I have two. My answers will not be surprising to long time Chaplin fans.
The Gentleman Tramp and Unknown Chaplin. Gentleman Tramp is a biography, and Unknown Chaplin is a “behind the scenes” doc.
I baffled my family growing up with the number of times I have watched these. And I have baffled my kids equally as much.
“Mom, you’re watching that again?“
Like his films, these docs are fun and comforting. And I appreciate the tons work that went into them.
By the way, these are listed in order of release date, not a ranking.
The Gentleman Tramp
First, The Gentleman Tramp, written and directed by Richard Patterson, narrated by Walter Matthau, released in 1975. One of the things that makes this interesting is that it was made while Chaplin was still alive.
I first saw it listed in David Robinson’s book. And then in the early 90s in my baby Chaplin fan days, I saw the VHS while browsing around one of my favorite stores, Media Play, and grabbed it up right away. And continued to watch it numerous times. Then many years later I saw it at Amazon from Patterson himself. The DVD has two versions of the doc: one is the version that was on the VHS, and another longer version with a introduction by Matthau and his son, Charlie as they traveled to Chaplin’s Switzerland home, and a couple alternate takes (for example: during the Joan Barry court case). The DVD also came with a booklet written by Patterson talking about the ups and downs of making the doc (Chaplin had some disagreements with him with how the doc was being put together). I usually watch the version that I first saw.
You can buy it from Amazon here. Or you can watch a couple clips from it that was put up by the official Chaplin YouTube Channel:
There’s no place that I know of where you can buy it streaming, but it is on DailyMotion – watch it here: part 1 and part 2.
All the music is either by Chaplin (most of it falls into this category), or about Chaplin (“When The Moon Shines Bright On Charlie Chaplin” played during discussing why Chaplin did not fight during WWI). It also has more footage from the 1972 Oscars than what exists online.
Narration is provided by Walter Matthau. Which seemed like an odd choice to me at first, but then I realized that his wife, Carol, and Charlie’s wife, Oona, had been best friends since their teens. Also wonderful voice-overs reading excepts from Chaplin’s autobiography (read by Laurence Olivier), his son Charlie Jr (haven’t ID’ed that voice), various news articles and gossip columns (either supporting Charlie or deriding him),
Unknown Chaplin
Unknown Chaplin was the first Chaplin documentary I saw, years before I was a fan. It was somewhere during part 2: “The Great Director” when they were showing how The Gold Rush was made. I remember sitting there amazed by everything. They were explaining how the famous shoe eating scene was done (the shoe was made of licorice). When I finally saw the film when I became a fan, I remember not being grossed out because I knew that it wasn’t a real shoe, just licorice in shape of a shoe. And it did not gross me out like it does everyone else. Then after I became a fan, I read how Chaplin said that he never liked to talk about how he made his films, because it ruined the magic of it. And I thought to myself “What is he talking about? I love seeing how it was done and all the behind the scenes stuff. That;s just silly…” And then I remembered the shoe, and then thought “Okay, maybe he does know what he’s talking about”. Haha.
What got me when I was younger was the witty writing, excellent narration (by James Mason), smart editing, fitting music (the wonderful Carl Davis!), and overall energy of the documentary. That’s what kept me watching the first time, and what keeps me coming back to it.
So what is Unknown Chaplin about?
In the 1970s when Kevin Brownlow and David Gill were putting together their behemoth multi-part documentary “Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film”, they discovered so much unseen Chaplin footage (that Chaplin had originally ordered to be destroyed) showing how he made his films that they decided to make a documentary based around that.
There’s 3 parts:
My Happiest Years – From his days at Mutual, this contains lots of footage of his filmed rehearsals as he worked out story ideas.
The Great Director – Footage from How to Make Movies, making of The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights,. Interviews with Dean Reisner, Jackie Coogan, Lita Grey, Robert Parrish, Virginia Cherrill, Georgia Hale..
Hidden Treasures – Main focus is ideas that Charlie would play around with earlier in his career with and how they would show up years later in his films. The other half is deleted scenes from his films. And some other footage from How To Make Movies and visitors to the studio
Below is part 1. I totally love all 3, but part 1 is my favorite, in particular the evolution of “The Immigrant”. And here’s part 3
Favorite lines/scenes from Unknown Chaplin
During the segment on how The Immigrant came about, in the scene with Charlie and Albert Austin, and Charlie purposely throwing Albert off and laughing:
“After all, it’s only slate one”
This is hilarious, because practically from the time Chaplin started directing while at Keystone, he was notorious for doing oodles and oodles of retakes.
