Just finished re-watching The Rink from 1916 from his Mutual period. Watching him on skates is balletic. How does he lean backwards for that long, on roller skates, and not fall down? And how does he do all the other things on skates?
There’s a bunch of great photos of him out of costume, usually wearing a suit. I have a couple in my room, one of him (probably in his 20s) in a suit, and another of him wearing everyday clothes (one of his tennis sweaters), holding a violin, talking to Buster Keaton on the set of Limelight.
And then there are the artsy ones like the one above taken by Lee Miller. I absolutely love the lighting.
Another one that is artsy, and I love almost as much as Miller’s photo, is one taken by Edward Steichen in 1925. Again the lighting is great, and the use of Chaplin’s larger than life shadow.
I was wondering whether or not to include this day’s challenge because I don’t want to give publicity to poorly written books. But, on the other hand, I wanted to share my thoughts on books to be wary of.
This one is at the top of my list: Joyce Milton’s “Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin”.
I first heard about the book when I was on the road in a circus (ah, a story for another time!) in the summer of 1996 when I saw a newspaper article about it. I was excited to see another book about him and looked forward to getting it when I went back home.
Two obvious choices, but I’m going with them anyway:
His own “My Autobiography” (what a genius title! haha), and David Robinson’s “Chaplin: His Life and Art”
Chaplin: His Life and Art by David Robinson
Robinson’s book was the first Chaplin book I bought. It was around the beginning of my fanhood days. I had seen it in my favorite used book store, but was hesitant to get it because “what if it was no good?” The internet wasn’t a big thing yet, so I couldn’t Google it or check Amazon to find out other reviews. Then one day I was sitting in one of my college classes and out of nowhere I had an urge to go down to the store and get it after class.
So I drive down there and I stop and think I better skim through it, and right away there were some interesting images. One was of the Chaplin family tree (up to date as of book publishing, circa 1985), a newspaper clipping announcing his birth, and a picture of a child age Charlie for the Sherlock Holmes play. All three of these (especially the last one) sold me. And I have loved the book ever since!
A few years later I bought another edition of it that was published around the time of the “Chaplin” had more updated information about his family.
Below is a recent interview with David (during the coronavirus ordeal) by Dan Kamin for the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum YouTube channel:
My Autobiography by Charles Chaplin
I don’t remember when I first read Chaplin’s autobiography. Maybe before I bought it, like from the library? I don’t know. ut When “Chaplin” came out, they re-released the book in paperback and I bought it. And then visited England about 2 years later and while in a bookstore in the airport, I found another copy, and how could I *not* buy a copy from his birth country? And so I bought that as well. I still have both of those, which the silhouette of Downey as the Tramp on the cover. Wore them out.
I loved reading about his rough childhood, getting on stage, coming to America, being scared to death of getting into movies but taking the plunge anyway.
I do hope that sometime in the near future there will be a new, or re-release, of an audiobook version. There was one I listened to years ago on cassette tape (that gives an idea how long ago! LOL) from the library.
Love these two books. Absolute must-haves for Chaplin fans or fans of movies in general.
My Father, Charlie Chaplin by Charles Chaplin, Jr.
Charlie Sr, Charlie Jr, and Lita Grey Chaplin
Another book that I really love is “My Father, Charlie Chaplin” by Charlie Chaplin Jr (one of two sons when Chaplin was married to Lita Grey). That is a lovely book. One of my favorite stories was when senior Chaplin came home, still in makeup, and came over to toddler-aged junior. Junior was confused who this strange looking man was with his father’s voice, and started to cry. Not knowing why his son was crying, Senior tried to cheer junior up, and then it dawned on him why there was crying. The makeup. So senior washed off the makeup and junior began smiling at the familiar clean face of his dad.
Charlie, wearing his tree costume from Shoulder Arms
Oh boy. I’m going to be jumping all around his timeline!
Well, maybe 1918. Right when he starting rolling with his studio and around the time when he was working on creating United Artists. Watching the making of Shoulder Arms. That would be cool 🙂
Second would be the filming of Limelight.
