The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin

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Vance’s Buster Keaton Remembered (2001) and Harold Lloyd [BKL My 15 02] are the finest photographic books ever published on their subjects, so it is not altogether surprising that his treatment of the greatest silent film comedian is a stunner. Still, that it contains so many superbly reproduced images from Chaplin’s earliest years as an English touring-company member; so many documentary photos of Chaplin at work, at play, and in the public eye; and such wonderful rediscoveries as the great photojournalist W. Eugene Smith’s expressionistic shots of Chaplin directing and acting in his greatest sound film, Limelight, as well as the expected wealth of movie production and publicity stills, is vastly impressive.

Moreover, Vance writes considerably more about Chaplin than he did about Keaton and Lloyd combined. He discusses every film, including early shorts that are lost, and he illuminates Chaplin’s working methods. If his prose remains workaday, it is always clear, even when he makes peculiar word choices and gets inconsequential facts wrong. Nevertheless, an absolutely essential book on this great filmmaker. - Ray Olson

Review

I find it odd that people who leave very positive reviews for books almost always leave their names, while the negative reviewers simply throw rocks anonymously from the safety of a crowd. I also find some of the criticisms of Mr. Vance’s book bewildering at best. Great pictures but “boring” text? It’s a heavily researched biographical work, not an adventure story you geniuses. If you want exciting and whimsical adventure stories, go read the latest Harry Potter tome and leave the classic cinema discussions for the thinking adults, Sparky.

After reading this book, (not just marveling at the incredible pictures; pictures that can usually ONLY be accessed by working with the estates, widows, and surviving family members of an historically important individual), I watched the remastered DVDs of Chaplin’s films with a new appreciation and understanding of the man’s work. How sad that people feel the need to write biased negative reviews that are petty at best, and illogical and juvenile at worst. And while I’ve never met Mr. Vance, it would be very interesting to hear his take on some of the sour grapes offered in these reviews. Some people make important films loved the world over, and some people research and write illuminating biographies of these people. Others can only rise to the level of jealously flinging mud at well-connected authors. Somehow, I believe even Chaplin would fail to find the humor in that. - D. Ford, Amazon Review

The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin

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In late 1914, Charlie Chaplin’s name first began appearing on marquees. By the end of the following year, moviegoers couldn’t get enough of him and his iconic persona, the Little Tramp. Perpetually outfitted with baggy pants, a limp cane, and a dusty bowler hat, the character became so beloved that Chaplin was mobbed by fans, journalists, and critics at every turn.

Although he never particularly liked giving interviews, he accepted the demands of his stardom, giving detailed responses about his methods of making movies. He quickly progressed from making two-reel shorts to feature-length masterpieces such as “The Gold Rush”, “City Lights”, and “Modern Times”.

Charlie Chaplin: Interviews offers a complex portrait of perhaps the world’s greatest cinematic comedian and a man who is considered to be one of the most influential screen artists in movie history. The interviews he granted, performances in and of themselves, are often as well crafted as his films. Unlike the Little Tramp, Chaplin the interviewee comes across as melancholy and serious, as the titles of some early interviews — “The Sad Business of Being Funny” or “The Hamlet-Like Nature of Charlie Chaplin” — make abundantly clear.

His first sound feature, “The Great Dictator” (1940), is a direct condemnation of Hitler. His later films such as “Monsieur Verdoux” (1947) and “Limelight” (1952) obliquely criticize American policy and consequently generated mixed reactions from critics and little response from moviegoers. During this late period of his filmmaking, Chaplin granted interviews less often. The three later interviews included here are thus extremely valuable, offering long, contemplative analyses of the man’s life and work.

Review

Once you’re through reading Chaplin’s memoirs and David Robinson’s biography, you easily get the impression that’s everything a Chaplin-fan needs to know about their hero. I assure you such is not the case; I can name several other books just as significant for any student of the comedian’s life and work, and CHARLIE CHAPLIN: INTERVIEWS is certainly among them.

Kevin J. Hayes has done a wonderful job collecting some of the relatively few truly insightful interviews Chaplin ever did, beginning with “The Funniest Man on the Screen” by Victor Eubank (published 1915), in which Chaplin, who at that time had just signed his Essanay-contract, expressed some very reflected thoughts about comedy, being still just a newcomer in the movie-business. There are twenty-four interviews in all, other titles included are:

“Beneath the Mask: Witty, Wistful, Serious Is The Real Charlie Chaplin” (Grace Kingsley, 1916)
“Charlie Chaplin, Philosopher, Has Serious Side” (Frank Veeland, 1921)
“Shy Charlie Chaplin Opens His Heart” (Mordaunt Hall, 1925)
“Future of the Cinema: Mr. Charles Chaplin” (Robert Nichols, 1925)
“Chaplin Explains Chaplin” (Harry Carr, 1925)
“Chaplin Draws a Keen Weapon” (Robert van Gelder, 1940)
“Charlie Chaplin’s MONSIEUR VERDOUX Press Conference” (George Wallach, 1947)
“Ageless Master’s Anatomy of Comedy: Chaplin, An Interview” (Richard Meryman, 1967)
…etc.

The latter title is not really an interview, but rather an essay written by Chaplin where he covers both personal feelings and his view on the movie industry of today (which, of course, is the 1960′s). Despite the fact that some interviews have nearly reached a century of age, they stand out as remarkably fresh and modern in their style and subjects. Naturally, some are better than others –the MONSIEUR VERDOUX press conference offers little except several attacks on Chaplin’s politics and questions concerning Orson Welles’ contributions to the screen-play– but the very best are simply terrific.

