Charlie Chaplin take in "The Kid". For "The Immigrant", a 20 minute-short, Chaplin shot 40,000 feet of film – enough for a feature-length. Describing his working method as "sheer perseverance to the point of madness", Chaplin would be completely consumed by the production of a picture. Robinson writes that even in Chaplin's later years, his work continued "to take precedence over everything and everyone else." The combination of story improvisation and relentless perfectionism – which resulted in days of effort and thousands of feet of film being wasted, all at enormous expense – often proved taxing for Chaplin who, in frustration, would
Charlie Chaplin in January 1921 with instant success, and, by 1924, had been screened in over 50 countries. Chaplin spent five months on his next film, the two-reeler "The Idle Class". Following its September 1921 release, he chose to return to England for the first time in almost a decade. He then worked to fulfil his First National contract, releasing "Pay Day" in February 1922. "The Pilgrim" – his final short film – was delayed by distribution disagreements with the studio, and released a year later. Having fulfilled his First National contract, Chaplin was free to make his first picture as an