About Shoulder Arms

Charlie is in boot camp in the "awkward squad." Once in France he gets no letters from home. He finally gets a package containing limburger cheese which requires a gas mask and which he throws over into the German trench. He goes "over the top" and captures thirteen Germans ("I surrounded them"), then volunteers to wander through the German lines disguised as a tree trunk. With the help of a French girl he captures the Kaiser and the Crown Prince and is given a statue and victory parade in New York and then ... fellow soldiers wake him from his dream.

Movie Details

Language: Silent

Year of production: 1918

Length: 35min 42sec

Country: United States


  • Directors:
    Charles Chaplin
  • Producers:
    Charles Chaplin
  • Actors:
    Charles Chaplin ... Recruit
    Edna Purviance ... French girl
    Syd Chaplin ... Sergeant/The Kaiser
    Jack Wilson ... German Crown Prince
    Henry Bergman ... Fat German sergeant/Field Marshal von Hindenburg
    Albert Austin ... U.S. soldier/German soldier/Kaiser's chauffeur
    Tom Wilson ... Training camp sergeant
    John Rand ... U.S. soldier
    J. Parks Jones ... U.S. soldier (as Park Jones)
    Loyal Underwood ... Short German officer

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