The book includes no photos, but who needs that when all these great articles are available? CHARLIE CHAPLIN: INTERVIEWS is a unique sampling of some very sensitive and interesting interviews, which every admirer of the great comedian should read and own. I’ll sure get Hayes’ similar Buster Keaton-book one of these days. – Amazon Review

The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin

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Wife of the Life of the Party is the memoir of the late Lita Grey Chaplin (1908-1995), the only one of Chaplin’s wives to have written an account of life with Chaplin. Her memoir is an extraordinary Hollywood story of someone who was there from the very beginning. Born Lillita Louise MacMurray in Hollywood, she began her career at twelve with the Charlie Chaplin Film Company, when Chaplin selected her to appear with him as the flirting angel in “The Kid”.

When she was fifteen, Chaplin signed her as the leading lady in ” The Gold Rush” and changed her name to Lita Grey. She was forced to leave the production when, at the age of sixteen, she became pregnant with Chaplin’s child. She married Chaplin in Empalme, Mexico in November 1924. The Chaplins stayed together for two years. Lita bore Chaplin two sons: Charles Chaplin, Jr. and Sydney Chaplin. In November 1926, after Lita discovered that Chaplin was having an affair with Merna Kennedy (Lita’s best friend, whom she had persuaded Chaplin to hire as the leading lady in “The Circus”), Lita left Chaplin and filed for divorce. It was one of the first divorce cases to receive a public airing. The divorce complaint ran a staggering 42 pages and fed scandal with its revelations about the private life of Charles Chaplin. Lita’s divorce settlement of $825,000 was the largest in American history at the time. Lita authorized the publication of another biography, “My Life with Chaplin”, in 1966. The book was mainly the creation of her co-author, Morton Cooper, who re-wrote her manuscript. Lita was never happy with the many inaccuracies and distortions of that book. ” Wife of the Life of the Party” is not to be seen as a supplement to her early book, but rather Lita’s own version of her life, told for the first time.

About the Author

Lita Grey Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin’s second wife, was a film actress, singer, and author of two memoirs concerning her life with Charlie Chaplin. Jeffrey Vance (M.A., Boston University) assisted Lita Grey Chaplin in compiling her memoir.

Review

A few years before her passing, Lita Grey, ex-wife of master comedian Charles Chaplin, wrote a second “autobiography,” WIFE OF LIFE OF THE PARTY, in cooperation with silent film enthusiast Jeffrey Vance. According to her son Sydney’s foreword, the book was intended as a correction of her 1966-memoir MY LIFE WITH CHAPLIN, which, by all accounts, was filled with exaggerations.

It is a sad story. I must clarify that my admiration for Chaplin goes beyond that of a “fan.” His films have meant more to me than the work of any other artist, and needless to say they have had a strong personal impact on me. Despite this, I’ll try to stay neutral here and admit that I did feel sorry for Lita as I read this book. It is not hard to recognize that the work of Chaplin is the outcome of a very complex mind, and on a personal level, this complexity was not always to the advantage of neither himself nor his surroundings. To have a creative genius as a husband can’t be a preferable situation for everybody, and certainly it wasn’t for Lita.

Chaplin first aqcuainted his future-wife in 1920, while working on his first feature-length film THE KID. She was 12 at the time, and got a role in the film after the recommendation from Chaplin’s co-director. The book starts off with some interesting recollections of Chaplin’s working habits. The two met again three years later, when Lita visited Chaplin’s studio in order to impress a friend. Chaplin was captivated by the beuaty of the 15-year old, and signed her once again, this time to play leading lady in his current production THE GOLD RUSH (for which she was later replaced). The two soon began an affair, and eventually, Lita became pregnant. Chaplin became frustrated, and offered her a large sum of money if she would marry another man; however, Lita’s mother forced them to marry. In late 1924, the 16-year old Lita became the wife of 35-year old Charles Chaplin, and the rest is a pretty dark story.

Inevitably, most of this book consists of details about the unhappy marriage, putting Chaplin in a far from favorable light. According to Lita, her husband almost had a habit of accusing her of trying to ruin his career. Whenever her parents are not present, Chaplin is quick to adapt harsh name-calling. Lita, on the other hand, is presented as astonishingly naive and inexperienced throughout. Perhaps she was; there is at least no doubt that Chaplin was the adult of the two and should probably have foreseen that starting an affair with Lita wasn’t the wisest thing to do. They were divorced less than three years later, which resulted in worldwide headlines for over a year. Lita’s divorce complaint (a tiresome read included in the book) became a best-seller, and her lawyers worked with one thing in mind: to ruin Chaplin’s career. They did not succeed, but were close at times. Chaplin got a nervous breakdown and was forced to close the studio for months.

However, although there is little doubt that Chaplin must take responsibility for many of the problems that arose during this period, there are parts of this story that remain uncovered in the book. Lita’s account really appears a bit too one-dimensional to be fully believable. For one thing, various sources through the years indicate that Lita’s family used Chaplin’s money in a very inconsiderate manner, something which Chaplin’s wealth can’t completely justify. Also, during the divorce her lawyers, one of which was her uncle, used some truly mean-spirited and unethical methods. Lita further ignores the difficulties she caused her two sons through their childhood, when she suffered from alcoholism. It is not that I blame her for not wanting to dwell on unhappy things like that, but if she is to present her ex-husband in such a horrendously unflattering manner, I’d have regarded it as fair to admit that she should have done some things differently herself, especially since she stresses that “Chaplin had a tendency to blame all other people for his own troubles and believe that he himself was faultless.” The reader should also be aware that Chaplin barely touched the subject of his marriage to Lita in his autobiography, and that his version of the story was thus never really heard publicly.