Charlie as Billy the Pageboy in “Sherlock Holmes” play
And in 1894, to sit in the audience when he took the stage at the first time at 5 years old to save his mom when she had a breakdown on stage and people were booing her. To divert their wrath, he started to sing and everyone loved him.
And, as a Sherlockian, an absolute must would be to watch one of his performances as Billy the pageboy in the Sherlock Holmes play, with either William Gillette or H. A. Saintsbury as Holmes.
Just now I released how I started this article, and is somewhat fitting. “Oh boy” was the signature line said in one of my favorite TV shows, “Quantum Leap“, about a guy who time travels by leaping into people’s bodies.
One person towers ahead of other bad guys. Standing at 6’5, and just under 300 pounds, it’s Eric Campbell.
He worked with Chaplin back in the Fred Karno days in England, and later found his way to America. Chaplin brought him into his cast at Mutual, and they worked on 11 of Chaplin’s 12 Mutual films from The Floorwalker in 1916 to The Adventurer in 1917. His last appearance was as a golfer in the unreleased How to Make Movies.
He was great as the big bully, his Goliath to Charlie’s David. And those make-uped eyebrows! He was a bit of a cartoonish bad guy, but he was fantastic at it. Sadly he died young in 1917 in a car accident.
A number of films, whether they be home made movies, newsreels, or unfinished/unreleased films still exist. Some black and white, some are even in color. Some are of him entertaining visitors to his studio, friends, or family, or traveling.
But there’s two films that are on top of my list.
How To Make Movies
The first is one that I have shared before on the blog (and where I matched a song to the beginning of the film), “How to Make Movies”. He made it in 1917-1918, shortly after building and working in his new studio (which still stands). Originally he wanted to have it released, but First National (the film company he was working for at the time) wouldn’t let him. So it sat in his archive of films. He did use small parts of the beginning for the beginning of “The Chaplin Revue” with him giving commentary on it.
While it is staged, it is loads of fun to watch (and no, there’s no music):
Home movies on set of The Great Dictator, shot by brother Sydney
The other one is home movies shot by Charlie’s brother Sydney, on the set of The Great Dictator. These were not discovered until 1999. Sydney was probably the only person Charlie would allow to film home movies during the production of the film. Security was very tight at the studio due to many powerful voices being strongly against him making a satire attacking Hitler. But Syd had no problem getting permission from his little brother.
Unlike the above film, this one was not staged. All the retakes, Chaplin getting upset, and the joking around were real.
Even the color is real, it is not colorized! But again, no music.
One cool shot is at about 11:21 mark where Charlie, shielding his face from the sun, looks up at Syd who is shooting from on-top of scaffolding (?). On the right side you can see Syd’s shadow, holding up the camera.
There’s also shots of a nurse attending one of the actors that Charlie hit with the white paint during the filming. And then there’s the scene itself, at 10:02, which could be the same take that was used in the final film. Going through my head every time I watch it, I have the dialogue, the sound effect of the frying pan bonging the stormtrooper on the head, and intense music.
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
This one is hard (wait, I already said that for almost every other day in this challenge, haha), and like the “Favorite Film” one, it can change from whatever mood I’m in. In fact, while writing this, I have changed my mind 3… no, 4 times. Then thought “Pfftt! I’ll list more than one.”
The Circus
One I can say for sure: The Circus was my favorite to listen to while studying back when I was in college. Back then, (early mid 1990s), it was *right* before the internet boom (I fist got on the internet 1995) so there was no mp3s or YouTube. And no album releases of many of his soundtracks at the time. The ones that were released were hard to find (Limelight and A Countess from Hong Kong). So what I did, so that I wouldn’t be distracted by what was going on on the screen, was turn down the brightness and contrast until the screen was mostly dark, and just listen.
I liked The Circus best to study to because it flowed from one song to the next without changing too drastically as the other films (does that make sense? I hope so).
