And now we come to his last great era: The United Artists movies. This is the most difficult of all eras because these are (to me, anyway) his best of the best. So now it’s the best of the best of the best.
There’s the underrated and often forgotten “A Woman of Paris”, classic The Gold Rush (I prefer the ’42 version, so help me), heartbreaking funny The Circus (so many layers to why I love this), historic The Great Dictator (Hey Hitler, take that! <punch>. And that ending speech!), Monsieur Verdoux (not your typical Chaplin film, but I love it anyway), and the wonderful Limelight (Chaplin looks so different, it’s like a different actor named Charlie Chaplin is starring it).
I do love and adore all of the above movies. But there is one film that I did not name above and that is Modern Times. The silent movie that isn’t quite a silent movie. The first Chaplin film I saw. And where I began to understand why he was/is a really big deal. (Basically he did just about everything, and he did it well.)
Favorite Scenes
In short: the whole freakin’ movie. But I’ll try and break it down.
The feeding machine. I saw that and just laughed silly. My sides hurt. My mouth hurt. I can’t look at an ear of corn without letting out a little smile.
And then I found out years later that Chaplin was actually controlling the machine underneath the rotating table. He was literally beating himself up. Anything for the art!
The roller skating scene in the department store. If you have seen The Joker (and even the trailer used Jim Durante’s cover of Smile), you have seen this scene. Where Charlie blindfolds himself and roller skates around the floor…. without noticing that the upper floor they are on is under construction.
The shack. The quaint little shack. Where there is a dangerous looming board that swings down and hits Charlie on the noggin. Not once, but twice. I love how Charlie looks up at it, daring it to come down, and… bonk him on the head. Which it does. Always makes me laugh.
The Nonsense Song. Of course, I have to mention the restaurant where Charlie uses his voice for the first time in his movies. And, one may argue, the only time that we hear the Little Tramp’s voice. If you don’t understand the song… well, what’s wrong with you? Kidding. It’s all gibberish on purpose. It’s what happens when you mix French, Italian, Spanish (and who knows what other languages) in a pot, let simmer for a few hours, and have it sung by a guy who is known for being a silent clown. And he pantomimes the story.
Hidden in Plain Sight
I watched this film so many times that I felt there wasn’t much to see that was “new”. But then one day I gave myself a challenge and tried to watch other things other than Charlie happening in-frame. And this is what I have noticed (so far, anyway):
In the lunch scene, there’s a presumably gay prisoner amongst the other prisoners. When they file out to exit, he’s the guy in front of the big guy who is in front of Charlie.
In the department store, and Charlie and the Gamin leave the elevator, the Gamin runs over excitedly to a Mickey Mouse doll and plays with it.
The Music
It’s amazing. While writing this post, I’ve had certain bits running in my head. When I was younger, I could tell what was happening on screen without looking (I’m a bit fuzzy with my memory now. Busyness of life, and getting older).
For streaming, Amazon is a good place to either rent or buy. Also for Blu Ray and DVD.
Bonus
Back in 2004, a singer by the name of J Five released a hip-hop song also called Modern Times that heavily sampled the Nonsense Song. The video costars one of Charlie’s grand-daughters, Dolores.
In my last post for Favorite First National, I named The Kid. Little Jackie Coogan was 4. During the making of Modern Times, he visited Chaplin and they had fun taking some pictures. Little Jackie was now grown up! Here’s a couple photos from then on the street set of MT:
There are lots of other things I can say about this movie (well, all his movies), but I better stop now. Maybe I’ll write more about it down the road :).
Next up – Thoughts on “Chaplin” the movie starring Robert Downey Jr
One of the best things that I like about the films from here on out is that Charlie Chaplin wrote the music for them. Either right as he was making the film or years later. And not just a few years, but a few decades.
The film I picked for this is one that he wrote the music 50 (yes, 50!) years after the movie was originally released. But I’m not here to just write about the music. This post is for my favorite First National film.