I usually avoid books on celebrities written by ex-wives, and did an exception because it’s Chaplin-related. Although sad, all in all WIFE OF THE LIFE OF THE PARTY stands as not too memorable, and is mostly worth to read due to the recollections of Chaplin’s work on THE KID. If you have to read it, I urge you to also check out Charles Chaplin Jr.’s wonderful book MY FATHER CHARLIE CHAPLIN as a sort of counter-balance, or otherwise you’ll possibly get a rather one-dimensional view on Chaplin the man. – Amazon Review

The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin

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With bowler hat, mustache and cane, Charlie Chaplin became one of the twentieth century’s most recognized and beloved icons. But for decades, the secrets to his timeless film magic were presumed lost forever to the cutting-room floors of a bygone era. Now, available on DVD for the first time, UNKNOWN CHAPLIN captures the cinematic genius as he was never meant to be seen.

Using countless reels of footage and outtakes Chaplin had wanted destroyed, film archivists Kevin Brownlow and David Gill have meticulously crafted an essential and fascinating documentary homage to the Little Tramp who will no doubt keep us laughing until the last flickering frame. Featuring the following programs: MY HAPPIEST YEARS: Early shorts reveal how constant re-working of sight gags led to Chaplin’s first triumph. THE GREAT DIRECTOR: The Kid, The Gold Rush and City Lights–by 1918, Chaplin is the movie industry’s top director. HIDDEN TREASURES: See the original opening sequence to Chaplin’s City Lights with a new musical score. DVD Features: How UNKNOWN CHAPLIN Was Made; Two Bonus Shorts: The Making of The Count and Chaplin Meets Harry Lauder; Chaplin Biography; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection.

Editorial Review

Indispensable for any Chaplin fan and important and highly intriguing for anyone who cares about film history, this three-volume series offers the outtakes and unreleased tracks of the Little Tramp’s storied career. Archivist Kevin Brownlow and David Gill meticulously and ingeniously piece together previously unseen footage from Chaplin’s private collection, demonstrating in part 1 how painstakingly the director developed gags in such short films as The Cure and The Immigrant. Part 2 is less essential, but offers the famous behind-the-camera intrigue of the making of his classic City Lights, a film in which pokey perfectionist Chaplin makes Stanley Kubrick look like a caffeinated, indie tyro rushing through production. Part 3 demonstrates how Chaplin recycled ideas he discarded early in his career for use in later film. It includes a historic first–one of the first extended sequences Chaplin shot trying to break out of the Little Tramp mold. Doubly amazing is how fresh and funny and effective Chaplin’s filmmaking remains today, nearly a century later. –David Kronke

Review

I remember sitting in front of my television, rapturously watching the documentary “Hollywood” created by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill in 1980. Each of the 13 segments dealing with a specific part of early Hollywood history, played on PBS and was a true delight. In this era before DVD, and even VHS, it was a great way to see a large number of rare clips from the Silent era. A few years later, they made “Unknown Chaplin”, perhaps the most astonishing documentary ever created about the technical side of Hollywood. A few years later, “Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow” continued the tradition.

“Unknown Chaplin” was just released on DVD and is a must have addition for anyone even remotely interested in the history of film or filmmaking.

During production of “Hollywood”, Brownlow and Gill naturally wanted to devote an entire hour to Chaplin but ran into a roadblock. The person who controlled access to Chaplin’s work was only prepared to let them use a “snippet”. They had to change their plans. They couldn’t build an entire hour around a “snippet”. After “Hollywood” aired, to great critical acclaim, they tried again. Chaplin’s widow allowed them access to his personal vault. What they found there astonished them; row after row of film cans, many labeled with “City Lights”, “The Gold Rush”, “The Circus” and many with unfamiliar names. These contained clips never before seen, projects started but never finished and rehearsals for films like “City Lights”. It was a treasure trove for any film historian.

Naturally, they believed they had just hit the mother load, but soon met a man named Raymond Rohauer. Rohauer, a film “collector”, claimed to have many reels of film from Chaplin’s Mutual days, the period immediately before Chaplin went independent and began to make his great feature-length films. The Mutual period is considered by many to be Chaplin’s best, when he made his most famous two-reelers, “The Immigrant”, “The Cure” and others along with “The Kid”. As they viewed this footage, Brownlow and Gill made a major realization; Chaplin worked out all of his films on the set, while the cameras were rolling, providing a visual history of his work. Beginning with a bare outline he would began production, working out jokes on set, adding jokes, changing stories, and more. Sometimes, he would scrap everything and start over. Or get an idea and change everything around. And the camera was always running while he did this.

“Unknown Chaplin” premiered in 1983 to great critical acclaim, exposing many to the methods used by one of film’s greatest comedians and most skilled directors. Imagine having the ability to watch Claude Monet create a canvas and get insight into the various decisions he made. Or to watch Frank Lloyd Wright work on his latest design and see why he decided to put that piece of word there. This is what “Unknown Chaplin” provides, access into the mind of a master.

Recently released on DVD for the first time, each of the three segments of “Unknown” look amazingly vivid and clear. Some of the better footage is so clear it looks like it was photographed yesterday. As James Mason narrates, guiding us, we begin to learn how Chaplin created his films. Every time I say this, I just get chills up and down my spine. How often can we expect to see a master, someone at the top of their craft, creating some of their most famous work? Considering how much of the Silent era was destroyed, the fact that this film exists at all is all the more impressive.

Part One is the most groundbreaking, presenting the footage from the Mutual days. Brownlow and Gill quickly realized that Chaplin filmed every take and frequently changed bits between takes. How should they deal with this wealth of material? They decided to arrange the clips in chronological order, recreating how Chaplin worked on the material as the cameras rolled. He began each project with an outline, but this is by no means how the projects were completed. He would work out the jokes and funny business on set, sometimes running into road blocks. If he couldn’t work through it, he would scrap everything and start over. We get to see this process as we watch these clips unearthed by the filmmakers.