The Circus is one of those films that Chaplin went back to years later to add the music (film originally released in 1928, he re-released in 1969/70 with his music). “Swing Little Girl”, sung by Chaplin, has a lot of lyrical similarities to Smile. The mandolin parts during “The Fortune Teller” is so beautiful and gets me choked up every time.
The Gold Rush
Another one I absolutely love is The Gold Rush:
Not only did Chaplin write some of his own music, he would use pieces from either pop music of the time or classical. When I was a young fan and watched the 1942 version of the Gold Rush (little edits that Chaplin did to his 1925 film with music and his narration), I heard the song played during “Georgia/The Dancehall29:40 and thought “Wait a second, I know that song. Isn’t that ‘Once Upon a Dream‘ from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty? But that movie came out in the 1950s! So what song is this?” A few months later I happened to listen to some Tchaikovsky on the radio and heard his Sleeping Beauty Waltz. Mystery solved!
This wouldn’t be the last time Chaplin would introduce me to work by great composers that (duh me) would take some time before I realize “Wait…I know this from somewhere”. And that brings me to my next favorite.
The Great Dictator
The Great Dictator was Chaplin’s first all talking movie he made. And made wonderful music, as well as including pieces from the classical realm, such as Brahms:
That was east to ID the song since it’s announced on the radio in the beginning.
But what I didn’t know was Chaplin also used Wagner, Hitler’s favorite composer, several times in the film. Below, the song is the prelude to his opera Lohengrin
How slow was I in realizing it was Wagner?
(whispers, embarrassingly) Didn’t know untillast year. After having been a Chaplin fan for almost 30 years.
I was listening to a classical music YouTube playlist, and again, hearing the song…”I know this from somewhere…”. Then I laughed, realized where I had heard it before, and thought how clever it was for Chaplin to use Hitler’s favorite composer just as an extra push to his satire.
Anyway, here is the complete soundtrack (with some rare bonus stuff), recently re-released by the official Chaplin estate in celebration of the film’s 80th anniversary:
Okay, so there was one soundtrack that was released that I owned when in college. And I listened to a lot in college, especially driving back and forth to classes. It was a re-recording of the City Lights soundtrack with Carl Davis conducting. I listened to this sooo muuuch. There were pieces missing, but most of it was there.
But below is the complete soundtrack:
Limelight
Another beautiful soundtrack, though not as much music sine it’s a “talkie”. Some silly songs too. “I’m an Animal Trainer” and “Terry’s Solo/Terry’s Theme (Eternally)/Pas de Deux” are two of my favorites!
Monsieur Verdoux
One that doesn’t get as much attention, partly because there is not that much music, is for Monsieur Verdoux. Some of the sound effects from the film are in there but still very good stuff! Both parts of “A Paris Boulevard” (a great cover here) is upbeat and chipper. And then there is “Finale” which is played while Verdoux, after being convicted of killing multiple women, is put in a cell, visited by reporters, a priest, read his conviction, offered a cigarette, rum, and then led out to the guillotine (I’m not really spoiling it either, since he talks from the here-after in the beginning of the film).
An extra note
(just realized that was a unintentional pun)
While I usually prefer listening to the original scores to the films, there is one album that I have referenced that was a big part of my early Chaplin-phile days and before the internet.
It’s called “Charlie! Music from the Classic Movies by Charles Chaplin” performed by the Munich Symphony Orchestra, arranged and conducted by Francis Shaw. Originally released during Chaplin’s centennial in 1989, re-released in 1993 (when I got it.)
The YouTube videos that I have previously linked show different album covers but the same versions of the songs. I just wanted to get that straight, especially if you go looking for a physical copy :).
Totally recommended and worth seeking out!
And the City Lights album that I mentioned above that I owned and wore out was “City Lights”, conducted by Carl Davis. Originally recorded in 1989 or centennial, re-released in 1991. Not the whole soundtrack, but a majority. Comes with a nice booklet about the re-recording and things they discovered.
Another high recommendation! (anything with Carl Davis is really good!)
