The Cure (1917)
A wealthy alcoholic checks into a health spa to dry out, but a case of liquor smuggled in his luggage ends up dumped into the spa's healing well, spiking the water everyone there drinks.
The Cure was shot in the spring of 1917 as Prohibition sentiment was building nationally, turning Chaplin’s own well-known struggles with drink into two reels of gags built around a wheelchair, a revolving door, and a swimming pool.
Background
The Cure was shot in the spring of 1917, during a period when sentiment favoring Prohibition was building across the United States, and it turns Chaplin’s own well-documented struggles with alcohol into material for comedy rather than avoiding the subject. The film follows a wealthy alcoholic who checks into a health spa to dry out, only for a case of liquor smuggled in his luggage to end up dumped into the spa’s supposedly healing well, spiking the water that everyone else there drinks as well.
What to watch for
Watch for the film’s elaborate physical comedy built around a wheelchair, a revolving door, and a swimming pool, props that Chaplin uses to generate an escalating series of accidents once the spiked water takes effect on the whole cast. It is a good example of how he could take a subject with real personal resonance for him and transform it into broad, purely physical slapstick without losing its underlying premise.