Part Two presents the material obtained from Chapin’s vaults, after he became independent and began making feature length films. Less extensive, the footage still reveals a lot. For instance, a family friend stood near the camera and was able to take home movies as Chaplin worked on “City Lights”. This footage is shown, and we get a glimpse of Chaplin, the director, at work. We also watch as Chaplin works through various location problems with “The Gold Rush”, unused footage from “The Circus” and more.

Part Three shows us the unseen clips, portions of abandoned projects, unseen shorts and more Brownlow and Gill found in the Chaplin vaults. After Chaplin built his own studio, many dignitaries and famous people stopped by and the director filmed these visits, sometimes making quick shorts with them, on existing sets. If he did any funny business during these impromptu films, he frequently incorporated this into later works. He even started a few projects that were never finished, one of which shows Charlie as a down-on-his-luck `Professor’ who owns a flea circus, temporarily abandoning his Tramp character.

“Unknown Chaplin” is a documentary almost solely devoted to the filmmaker’s work. The few references to his personal life are made because they somehow affected his professional work. Because of this “Unknown” presents one of the most thorough, interesting and illuminating looks at one of film’s true masters and true pioneers. – Amazon Review

The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin

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Twelve films directed and written by Charlie Chaplin, with new orchestral scores composed and conducted by Carl Davis! Restored from premier quality original 35mm film! This edition of The Chaplin Mutual Comedies has been restored from the finest surviving 35mm film elements, with additions and improvements from new film materials which have surfaced since Image’s previous edition.

FEATURED FILMS: THE FLOORWALKER – THE FIREMAN – THE VAGABOND – ONE A.M. – THE COUNT – THE PAWN SHOP – BEHIND THE SCREEN – THE RINK – EASY STREET – THE CURE – THE IMMIGRANT – THE ADVENTURER SPECIAL FEATURES: The Gentleman Tramp: This 1975 feature-length film made from the life and work of Charlie Chaplin is narrated by Walter Matthau, with excerpts from My Autobiography read by Laurence Olivier, excerpts from the great Chaplin features, Chaplin family home movies, and scenes of Chaplin at home near Vevey, Switzerland. “This delightful film has captured the quintessence of the artist and his art and has done so in terms accessible to everyone.” (The New York Times). Chaplin’s Goliath: 1996 Oscar-winnning documentarian Kevin MacDonald reveals the story of Eric Campbell, the huge Scottish actor who achieved screen immortality as the “heavy” in the Chaplin Mutual comedies. “The Mutual-Chaplin Specials,” an appreciation by Jeffrey Vance, author of Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema “Making The Gentleman Tramp,” a reminisence by Richard Patterson Stills Gallery: This amazing DVD-ROM gallery contains more than ninety superb, rare images from the collection of Jeffrey Vance, many of them behind-the-scenes shots never before published!

Review

Chaplin’s Mutual-two-reelers, which by many are looked upon as the comedian’s noblest work, have been brought out on video and DVD several times, always with variable quality. Some have been good, others weak.

I once heard a proverb which fascinated me, “The biggest enemy to great, is good.” Well then, CHAPLIN MUTUAL COMEDIES: RESTORED 90TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION is not among the good sets; it is the greatest one out there. Not only does it include clear prints of the twelve pearls, all with beautiful musical scores composed by Carl Davis — several of the movies, such as ONE A.M. and THE RINK, also have recently discovered footage added, available for the first time since their original release in 1916-17. This makes the collection very well worth to get even if you own all of the movies from before, like I do.

Oh well, the set would be a treat anyway, because of the special features, which actually could have worked as its own release. Especially interesting are two rarely-seen documentaries. The first one of them, THE GENTLEMAN TRAMP (78 min.) from 1975 –which I’d tried to find for years– is narrated by Laurence Oliver, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and includes numbers of home movies, archive footage, etc. The second documentary, CHAPLIN’S GOLIATH (54 min.) from 1996 covers the life of Eric Campbell, the heavy Scotsman who played the villain in each one of Chaplin’s Mutual-comedies. Also included are two fine and very interesting booklets: “The Chaplin Mutuals” by Jeffrey Vance and “The Making of The Gentleman Tramp” by Richard Patterson.

My only complaint is that while the music is very good –beautiful, really– and fits the films wonderfully, there are a few times that I think it sounds a little too dramatic or melancholic when it, in my opinion, rather should be amusing; especially in ONE A.M. But that’s just according to my taste.

Sadly, there still seems to be certain footage missing available elsewhere even in this set, especially in THE CURE. However, this is the closest to perfection anyone has come yet and is, needless to say, a “must” to every Chaplin-fan. Well worth the money! – Amazon Review

The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin

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For the first time as a filmmaker, Chaplin stepped into feature-length storytelling with this tale of the down- but-never-out Tramp (Chaplin) and the adorable ragamuffin (6-year-old Jackie Coogan) who, rescued as a foundling and raised in the School of Hard Knocks by the Tramp, is his inseparable sidekick. Memorable scenes include a lesson in table manners, the bully brawl and the Tramp’s angelic dream. The Kid earns its wings.