And that is The Kid. Where Chaplin just rips my heart out, stomps on it, and leaves me an emotional wreck. Because, really, it is hard not to cry at this film. Some sad crying but also some happy crying.
Basic premise is this: Charlie finds a baby abandoned on the street He decides to bring the baby up as his own at his home in the city slums. And the adventures begin. The kid is played by Jackie Coogan.
I love how Edna Purviance’s character of the mother is portrayed. She is visibly torn over whether to keep the baby or not, and then is continuously haunted by his memory. Not knowing that the little boy she befriends is her son. (UGH! Ugly crying!) When she gives him the toy dog, and then a sad long walk towards the camera, and he waves to her without her seeing it… is beautifully shot.
One of Chaplin’s best scenes in any of his films, where the authorities had found out that Charlie is not the legal father and they come for the “Proper care and attention” (take the kid away to an orphanage).
I had mention in my last post how I loved his films that were autobiographical. This is another one of those. When he was a boy, he was separated from his mother and brother due to the family living in extreme poverty. And just before starting on this film, he lost his first child, Norman, nicknamed Little Mouse, due to some sort of severe deformation (what that was, I have never been able to find out).
Here is a short interview with a much older Jackie Coogan from the early 1980s where he talks about how Chaplin directed him (clip via Criterion YouTube channel):
In 2003, a number of Chaplin’s films (First National and later) were re-released on DVD. There were a wonderful set of introductions done by the amazing Chaplin biographer, David Robinson. Below is for this film. (following clips from the Official Charlie Chaplin YouTube channel)
A wonderful documentary (part of a series of docs done for the above mentioned DVD release) tells the making of the film. It also includes an interview with a more modern filmmaker from Iran and how Chaplin has influenced him.
Finally, the soundtrack:
And a bonus bit: Chaplin, age 81 or 82, (in color and talking a little), conducting a little of his score:
There’s One A.M. with Charlie coming home drunk and does battle with a clock pendulum and a Murphy bed. There’s Behind the Screen where Charlie discovers a woman who disguises herself as a man in order to get a job movies. And the lovely The Immigrant. Among several others. Like, everything…LOL
Really, really difficult to decide. You would think the less films made for a period would make it easier. But nooooooo. We’re talking Chaplin here. It only gets harder with each following era. All of these are superb! I feel like throwing a dart on a list and see where it lands (or where it lands nearest to) to determine which one I like best.
The one I watch the most, so I’m going with it as my answer: Easy Street. Yeah, I know, it’s a cliche answer (at least, I feel it is), but I really like this one. It’s a bit autobiographical (Chaplin grew up on the slums of late Victorian London streets. The more autobiographical he got, the more I loved the film; i.e. Limelight). There’s gang violence in the streets, and Charlie has to temper the ruffians.
Eric Campbell. Now there’s a classic old fashioned bad guy. But I’m getting ahead of myself. And the lovely Edna! I really love the way she is introduced with that angelic light on her as she plays the piano.
Highlights of the film
Charlie literally gaslighting the heavy (Chaplin actually hurt himself with the lamppost. Needed some stitches on his nose. Sacrifice for the sake of the art!), feeling sorry for the woman who he catches stealing food for her large family so he steals more, the cute little kid who scares the police, and the chase at the end where the heavy gets…well, I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it 😉
What a flirt! And a practical joker (to someone who deserves it, really)
Chaplin’s Essanay films are the least watched era for me. He is, understandably, still finding himself as a filmmaker (it was his second year in films after all. As much as a genius as he was to become, not even he could be a master of it in such a short time), but the Tramp character starts to emerge more at this time. “The Tramp” and “A Woman” are good examples of this.
This is also the year that Edna Purviance joined Charlie’s ensemble.