And then shortly later
“The film is a simple cafe comedy about a man who’s never been in a cafe. That all it is. So far.”
In the beginning of part 2, “The Great Director”, Dean Reisner’s story of how Charlie and Sydney had to trick him into hitting them in The Pilgrim. Also love the edit of when Dean says “And so finally he and Sydney would play slapping games”. And it cuts to Charlie looking over at Sydney. Lovely edit! Also great story that I forgot to put in my “Favorite story about him told by someone else” post. You can also see this segment in the free preview on Amazon.
The opening of Hidden Treasures, with Doug Fairbanks 1929 home movie where Charlie is running around with a ancient Grecian tunic. And then fools around with a globe and then puts a WWI German helmet on it. Cut to 20 years later in The Great Dictator to the famous globe dance scene. That still jaw drops me! You can see the full home movie here (black and white, no music), and colorized (4k, 60fps,and music. Rather cool!)
(Side note: The above opening segment was cut out of the DVD and the version on Amazon. However, you can watch it in Amazon’s free preview. Why is it not included in the regular episode? I have absolutely no idea. I just noticed it now while writing this.)
From Hidden Treasures, the deleted barber scene from Sunnyside with Charlie and Albert Austin. Music is clever too. The song is from the opera The Barber of Seville. Like in Day 11 when it took me almost 30 years to realize Chaplin used Wagner in The Great Dictator, it took me a few years before I realized (though it was just 5 or so years). I was listening to the local NPR when they were playing Barber, and it got to that part, and I thought “Hey, I know that song!”. And then remembered Unknown Chaplin. Very clever use of the music :). You can watch the opera with that particular tune, “All’iddea di quel metallo”, here.
Also from Hidden Treasures, the cut scene from City Lights where Charlie tries to push a slat of wood down a grate. Most of the scene is slow, and I’m glad he cut it. BUT – the guy who comes out to window dress the mannequin and gets furious at Charlie for not figuring it out…. Love that!
Deleted from the DVD and Amazon release
One thing that got removed was Geraldine Chaplin’s introduction:
Right after the segment about the cut piece from “Behind the Screen” where Charlie just misses the huge axe landing on him, there was a pause before going onto the segment for “The Immigrant”. (Yeah, I watched the VHS that many times I remembered how it was edited, haha).
And, as I mentioned above about the Douglas Fairbanks opening for “Hidden Treasures”
Remember the Easter Egg in Robert Downey Jr’s Chaplin?
That documentary series I mentioned above that Brownlow and Gill made, “Hollywood” is an amazing multi-part series. One of the reasons why it’s amazing are the interviews with people who were there. Directors, actors and actresses that are no longer with us.
A great documentary that is not just about Chaplin, but the other great silent comedians: Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Harry Langdon. With interviews with Hal Roach, Frank Capra, and Jackie Coogan and a few other contemporaries. In “Comedy: A Serious Business”. Made by Brownlow and Gill a couple years prior to Unknown Chaplin.
It’s more of a video essay, but I really love the below video by the YouTube channel Newfangled (and currently has less than 1000 views at the moment): “Charlie Chaplin Doesn’t Give a F*ck”
There are a number of songs that are wonderful, like “Eternally” (theme song to Limelight), or A Paris Boulevard from Monsieur Verdoux, or “Georgia/The Dance Hall” from The Gold Rush. Those are closely behind my favorite
Mandolin Serenade. I just adore it. Many of his songs just melt my heart, but this one the most.
Below is the original:
Below is my favorite version of it, even more than the original (it seems seems like a song called Mandolin Serenade should have a mandolin more in the spotlight)
And here he is conducting it. I guess “conducting” is the best word for what he’s doing, haha
Back in the classic days of Who, there were not a lot of ,music from the show. There were some albums released of the sound effects and music, but nothing like New Who which has a soundtrack for each series.
Five years ago, during the 50th anniversary, there was an album release of a number of songs from both Classic and New Who. A sort of “Greatest Hits” of the entire run, ranging from the very cool retro scifi sounds of early Who to the orchestral masterpieces of New Who.
