British comedian Charlie Chaplin dressed as a U.S. soldier for his movie "Shoulder Arms", 1918...WORLD WAR I

Today 104 years ago, on October 20, 1918, the silent comedy movie "Shoulder Arms" was released by the iconic British comedian and actor Charlie Chaplin.

In 1914, before the outbreak of the First World War, the British comedian and actor Charlie Chaplin had gained worldwide fame and admiration for his screenplay character "The Tramp", becoming a universally loved figure at the age of just 25.

When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Chaplin was living in the US, still a neutral country at this point. Starting in 1915, as the war was dragging out and the British Army required an increasing number of men to keep up, people began to question why Charlie Chaplin wasn't fighting on the frontlines like every other young British man.

The British media gradually attacked and reprimanded Chaplin for not enlisting into the British Army, which soon became a smear campaign with the aim of shaming Chaplin. Especially when the USA entered the war in April 1917, Chaplin began to receive angry letters and white feathers for not enlisting. In fact, Chaplin had enlisted himself for the U.S. military draft, but was rejected for being underweight and undersized. Though this did little to cease the smear campaign against him.

British press mogul Lord Northcliffe, founder of the Daily Mail, spearheaded this smear campaign and wrote the following: "In any case, it is Charlie’s duty to offer himself as a recruit and thus show himself proud of his British origin. It is his example which will count so very much, rather than the difference to the war that his joining up will make. We shall win without Charlie, but we would rather win with him."

Although this bitter criticism of Chaplin was certainly not shared among the British and U.S. soldiers themselves, among whom he was beloved for "The Tramp". Chaplin's comedies were frequently shown to wounded soldiers in hospitals, making them laugh and forget about their worries.

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In order to end the smear campaign, Chaplin directed his efforts and fame at ending the war sooner.

Chaplin began producing an anti-war silent comedy, placing "The Tramp" in the trenches of the Western Front. Chaplin was warned against making a comedy of the war, but he went ahead with it anyways.

"Shoulder Arms" was released on October 20, 1918, and presented a sarcastic but comical overview of the war for a rookie soldier, who must face severe and ridiculous challenges in order to survive the war. The movie was critically acclaimed, released just a few weeks before the end of the war, proving to become Chaplin's most popular film at the time.

Charlie Chaplin would later in life produce an even more popular and iconic anti-war movie in "The Great Dictator" in 1940 during the Second World War, which also featured scenes set in the First World War.

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