Page "Charlie Chaplin" Paragraph 28

A Dog's Life, released April 1918, was the first film under the new contract.

Chaplin paid yet more concern to story construction, and began treating the Tramp as " a sort of Pierrot.

" Film scholar Simon Louvish writes that the film showed the character becoming more fragile and melancholy.

A Dog's Life was described by Louis Delluc as " cinema's first total work of art.

" Following its completion, Chaplin embarked on the Third Liberty Bond campaign, touring the United States for one month to raise money for the Allies of World War One.

He also produced a short propaganda film, donated to the government for fund-raising, called The Bond.

Chaplin's next release was war-based, placing the Tramp in the trenches for Shoulder Arms.

Associates warned him against making a comedy about the war, but he recalled: " Dangerous or not, the idea excited me.

" It took four months to produce, eventually released in October 1918 at 45 minutes long, and was highly successful.