Editorial Review

The Kid is one of the purest expressions of Charlie Chaplin’s art on film. It unites Chaplin with a boy he had spotted in a vaudeville act, 6-year-old Jackie Coogan–whose life would lead to the child-protective Coogan Act and a role as Uncle Fester on TV. The story has the Tramp adopting an abandoned waif and teaching him streetwise survival skills. The gags are flawless, but for Chaplin the huge advance (other than a running time longer than his two-reelers) was the exploration of a rich vein of sentiment; the emotionally wrenching separation of the Tramp and the Kid is probably the most Dickensian sequence ever captured on film. Chaplin drew on his own rough childhood for the material (and may have been inspired by the death of an infant son immediately before beginning the project). Jackie Coogan’s gift for mimicry allowed him to replicate Chaplin’s exacting direction, making him the perfect Chaplin co-star. –Robert Horton

Review

The Good: I’m not a complete Chaplin aficionado but I believe if you pick up this DVD set and the first Chaplin DVD collection, you’ll have all his films with the exception of his early Essanay and Mutual films and his 1967 film “A Countess From Hong Kong” which Chaplin directed and features a brief cameo. Besides the films themselves, this set contains photo galleries, trailers, brief documentaries, deleted scenes, some brief but fascinating introductions by Chaplin biographer David Robinson, and other related materials – all of them presented in pristine, and in most cases stunning, condition by restoration artists MK2.

The Bad: Chaplin re-released many of these films in the ’60s and ’70s and the Chaplin family obviously considers these as the final word since they’ve included them here. I’m assuming this is a good thing because it would allow MK2 to work from newer prints rather than the old film masters from the ’20s and ’30s. Unfortunately, Chaplin also added new music in many cases and made some minor scene deletions. I haven’t seen the earliest versions to be able to compare musical scores. And the scores used here worked fine for me. Still, it would’ve been nice if they included the original film instead of tacking the brief deleted scenes on separately. This was done perfectly with “The Gold Rush” set in the first Chaplin DVD collection which includes the original film and the reworked modern version with Chaplin’s narration. There are several spelling mistakes on the packaging of “The Kid” – the title has dropped out somewhere along the line in its production – an error which should’ve been caught, considering all the care they’ve put into this package. There are also some isolated spelling mistakes in the title cards during “The Chaplin Revue” shorts they could’ve easily caught. The “Woman” disc lists that it includes movie posters on the box’s contents – however, they’ve forgot to include them here. The box is also rather flimsy paperboard. I recently bought the Monty Python boxed set which comes in a hard cardboard box. This is another minor point but it would’ve been nice to get a solid housing considering the cost of this set and care put into the materials. In addition, the FBI warnings on all the movies and documentaries appear for about five minutes in several languages – which is fine – but unfortunately, you can’t fast forward through any of them. The only thing you can do is stop the DVD and reboot to get back to the main menu or wait the warnings out until the menu comes back. This inconvenience could’ve been corrected as well.

The Ugly: In their haste to put this thing out, possibly to coincide with the current Jeffrey Vance coffee table book “Chaplin – Genius of the Cinema,” they’ve made a few glaring errors. In the case of the A King in New York / A Woman of Paris two disc set, both discs work properly – but they’ve been mislabelled. (Disc One is actually Disc Two and vice versa.) I purchased this set in Canada at HMV so this is not strictly an issue with the sets Amazon are selling. What’s worse is they’ve also made the same mistake with “The Chaplin Revue” two disc set. Again, both discs play fine but are mislabelled. These sloppy errors will probably be corrected in future print runs. But it’s such a bonehead mistake – particularly making them twice in one collection – they really should’ve caught them.

But all in all, even these minor points still can’t obscure the fact this is a really phenomenal DVD set with all the prime, sublime glory of Chaplin. You just wish they hadn’t been asleep at the switch with all these careless little errors. – Scott Leslie, Amazon Review

The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin

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ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. captures the essence of comic genius Charlie Chaplin in a compelling, nuanced performance that earned him Oscar(r) and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor. Director Richard Attenborough’s well-crafted portrait traces Chaplin’s impoverished London upbringing, extraordinary success as an actor and director, his troubled marriages, scandalous affairs, shocking exile to Switzerland and his triumphant return to Hollywood. The huge star-studded cast includes KEVIN KLINE, DAN AYKROYD, MILLA JOVOVICH, DIANE LANE and GERALDINE CHAPLIN (as her own grandmother), and Downey’s astonishing mimicry of Chaplin’s gait, gestures and accents complete a dazzlingly authentic portrait of one of cinema’s first pop culture icons.

Editorial Review

Sir Richard Attenborough’s biographical film of the life and times of Charles Chaplin is a little thin as a narrative, but it is so charmingly creative and ultimately moving, it’s hard to care about any deficits. Robert Downey Jr. does an excellent job re-creating Chaplin’s graceful slapstick and getting inside the silent-film superstar’s head over many years of triumph, defeat, scandal, official persecution, exile, and inner peace. A huge cast portray the allies, friends, lovers, and enemies in Chaplin’s life, including Moira Kelly as his final, longtime wife, Oona, Kevin Kline as Douglas Fairbanks, Geraldine Chaplin as Charlie’s mother, and James Woods as a prosecutor working hard to nail Chaplin for anti-American sentiments. Attenborough declines to tell the story in a flat, linear way, employing such clever techniques as detailing one chapter in Chaplin’s life as a silent comedy. The climactic scene set at an Oscar tribute for Chaplin will get the tears flowing. –Tom Keogh

Review

If you’re anything like me, the almost semi-annual relapse and recovery of Robert Downey Jr. has been an interesting periodic feature of the morning news. After a while one begins to question why does Hollywood put up with him when there is no shortage of talented actors desperately trying to make it in Hollywood? Why would producers and studios, who are so financially dependent on their productions going off without a hitch, take yet another chance on Robert Downey, Jr? Then I saw Chaplin, and I understood.

The intensity and power of the Robert Downey’s performance in this film is the stuff of Oscars and true movie legend! It’s both a beautiful performance and a beautiful film!

