THE IMMIGRANT, released 100 years ago today

The release date for The Immigrant is often given as June 17th, 1917 but trade publications & newspapers from the era say the 18th. Michael Hayde's recent book on the Mutuals, Chaplin's Vintage Year, also says the 18th, so that's the date I'm going with.

This was Chaplin's second to last film for the Mutual Film Corporation. The day before its release, he signed his first million-dollar contract with First National.

The rocking of the boat for the opening scenes was achieved by attaching a pendulum to the tripod head of the camera.

There is a very similar scene between Bugs Bunny and Christopher Columbus in the 1951 cartoon Hare We Go.   Chaplin built the dining hall set on rockers so it would tilt back and forth. These boat rocking tricks had previously been used in Shanghaied (1915)

The gun-through-the-leg gag was recycled from The New Janitor (1914).

The immigrants see the Statue Of Liberty for the first time.

The part of the waiter was originally played by Henry Bergman but Chaplin didn't feel he was menacing enough so he replaced him with Eric Campbell and his diabolic eyebrows.

The story goes that Chaplin did so many takes of Edna eating beans that she became ill. According to Grace Kingsley, Edna told him: "It’s no use Charlie. I simply can’t swallow another one.' ‘Great Scott!’ retorted Charlie, ‘how am I going to get my gagging over, then?’ ‘I give it up,’ replied Edna. ‘If you’d been gagging as much as I have for the past five hours you wouldn’t want to gag any more!’" (L.A. Times, May 20th, 1917)

Chaplin wrote in My Life In Pictures (1974): "The Immigrant touched me more than any film I've made. I thought the ending had quite a poetic feeling"