If we are talking for a non-greatest hits, I would pick Series 5, which was to Matt Smith’s first season as the 11th Doctor. It’s what also introduced the awesome 11th Doctor theme, “I am the Doctor” (track 9). The variants of that and “Amy’s Theme” (track 13) are wonderful.
Oh, if you want to see the video from where I got the top image from, it is a clip from the first of three (so far) Doctor Who at the Proms where the BBC Philharmonic performed music from the show (up to that point) as well as classical music. Sadly, they haven’t had a Proms since 2013, though there have been other orchestral performances.
Next on the Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge – Favorite Guest Star
The early evening of the Friday attacks on Paris, France, I was waiting for Hank Green to upload his video, and a few minutes to 9pm EST I saw “Feeling about Paris”
And I thought “What’s going on in Paris?” And I watched his video and then googleged the news.
How tragically sad :(.
By coincidence, I had been playing a good amount of Assassin’s Creed Unity (a video game that takes place during the French Revolution, as well as bits in other historical parts of France) for the last couple weeks (finally finished it the other day!). And about a week before the attacks, I began listening to a number of songs by the beautiful French singer Edith Piaf. I had been wondering around with Spotify lists, and was scrolling down the songs for “Topsify Greatest Hits”. Most of the songs, like 99%, are rock songs, a smattering of country songs, but one song stuck out: “Le Vie En Rose” (Life in Pink) by an Edith Piaf, #126 in the list.
Sort of weird to see a song, not sung in English, from 1947, in with a bunch of rock songs.
That title sounded familiar, so I listened to it. I don’t know exactly where or when I had heard it before (a movie? A documentary?) but it certainly sounded familiar. And then I began listening to more of her songs and several of them also sounded familiar. So for the last several days, I’ve been listening to a lot of her stuff.
Here’s a YouTube video if you are not into using Spotify:
After listening to a number of her songs, I love this one the most. I have heard the translated version, but it still sounds better in French, even though I don’t know any French.
Another song she is known for is “Non, je ne regrette rien” (No regrets)
If you are interested in hearing more of her music, go ahead and listen to her on Spotify or YouTube
The above video was created by tumblr user tooru-book, and it’s clips from various television and movies that Robin played in: Mork and Mindy, Seize the Day, Moscow on the Hudson, Flubber, Aladdin, Toys, The World According to Garp, and others. The song is Florrie’s “Too Young to Remember”
I like watching this one when I want to see something of his, but I know that if I start watching Mork and Mindy, or a movie, it’ll end up being more than just a few minutes, lol
Continuing on with Chaplin’s 125th anniversary of his birth and 100th anniversary of his first film! HUZZAH!
I was listening to a song, Perpetuum Mobile by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and it popped in my head of a scene from a not-so-well-known Charlie Chaplin film that was never released (until a few years ago). The song itself does not necessarily remind one of Chaplin, but the tempo reminded me of the stop motion building of his studio from the film, How to Make Movies (a kind of “behind the scenes” type movie). And other things just fell into place.
Below are embeds of the film (no need to adjust the volume, there is no sound at all for the film), and two different places to listen to the song (your choice). I start the song right after the “Hollywood, Cal.” title card (about 0:14), and the song ends as Charlie finishes eating the lemon and skips away from the camera.
Here is the song on YouTube:
Have Spotify? (Where I first heard the song.)
It’s not a 100% match, but it does match quite a bit of it especially since it’s not an obvious song choice (Maple Leaf Rag always reminds me of Chaplin), and ends at a good spot. Fun to watch 🙂
Some thoughts on the film:
Although the film was never released to the public, Chaplin did release the beginning part of it when he put together three of his silent films together, A Dog’s Life, Should Arms, and The Pilgrim, in 1959 for The Chaplin Revue. He added music (which is wonderful! Especially for guy who couldn’t read or write music) and narrated short intros before each of the three films. Right before A Dog’s Life, he narrates parts of HTMM.
Such as the scene where the 1918 Charlie arrives at the studio, older Chaplin says “Now you see my arrival. (Charlie gets out of car) That’s me. I looked much younger there. (laughs) That was at least ten years ago” he says, 40 years later! Always makes me chuckle.
I just tried looking for it online, and (as of right now) it’s been removed and I cannot find another one.