Somehow Sir Richard Attenborough got out of Downey the kind of performance that can sustain a career, and a legend. But Sir Richard’s mastery didn’t stop there. He got spectacular performance out of everyone, including a young, pre-X-Files David Duchovny. (I know I misspelled that. But you know who I mean.)

In summation, Robert Downey’s performance is every bit the equal of James Dean’s in Giant, East of Eden or Rebel without a Cause, and maybe that’s what we should keep in mind. For unlike Dean, another self-destructive personality, Robert Downey has not driven off the cliff yet, and hopefully he never will. – Robert Barnwell, Amazon Review

The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin

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Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin’s last outing as the Little Tramp, puts the iconic character to work as a giddily inept factory employee who becomes smitten with a gorgeous gamine (Paulette Goddard). With its barrage of unforgettable gags and sly commentary on class struggle during the Great Depression, Modern Times—though made almost a decade into the talkie era and containing moments of sound (even song!)—is a timeless showcase of Chaplin’s untouchable genius as a director of silent comedy.

Editorial Review

Charlie Chaplin is in glorious form in this legendary satire of the mechanized world. As a factory worker driven bonkers by the soulless momentum of work, Chaplin executes a series of slapstick routines around machines, including a memorable encounter with an automatic feeding apparatus. The pantomime is triumphant, but Chaplin also draws a lively relationship between the Tramp and a street gamine. She’s played by Paulette Goddard, then Chaplin’s wife and probably his best leading lady (here and in The Great Dictator). The film’s theme gave the increasingly ambitious writer-director a chance to speak out about social issues, as well as indulging in the bittersweet quality of pathos that critics were already calling “Chaplinesque.” In 1936, Chaplin was still holding out against spoken dialogue in films, but he did use a synchronized soundtrack of sound effects and his own music, a score that includes one of his most famous melodies, “Smile.” And late in the film, Chaplin actually does speak–albeit in a garbled gibberish song, a rebuke to modern times in talking pictures. –Robert Horton

Review

MODERN TIMES opens with its credits being printed out over a close-up image of a clock ticking interminably forward. The film’s first real shot is of mindless sheep being herded through gates, which fades into an image of factory employees exiting a subway stop on their way to work. Looking at this from a modern standpoint, one can only think that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

This is a film that I can watch over and over again. It’s not just that it’s an incredibly funny film. It’s not just that its satire of modernization and industrialization still rings true today. It’s that each aspect of the filmmaking pulls together to form something greater than each individual part. The story ranges from big topics concerning the Great Depression and dehumanization, while successfully balancing that with the small love story between the tramp and the gamin. In a theme that would be revisited even more powerfully in LIMELIGHT, the two characters need each other, depend on each other and simply have no reason to exist without the other. The comedy tickles while the tragedy touches. No other director in film history managed to find that equilibrium with such skill.

This is rightly hailed as the last great silent movie, albeit one made several years after sound has become the norm. I still get a kick out of the fact that the only intelligible voices come solely from machines. Chaplin is making a silent film using sound technology, meaning he has the option to take the best of the both worlds. His next film, THE GREAT DICTATOR, wouldn’t quite get this mixture right, but it’s a success here. The film can go for several minutes at a time with no meaningful talking or sound effects, and then suddenly jump into an unexpected gag involving voice. The mixture of sound and silent set pieces was inevitable at this point in film history, but I’ve never seen it pulled off as well as Chaplin does it here.

While disc one contains the film itself in beautifully restored condition, the second DVD is full of extras. Most important is the “Chaplin Today — Modern Times” documentary. This is more or less structured around two French directors (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne) discussing the film. Absolutely fascinating stuff. They analyze the film’s jokes, its metaphors and its themes. They talk about everything from the number of frames per second shot to the number of gags that revolve around food. Also included in the documentary is some footage of Chaplin meeting Gandhi. I have nothing to add; I just had to mention it.

Chaplin’s nonsense song, the tune he sings at the end of the film in faux Italian, is the subject of two extras. The first is an extended version, featuring a final verse that never made it to the final edit. The second is a Karaoke version of the song (I’m not making this up). And speaking of Chaplin’s music, there’s an excerpt from 1950s TV of Liberace himself (of all people) performing “Smile” — the theme from MODERN TIMES. Great rendition of a great song.

There’s also a short (ten minute) documentary from 1967 called “Por primera vez” (“For The First Time”) in which peasants in a tiny village in Cuba are shown a movie for the first time. It’s a fascinating look at what film means to people who have never actually watched one before. The reason for its inclusion on this DVD is that the film in question is, of course, MODERN TIMES. It may be an odd choice for their first film experience given that the story of a factory worker undergoing a nervous breakdown may not be something that relates well to people who rarely even see automobiles. But the villagers laugh at the right places and seem genuinely enthused. The documentary is well worth watching and will fascinate anyone with an interest in the societal ramifications of film.

The picture restoration on the main feature is also fabulous. The image has never looked crisper. While this is nominally a silent movie, the original release did feature a synchronized soundtrack of sound effects and Chaplin’s musical score (which means, unlike other “silent” DVD releases, we connoisseurs don’t have to argue about whether this particular sound track is wonderful and totally keeping in the spirit of what would have been played at the time, or a complete outrage that should result in everyone responsible being shot). The sound quality is excellent, bringing one of my favorite film soundtracks to life superbly.

