan successfully lobbied to have it pulled from theatres. In Atlanta the Evangelical Ministers' Association demanded it be suppressed, calling it an insult to the gospel. The Klan condemned it for holding the Protestant ministry up to ridicule. Who it is for: viewers who like Chaplin and silent comedy, and anyone curious about how satire of religion was received. Who it is not for: people expecting his sentimental films. This is drier and sharper, and the ending is deliberately unresolved.