Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin

1918–1922: First National

A Dog's Life (1918). It was around this time that Chaplin began to conceive the Tramp as "a sort of Pierrot", or sad clown.

In January 1918, Chaplin was visited by leading British singer and comedian Harry Lauder, and the two acted in a short film together.^[114]

Mutual was patient with Chaplin's decreased rate of output, and the contract ended amicably. With his aforementioned concern about the declining quality of his films because of contract scheduling stipulations, Chaplin's primary concern in finding a new distributor was independence; Sydney Chaplin, then his business manager, told the press, "Charlie [must] be allowed all the time he needs and all the money for producing [films] the way he wants ... It is quality, not quantity, we are after."^[115] In June 1917, Chaplin signed to complete eight films for First National Exhibitors' Circuit in return for $1 million ($19.6 million today).^[116] He chose to build his own studio, situated on five acres of land off Sunset Boulevard, with production facilities of the highest order.^[117] It was completed in January 1918,^[118] and Chaplin was given freedom over the making of his pictures.^[119]

A Dog's Life, released April 1918, was the first film under the new contract. In it, Chaplin demonstrated his increasing concern with story construction and his treatment of the Tramp as "a sort of Pierrot".^[120] The film was described by Louis Delluc as "cinema's first total work of art".^[121] Chaplin then embarked on the Third Liberty Bond campaign, touring the United States for one month to raise money for the Allies of the First World War.^[122] He also produced a short propaganda film at his own expense, donated to the government for fund-raising, called The Bond.^[123] Chaplin's next release was war-based, placing the Tramp in the trenches for Shoulder Arms. Associates warned him against making a comedy about the war but, as he later recalled: "Dangerous or not, the idea excited me."^[124] He spent four months filming the 45-minute-long picture, which was released in October 1918 with great success.^[125]