The Tramp is great because of the silliness he gets himself into. This was also one of the first Chaplin films I bought, in some department store that had a small selection of VHS tapes. And that version of the film had narration as well. Maybe affected my love for the film. Also a slightly better paced story than A Woman.
I like how (around 9:30) he gets accidentally sacked by a big bag of flour (?) and gets covered in it. And he does that quick look at the camera. Doesn’t matter how many times I have seen it, it always makes me laugh.
But A Woman I love because of the amazing job he does in playing a woman (though this wasn’t his first time. That would be A Busy Day). Also the clever way he flips over his adversaries into a nearby pond.
When I was a young fan, I remember looking through a Chaplin book and, seeing a picture of a woman, thinking it was the leading lady. And then reading the caption and thinking “That’s Charlie?!?” in amazement.
Trying to pick from 36 of his Keystone films (only one was feature length) is tough, but there’s one that I really like. And it has cultural and historical significance as well.
Kid Auto Races at Venice.
Not the complete version (missing the ending with Chaplin being yanked by the nose off camera), but it is a good print and pretty good music.
This was the first time the public saw the Tramp character *. Chaplin had made only one film prior to this one, Making a Living.
I love KAR because it’s funny (well, duh) and I love watching the people in the background, who were all real bystanders at a real race. The only actors are Charlie, Henry Lehrman (the director who keeps shoving Charlie out of the way. Also the director of the film.) and Frank D. Williams (poor cameraman who is trying to film the race). Mack Sennett (head of Keystone Studios) did this quite a bit where he would use real events (races, parades, etc.) and shoot a film somehow involving that event. It was cheaper because he wouldn’t have to pay for the extras or the event. So it was with this one, filming a real go cart type race in Venice, California. There’s people who watch Charlie and laugh, or just stare probably wondering who that goofball is with the bowler hat and cane and why is he wandering out in front of the on coming race cars? Does he want to get on camera that badly?
Anyway, it’s a fun little film, and interesting to think how quickly Chaplin’s life would change because of pressure to find the right outfit that worked (and, boy, did it ever!)
*– David Robinson does make a good argument in his wonderful book, Chaplin: His Life and Art that the first Tramp movie that was actually filmed was probably Mabel’s Strange Predicament according to filming schedules and set events, and it wasn’t uncommon to shoot films in different sequence to release dates. But that Kid Auto Races is definitely the first one that was released to the public.
This isn’t too hard to decide on: Edna Purviance (second would be Paulette Goddard). From the time Chaplin hired her for her first movie, A Night Out, she definitely had something special.
I don’t remember when I first saw Edna… The Tramp (somehow I got my hands on a narrated version) maybe? Those early days of fandom are a bit fuzzy (25+ years will do that to ya!), but that’s definitely one of the first times I saw her.
Edna and Charlie in A Burlesque on Carmen
Some of my favorite films she was in was Easy Street, Burlesque on Carmen (a satire on the opera Carmen. She plays the flirtatious Carmen. Her parts are great! The “finished” film is a bit long though… thanks a lot Essanay!), Shoulder Arms, and The Kid (heart-wrenching and beautiful!)
And there is that last appearance, a cameo in Monsieur Verdoux, but according to the wonderful Edna Place site, she isn’t there. She did to a reading for a part for Charlie, but in the end, it didn’t work out. She had been rumored for many years to be in the background, and I looked for her, and haven’t seen anyone that looks like her.
They did a\have a romantic relationship off-screen but nothing that led to marriage, and quite frankly, Chaplin was a bit of a cad to her towards the end of their relationship. They did remain friends until she passed away.
But I thought it was sweet on Chaplin’s part to continue to pay her, even after she stopped working for him and up until her death after he was exiled from the United States. One of her last letters to Charlie that he shared in his autobiography was so sweet and funny, and she begs him to come back to America. “You belong here.” Sadly, she did not live long enough to see that happen. She passed away of throat cancer in 1958.