It is an amazing look (albeit staged) at how he worked at that time of his career. And a lot of fun to see him, for a good amount of the film, as his own person, no costume. Interacting with his cast, directing, going over gags, putting on, and later taking off, his famous tramp costume, and some golf outtakes from The Idle Class.
And like many of his other films, he wrote, produced, directed it, and starred in this one.
The lemon that Chaplin eats is from citrus trees that grew on the lot. The land was covered with them, and when Chaplin build his studio, he kept a few standing.
And now I’ll head off and watch one of The Chaplin Revue collection movies, Shoulder Arms…
To continue where I left off before being so rudely interrupted….
Jeremy Brett is too sexy!
A video that always makes me smile, if not laugh, is this one, done to Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy”
Jeremy Brett and Rowan Atkinson
On the theme of funny videos, there’s this one that is short clips of the Granada series with Jeremy Brett doing something, and then a clip of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean character doing something similar. When I first saw the title of this video, I thought it was both of them performing together (that would have been a hoot!).
Sherlock Holmes- Stagnation
We now go to the darker side. This video is made by givemeanimeanyday, the same person who made the excellent “Fix You” video that I posted before. The song is The Precipice by Mogwai. Deals with Holmes’ darker moods and habits.
Holmes and Watson at Reichenbach Falls
A great edited video using just two episodes: The Final Problem and Empty House. I’ll quote creator lyerlyreddwarf:
“My goal was to show in real time Watson rushing back to Holmes, after he has realized he has been tricked into leaving him to battle Professor Moriarty — only to find that he is too late. I also wanted to exemplify the emotions of Holmes and Watson — Watson’s sadness at the (erroneous) realization that his friend has died, and Holmes’ difficulty at not reveling himself when he sees his companion’s distress.”
Unless you have seen both episodes, it’s hard to notice which clips are from which episode. Wonderfully done, both editing and choice of music! Song is the Violin Concerto, 2nd movement by Philip Glass. After hearing this song, I became a fan of Mr. Glass 🙂
Wouldn’t you know it? The next day after my post about my favorite Holmes fanvids, I found another really good one…
Holmes & Watson- Fix You
I got a little choked up when I watched the Read My Mind fanvid, but this one really got me choked up. The below one is done to ColdPlay’s “Fix You”, also featuring clips from the Granada series. As with Read My Mind, the editing done in time with the song is top notch.
Sherlock Holmes – Safety Dance
This one is a bit repetitive, but fun. Men Without Hats classic 80s song, “Safety Dance”. More Granada clips (are you getting the impression that the Granada series was/is that popular among fans? :D)
Sherlock can do anything
One that made me laugh was this one done to Elvis Presley’s “Blue Sueade Shoes”. And no need to adjust your computer, it is double speed.
I love how Holmes throws paper around the room. Poor Mrs. Hudson!
These (especially “Read My Mind” and “Fix You”) have got me thinking about putting together a fan video of my own. I already have a couple songs in my head, and have been working out what parts could go where. Maybe one day I’ll finally make it 🙂
As I mentioned in my review for Sherlock Holmes, I loved the soundtrack. LOVED IT! Hans Zimmer is a genius! And a week ago an official music was released:
Starring the composer, Hans Zimmer, along with Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr (doing crazy antics. DANCE!…. but no Jude Law! Bummer!), Davey Johnstone (banjo), Anne-Marie Calhoun (violin), Tina Guo (cello), Lorne Balfe (co-wrote music), Aleksey Igudesman (another violin… the dude on the elephant), Satnam Singh Ramgotra (guy with full beard and the stand up big wide drum) Diego Stacco (crazy but awesome looking & sounding violin/viola/cello instrument), Atli Örvarsson, Bob Badami (don’t know exactly which one they are…maybe on the boat? or drumsticks?).
“Hans asked the musicians who participated on the soundtrack to video themselves, wherever they are in order to make this little video. Aleksey happened to be on an elephant in Thailand…”
What the video also pointed out to me was the different nationalities: British, German, Russian, American, Italian, Canadian…
Another thing I noticed: this is one of the few videos for a soundtrack where there are absolutely no clips of the film, just the cover for the CD.
And this weekend are the Oscars, and I sure hope that the soundtrack wins for best score. It should!
DVD/BluRay to be released….
According to Amazon, the movie is to be released later this month, March 30. The BluRay is where a lot of the extra features are at… bummer. I am hoping to get a digital copy so I can put it on my Creative Zen 🙂
