The Pilgrim
About The Pilgrim
An escaped convict steals a minister's clothes. At a station an eloping couple asks him to marry them. The woman's father takes her away. He picks a destination at random and gets off in Devil's Gulch, Texas, on a Sunday, where the town takes him for the new preacher. An old cellmate turns up, heads for a casino, and the money goes missing. The Pilgrim gets it back, with the church collection, and gives it to Miss Brown. The sheriff, after she speaks for him, walks him to the Mexican border and tells him to pick flowers on the other side. He does not take the hint until the sheriff kicks him across. Gunmen start shooting in the brush. He runs off straddling the line.
Cast & crew
More about The Pilgrim
Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, and produced it, and plays the convict. Edna Purviance plays Miss Brown. Associated First National released it in the United States on 25 February 1923. A listing gives 46 minutes.
Themes
Making
Chaplin plays the whole picture in a stolen clergyman's suit, from the station wedding to the border.
Look
Roland Totheroh photographed the station, the church, and the border.
Music
Chaplin wrote a score for the 1959 Chaplin Revue reissue. Matt Monro sings I'm Bound For Texas in that version.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Edna Purviance's last film as Chaplin's co-star. It is also his last picture for First National.
- Syd Chaplin, Mack Swain, Henry Bergman, Dean Riesner, Charles Reisner, and Tom Murray are billed.
- In 1959 he put it into The Chaplin Revue with a new score.
- It entered the public domain in the United States in 2019.
Scenes
- The eloping couple asks the man in the stolen suit to marry them.
- He returns the money to Miss Brown.
- The sheriff kicks him into Mexico, and he walks the border line while guns go off.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Pilgrim (1923).webm)