Three great sites (all sister-sites to each other) to find out more about her are:
Edna’s Place – A great blog. Not updated very often (something I can relate to) but has oodles of info
EdnaPurviance.org – The first Edna site I came across many years ago. Also has extensive database of Chaplin books and documentaries. French version is here.
Leading Ladies – Started by Edna’s grand nieces, Lita and Ellie Hill, and later partnered with Linda Wada (of the above two sites) to help preserve Edna’s memory. You can also buy “The Sea Gull”, a book about the film that was going to be Edna’s last film, but mysteriously destroyed by Chaplin.
I don’t know if “reluctant” is exactly the right word, but it’s the closest word I can think of. Maybe “gradual” is a better word.
Charlie Chaplin is one of those people who just always seemed to have existed. My whole life I have known who he was. Or, should I say, I always knew who the Little Tramp was. Everybody does. Just in silhouette people recognize him. But it was several years before I saw Chaplin without his ultra famous costume on.
Now, I wasn’t crazy about old movies. Silent movies even less so. They were old, usually in black and white, and boring. And silents? No talking? Are you kidding me? The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life were the only ones that I liked. But Chaplin snuck up on me, bit by bit.
One of the earliest memories was Maria from (old school) Sesame Street impersonating him on the show.
Then there was catching a part of a (then new) Chaplin documentary, Unknown Chaplin, when I was 10ish (that doc will show up later in the challenge 😉 ). While it would be a few more years before I became a fan, that one viewing stuck in my memory. Loved how it told the making of (what I found out much later) The Gold Rush.
When I was well into my teens (circa 1989), I got the huge book “Chronicle of the 20th Century” which had small newspaper like articles that covered various historical world events of the last century as if they were happening in the present. And Chaplin was in there. A lot. And I thought to myself “If I was a fan of his, I would love this book even more”.
What really got me hooked was after I became a fan of classic comedy (that started about 1986, when I was 13). It started with the Smothers Brothers. I collected anything (mostly albums) that I could get my hands on. On Dick Smothers solo album Saturday Night at the World, there was a song (side 1, track 4) called “Smile” which I just loved .
I looked on the back of the album to see who wrote it: C. Chaplin, J. Turner, and G. Parsons. Seeing the C. Chaplin, I thought “Is that Charlie Chaplin? The Little Tramp guy? He wrote music too?”.
And when I watched Tom and Dick in interviews, they talked about the comedians who came before them and who they looked up to. That got me curious about those others. I got into Abbott and Costello around 1989. In two different A&C books I saw, for the first time (that I know of), a picture of Chaplin out of costume, which really through me for a loop:
Where’s his mustache? What, it wasn’t real? And his HAIR! It’s WHITE!
And then a short time after that, I got into Laurel and Hardy. While reading “Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy” by John McCabe, I read the story that Stan told about being Chaplin’s understudy back in England during their music hall days.
The guys in the middle: Stan (with necktie), and Charlie (no tie)
In it, Stan recalls a story of when the comedy troupe they were in came to America. Both of them were wondering around town when suddenly nature called. There were no public bathrooms, so they went into a saloon. Being proper English gentlemen, they felt they should buy something before using the facilities. So they each bought drinks, quickly gulped them, and then ran to the saloon’s bathrooms. I busted out laughing imagining this happening.
All that was left to finish the job of me becoming a fan was actually watching one of his movies. It was on the tv show “Dead Comics Society” on the Comedy Network (now Comedy Central). It was hosted by Robert Klein. I happened to catch it playing “Modern Times”
A trailer for a re-release of Modern Times (seems to be made around the late 40s, early 50s ?)
I didn’t think I could laugh at a movie as hard or as long as I did this one. The machine feeding Charlie in the factory had my sides hurting from laughing so much! The roller skating scene was amazing. And wow, is it packed with social commentary. And a bit of foreshadowing of Chaplin’s own life. And I discovered where “Smile” came from.