If I was going to recommend one Chaplin movie to someone, I think I’d have to choose this one. It has two major things going for it. It’s a great film, but it’s also extremely representative of his body of work. It has comedy, it has pathos, it features the tramp, it has a message. And it’s also one of the most influential movies that Chaplin ever made. Everyone, from film to television (remember Lucille Ball working at the candy factory?), has either made reference to MODERN TIMES, or just plain stolen some of its gags. The image of Charlie being dragged into the heart of the gears and cogs of a giant unfathomable machine is familiar to even those people who haven’t seen the movie. If you like this film, then you should already own this release. And if you haven’t seen it before, then this is absolutely worth a gander. You’ll be surprised at just how modern and fresh this classic movie is. – Andrew McCaffrey, Amazon Review

The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin

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Richard Schickel has assembled, organized, edited, and provided an Introduction to 33 essays about one of the greatest film actors, Charles Chaplin (April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977). Their authors’ diverse perspectives on his life and career provide an excellent supplement to Stephen Weissman’s recently published Chaplin: A Life in Film as well as to Charlie Chaplin’s Own Story (as told to Rose Wilder Lane) and Chaplin’s My Autobiography as well as David Robinson’s Chaplin: His Life and Art.

Weissman is among the contributors to The Essential Chaplin and in his essay, “Charlie Chaplin’s Film Heroines,” he observes: “It was the loss [of Chaplin's mother] and the scars it left that later shaped Chaplin’s development of an alter-ego screen character whose core identity (in the feature length films) was the rescue and repair of damaged and fallen women. And of all his rescue films it was The Gold Rush which Chaplin later said was the one picture by which he most wanted to be remembered by posterity.” (Page 66)

Note: In the “Afterword” to his biography, Weissman provides an especially interesting discussion of contradictory opinions about the legitimacy of Chaplin’s Own Story that appeared in a series of 29 installments in the San Francisco Bulletin from July 5 to August 4, 1915. Weissman believes that Lane transcribed Chaplin’s comments as accurately as she could. Robinson dismisses Own Story as “romantic and misleading nonsense.” Weissman acknowledges that “Neither Robinson’s theory nor mine is provable” and suggests that his reader take her or his choice.

Here are other brief excerpts from The Essential Chaplin.

“So far one man, and only one, has shown that he entirely understands the new art of the cinema. Only one man has shown that he knows how to use this art as if it were a keyboard where all the elements of sense and feeling that determine the attitude and firm of things merge and convey in one cinematic expression the complex revelation of their inner life and quality…In him the human drama possesses an instrument of expression of which people hitherto have had no suspicion, an instrument which, in the future, will be the most powerful of all – namely: a screen upon which falls a shaft of light; our eyes toward s it; and behind the eyes the heart.” (From Elie Faure’s The Art of Cineplastics, 1923, Page 77 in The Essential Chaplin)

Chaplin’s “impatience to have done with the adulation – which he once significantly remarked `is given, after all, to the little fellow, not me’ – brought him unfairly the reputation of a misanthrope. Simply, but hopelessly, he discovered, after the first return to New York, that he could enjoy no such luxury of choice as Nat Goodwin recommended: `Pick out one or two friends and be satisfied to imagine the rest.” (Alistair Cooke, Six Men, 1956, Page 127 in The Essential Chaplin)

Chaplin “is the only comic star in the movies who does not employ a gag-writer: he makes everything up himself; so that, instead of the stereotyped humor of even the best of his competitors, most of whose tricks could be interchanged among them without anyone knowing the difference, he gives us jokes that, however crude, have an unmistakable quality of personal fancy. Furthermore, he has made it a practice to use his gags as points of departure for genuine comic situations.” (Edmund Wilson, “The New Chaplin Comedy,” 1925, Page 171 in The Essential Chaplin)

“Destiny shifts us here and there upon the checkerboard of life, and we know not the purpose behind the moves. His father’s death brought a safe, comfortable world crashing down about Charlie Chaplin’s head, and plunged his mother, his brother and himself into poverty. But poverty is not a life sentence. It is a challenge. To some it is more – an opportunity. So it was to the child of the theater. In the kaleidoscopic life of London’s mean streets he found tragedy and comedy – and learned that their springs lie side by side…So we need not regret the shadows that fell over Charlie Chaplin’s life. Without them his gifts might have shone less brightly, and the whole world would have been the poorer. Genius is essentially a hardy plant. It thrives in the east wind. It withers in a hothouse.” (Winston Churchill, “Everybody’s Language,” Collier’s magazine, 1935, Pages 206 and 207 in The Essential Chaplin)

The appeal and value of these and other essays will, of course, depend on what each reader seeks to understand about Chaplin, an immensely complicated person who was (as Schickel explains) “driven by his relentless ego, by his helpless need for an audience to dominate, to lead. All the tragedies of his life stemmed from those drives and needs.” To Schickel’s credit, he has selected essays that (together) trace the key influences on Chaplin’s development throughout childhood and adolescence as well as during his early success on stage, his subsequent career in films, the controversies associated with his later years, and the period of recognition and awards he enjoyed just prior to his death.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Weissman’s aforementioned biography, Chaplin: A Life in Film, and Robinson’s Chaplin: His Life and Art as well as Charlie Chaplin’s Own Story (as told to Rose Wilder Lane) and Chaplin’s My Autobiography.

The Knighted Comedian:
Charles Spencer Chaplin

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Psychiatrist Weissman offers a fascinating, analytic portrait of a most complex man, who from 1915 to the mid-1930s was the most famous person in the world. Chaplin’s near-Dickensian childhood was one of squalid poverty in London. Both parents were in show business, and alcoholism and syphilis blighted their lives. At seven, Charlie was committed to the Hanwell School for Orphans and Destitute Children. According to Weissman, Chaplin recreated his painful childhood over and over in his movies, especially through the adventures of Chaplin’s archetypal film persona, the Little Tramp, the comical and lovable Everyman who never gives up.

