Shoulder Arms

The story

In World War I France, an American doughboy lurches through trench duty before being swept into a mission behind enemy lines. Charles Chaplin is the overmatched private, building comedy out of army drills, rain-soaked dugouts, and the absurd routines of wartime camp life. Edna Purviance and Syd Chaplin join him as the story shifts from muddy barracks humor to a covert wartime escapade. Released in 1918, the silent black-and-white film puts Chaplin’s comic instincts inside trench warfare, turning military routine, fear, and confusion into a compact wartime farce.