I was a full throttle fan by the time “Chaplin” came out in early 1993. I owned and read a few books, and watched a bunch more movies. Amazed by the fact that he acted, wrote, directed, composed music, produced, built his own studio, co-founded a film corporation, often all at the same time for a number of his films. I watched “Chaplin” in the theater three times, and could tell what was accurate, impressed with some Easter Eggs, and sometimes had me thinking “Where the heck did *that* come from?”. (More thoughts on that movie will show up later in the challenge).
There’s a lot of aspects to Charlie’s life that mad me laugh, cry, be baffled, impressed, roll my eyes, and feel angry (seriously 1952 America? seriously?). As Chaplin said in the beginning of “The Gentleman Tramp” documentary, “I went through a hell of a lot.”
I had so much fun doing the 30 Day Doctor Who Challenge that I thought I would do another one, this time on another one of my top favorites. But this one was not as easy because, unlike the many different Doctor Who challenges that fans have come up with, there was only one that I could find for Charlie, and I only found a few parts of the 30, and that was from a few years ago.
So I decided to create my own, inspired by the bits that I found:
1 How did you become a Chaplin fan 2 Favorite female costar 3 Favorite keystone 4 Favorite Essanay 5 Favorite Mutual 6 Favorite First National 7 Favorite United Artists 8 Thoughts on “Chaplin” the movie starring Robert Downey Jr 9 Favorite all time Chaplin movie 10 Least favorite 11 Favorite soundtrack 12 Favorite song 13 Favorite unreleased film/home movie 14 Favorite heavy (bad guy) 15 If you went back to meet him, at what time in his life would you do so? 16 Favorite non-fiction book 17 Least favorite book 18 Favorite photo of him in costume(Little Tramp or other) 19 Favorite photo out of costume 20 As of right now, what was the last movie you watched 21 what non Chaplin movie reminds you of a Chaplin movie? 22 what was the last Chaplin movie you saw that you had not seen before? 23 Favorite male costar 24 Favorite scene 25 Favorite story about him told by him 26 Favorite story about him told by someone else 27 What film would you recommend to recruit a fan? 28 Favorite fiction book 29 Favorite documentary 30 Favorite piece(s) of memorabilia that you own
For those of you who want to have an image of the list, I created this one:
I was planning on working on this for this month, but some last minute life changes popped up. I don’t know how often I’ll write a post (took me a few days to write this one), but I know how I’ll answer them. Most of them. Some answers change slightly from day to day, mood to mood, lol. But I’m looking forward to it 🙂
The enemy of the Doctor who helped save Doctor Who: the Daleks. Probably the most famous enemy that the Doctor has. And they were there from almost day1, While not my favorite enemy (I feel they are used waaay tooo much), they are cool and intimidating, and loud. Also cool to draw.
Again, a tie!
Classic Who
Genesis of the Daleks is my first pick. The story that introduced Davros. And in Tom Baker’s first season as the 4th Doctor., only his 4th story.
My other favorite Classic Who story is Remembrance of the Daleks. Aired during season 25. I think that they should have made this the 25th anniversary episode instead of Silver Nemesis, but the BBC knew better (*clears throat* ahem). It takes place in and around Coal Hill school in November 1963, right after the First Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara had left. And we see the junkyard again (albeit the door to the junkyard is not right, but that’s me being nit-picky)
And one of my favorite little bits. Made me freak when I first watched it. Weird Real World/In Universe type of things.
Sadly, due to weird copyright issues, this one (along with just a few other Classic Who Dalek stories) is not on BritBox.
New Who
Got to be Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar. One of the reasons why I loved series 9.
Side Note
And a special acknowledgement for the Peter Cushing’s films as Dr. Who from the 1960s. Only two were made, and both had the Daleks. I have not seen these since I was a young fan, and have been meaning to re-watch them. After 30 years, it will be like watching it for the first time.
Next on Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge – Least Favorite Season/Series
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