Weissman finds many parallels between Chaplin’s upbringing and what he presented on the big screen; indeed, he maintains that the films are deeply personal statements reflecting the formative influence of early poverty on his artistic development. Besides being a captivating psychological study of a seminal figure in motion-picture history, the book is an engaging survey of early Hollywood filmmaking. –June Sawyers

Review

For most people who are interested in knowing more about the life and career of Charles Chaplin (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977), this most recently published of several biographies and two autobiographies provides as much information and analysis as they probably require. I had seen several of Chaplin’s greatest films (The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and Limelight) as well as the film about him starring Robert Downey Jr. One of his daughter’s, Geraldine Chaplin, wrote the introduction to Stephen Weissman’s biography and correctly describes it as “always provocative and at times heart-wrenching, an enlightening read, an important addition to an understanding of my father’s genius and art, and a unique meditation on the mystery of creativity.”

More specifically, Weissman thoroughly examines

1. Chaplin’s generally miserable childhood
2. His initial appearances on stage in London and throughout the British Isles
3. His breakthrough performance in the West End production of Sherlock Holmes
4. His association with the Fred Karno troupes (“Fred’s Fun Factory”)
5. His first and second American tours with Karno group (between 1910 and 1913)
6. His association with Mack Sennett and the Keystone Film Company
7. His one-year association with Essanay Films

Note: Although Chaplin co-founded United Artists with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith in 1919, Weissman includes no discussion of that partnership.

8. Chaplain’s creation and development of the “Little Tramp”
9. Various controversies involving Chaplin’s lifestyle and political views
10. His recognition and awards in his later years

Note: In the “Afterword,” Weissman provides an especially interesting discussion of contradictory opinions about the legitimacy of Charlie Chaplin’s Own Story (a narrative as told to journalist Rose Wilder Lane) that appeared in a series of 29 installments in the San Francisco Bulletin from July 5 to August 4, 1915. Weissman believes that Lane transcribed Chaplin’s comments as accurately as she could. Another Chaplin scholar, David Robinson, dismisses Own Story as “romantic and misleading nonsense.” Weissman suggests that his reader take her or his choice. “Neither Robinson’s theory nor mine is provable.”

While reading this often riveting account of Chaplin’s personal life and professional career, I was reminded of a passage in Walt Whitman’s poem, “Song of Myself”: “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.” That can certainly be said of Chaplin who overcame a truly miserable childhood, mastered the skills needed to achieve extraordinary success on stage, completed an especially difficult transition from performing in front of a live audience to performing for the lens of a camera, then became arguably the greatest film actor ever while mastering the skills needed to write and direct his own films.

Throughout his narrative, Weissman cites a number of different sources who offer a variety of perspectives on Chaplin’s life and art. For example, here is what Alistair Cooke once observed when discussing Chaplin’s identification with Dickens: “Charles Chaplin was Charles Dickens reborn…there is an eerie similarity between [the novel] Oliver Twist and the first 60 pages…of Chaplin’s Autobiography. But as a reincarnation of everything spry and inquisitive and Cockney-shrewd and invincibly alive and cunning, Chaplin was the young Dickens in the flesh.” Here is what Sigmund Freud once noted: “In the last few days, Chaplin has been in Vienna…He is undoubtedly a great artist; certainly he always portrays one and the same figure; only the weakly poor, helpless, clumsy youngster for whom, however, things turn out well in the end. Now do you think for this role he has to forget about his own ego? On the contrary, he always plays only himself as he was in his dismal youth.”

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out the Charlie Chaplin’s Own story (as told to Rose Wilder Lane) and Chaplin’s My Autobiography as well as David Robinson’s Chaplin: His Life and Art and The Essential Chaplin edited by Richard Schickel. – Robert Morris, Amazon Review

The Knighted Comedian:
Charles Spencer Chaplin

This post is part of a featured series on this website. [More...]

Born into a theatrical family, Chaplin’s father died of drink while his mother, unable to bear the poverty, suffered from bouts of insanity, Chaplin embarked on a film-making career which won him immeasurable success, as well as intense controversy. His extraordinary autobiography was first published in 1964 and was written almost entirely without reference to documentation – simply as an astonishing feat of memory by a 75 year old man. It is an incomparably vivid reconstruction of a poor London childhood, the music hall and then his prodigious life in the movies.

Review

While the movie Chaplin is very well done, no person can tell a story like they can tell there own. Based on this, I chose to read the book written by the cinematic legend himself. While there are some discrepencies between the book and movie, books have an ability to make details evident that movies can not make evident.

The book spends a considerable amount of time in his early life. Chaplin struggled with a rarely present father and a mentally ill mother. It was through this poverty that he followed the chosen career path of his parents in the theatre. The theatre would would lead him to America where he would begin working in the new film industry. Through this industry he made classic films that continue to influence modern cinema despite their age. When Chaplin made a film, it had something to say. It was art that spoke to the human soul with humor, love, and hope. His films were not merely a way to make money.

Aside from his work in films, Chaplin was a humanitarian. He supported America in times of war depite not being a citizen. Chaplin never forgot his roots, making him empathetic to the needs of the less fortunate. This trait led to the revoking of his citizenship when he spoke of openly of opening a second front in Russia during World War II. It was through this stance that he was labeled a “communist” and had his citizenship was revoked. In spite of these attacks led by J. Edgar Hoover, Chaplin rarely mentions Hoover in his book. Nor does he harbor ill will toward America. It is a travesty that this film legend and humanitarian was treated so poorly by the American government in his later years.

The book ends shortly after Chaplin has settled in to his new life in Switzerland. With his new life, Chaplin has a positive outlook. One has to wonder what might have been if Chaplin finished his life in America. Surely he was capable of creating more great work. However, sometimes a man’s greatest work and pleasure is his family. – JMack, Amazon Review