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 🙂
So the genesis of me watching Doctor Who goes back to about 1986. A classmate was talking about this British show about a guy who’s an alien, and travels in time and space in a blue phone box. He doesn’t have complete control over where he wants to go.
This concept intrigued me and I thought I would try and catch an episode. The first episode I watched was *the* first episode, An Unearthly Child. I caught it at the beginning of the story. I remember Susan reading the book on the French Revolution that Barbara lent her, and saying “That’s not right!”. My imagination flipped on with that simple comment. and I watched to see what happened. Her grandfather lived in a “Police Box” in a junkyard (what?!?), but when the teachers went to find out more about her situation, and barge into the “Police Box” where it’s all white and very clean, and… bigger on the inside? What?!?
The time travel aspect is what I came for, but I ended up staying for everything else. 😀
Most of the time the episodes would be on late Saturday nights on the local PBS station where I would sneak out of my room into the family room and watch. After several minutes of having the volume on just loud enough so as to not wake up anyone, one of my parents would come into the room:
“Kim, do know what time it is?”
“But I want to watch Doctor Who!”
“I don’t care, it’s late. Go to your room!”
“But this is the only time it’s on!”
“NOW!”
And I would. I am sure there were times when they knew I was watching it and didn’t bother to tell me to go to bed. It made it easier on the few days when it would be on during the day. Ah!
The only merchandise I could find was VHS tapes in the video store. And this was when I was driving. My two favorite ones (the *only* ones) were Suncoast Video and Media Play (I loooooovvvveeeddd Media Play! A video, book, CDs, and electronics store in one!). For many years, these tapes would be the only merchandise I had (shirts? mugs? blankets? AS IF!!). And I still have them! And what a shock it was when I found out that the stories were not 1 1/2-2 hours but 25 minute chunks.
What stunk about being an American fan was that I was one of very few American fans. I don’t know what ever happened to that kid who talked to me about the show (*sniff*) but from the 80s until I got on the internet in 1995, I was the only fan I knew (most of the fandoms I was in back then, and still a part of, I was the only one). Which was lonely in one way..,
But helpful in another in that I formed my own opinions about characters and stories without being bombarded by popular opinion. Much to my surprise I found out when I did get onto the internet that most fans didn’t like Adric, hated the 6th Doctor, and blamed the 7th Doctor for the show’s cancellation.
Even though it’s been back for 13 (13? Hmm… that number rings a bell or two!) years and has been a big success, I’m still not used to it. It’s weird to have a shirt (what?) and wear it and almost be guaranteed to get at least one reaction from it when I go out. That’s just… weird. And exciting. And something I do not take for granted.
Not a quarry, but a city. A big city. Known in Ancient Roman times at Londinium. One of the most wonderful cities in the world: London!
A bunch of scenes or whole stories takes place in the living settlement on the River Thames. Starting with the very first episode, An Unearthly Child, taken place at the fictional Coal Hill School in London, up to present day.
Among the different invasions of aliens, there was the infamous Daleks and Cybermen (at different and multiple times) trying again and again to take over. Which kept the First and Second Doctor very busy!
When the show returned in 2005,London was once again the star location of “Rose”. The story used one of the newer landmarks as a… well, don’t want to get into spoilers :).
For the big 50th anniversary episode, it took place in various very popular London landmarks (Tower of London, Tower Bridge, River Thames, National Gallery, Nelson’s Column, Statue of Liberty… kidding, but I do remember several years ago hearing from someone who thought the SoL was in London).
https://youtu.be/fJcsf9nghCw
Next on the Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge – When Did You Start Watching Doctor Who
There weren’t a lot of guest stars that I knew who they were prior to their appearance in Doctor Who. People like pop-singer Kylie Minogue who seemed to be popular in the UK, but, being an American, I had not a clue who she was.
There was Maisie Williams who I knew who she was from Game of Thrones (though I don’t watch it) , and her character, Ashildr/Me, had great potential to be an interesting part of series 9 and I really wanted to like her, but just fell flat in the beginning and then irritated me towards the end.
I already mentioned Michael Gambon being my favorite male actor and I could put him in for this as well. But trying not to repeat myself, that really narrows down to one person who I knew who he was, and the character wasn’t annoying – John Cleese’s cameo in City of Death as an art critic:
That’s the whole of his acting in Doctor Who. and it was wonderful!
And yes, I remember mentioning this scene in Favorite Classic Episode, but the category is different enough for me to mention it again.
Next on the Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge – Favorite Location
This one is tricky. It’s harder to decide on a least favorite than it is on a most favorite! There are the meh/mediocre stories that I simply don’t find very interesting. There can be some good lines or scenes but as a whole they do not grab my attention that much.
No Classic stories jump to mind. I even like weird ones like Ghostlight. Maybe the Gunfighters? Because of ALL THAT SINGING! Now, I like musicals (The Greatest Showman! *Faints*), but this just did not work in this story. At all.
Even in my post on one of my two favorite series, with my favorite Doctor (other than Tom), I really did not like Face the Raven. It just got me mad because it did not make sense – in a bad way (yeah, the show has way more than one instance of not making sense, but most of the time it doesn’t bother me), and that Clara’s death didn’t seem to mean anything. Frankly, I was glad she was brought back in Hell Bent (and a lot of people did not like Hell Bent). And when I re-watched it earlier this year, I as even more mad because it made even less sense. Though I do want to re-watch it again, to see if I am missing something. And maybe one day I will go into more depth of why I don’t like it…
Next on the Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge – Favorite Couple
For this one, I’ll use as my favorite Doctor/Companion team-up
Classic Who: 7th Doctor and Ace
From Classic Who, I love 7th Doctor and Ace. These two were awesome together, and I wish we got to see more of their tv adventures (although there are loads of Big Finish audios with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred reprising their roles).
New Who: 10th Doctor and Donna
As I mentioned in my earlier Favorite Female Companion, I love 10 and Donna. A lot. They are a hoot to watch, but can be beautifully serious when needed.
Next on Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge – Least Favorite Episode
PS – Yeah, this one is a bit short. Not feeling well today, but wanted to get in today’s entry. Maybe I might write up more about these guys later on. I’ll now go back and watch Fires of Pompeii (again!! 😀 ) to cheer me up.
Another tie: Tenth Planet and Tomb of the Cybermen. Early versions of the silver nemesis (haha, pun). While the 1980s version of the Cybermen was what I was most familiar with in my early fan days, there is something about the first few Cybermen stories, especially the Mondsian Cybermen with their bare hands, that is really appealing. Maybe the early sci fi tv look, along with the excellent out-of-this-world music. At first I thought both versions looked really bad and sounded so weird. Both over time I grew to like them.
Tenth Planet is a true classic, not only do we get the first Cybermen story, we also have the first regeneration. While sadly there are parts missing, there is enough that survived that the recons (reconstructions) are very good (I am more of a fan of the telesnaps than the animation, to be honest.)
And below is what survives of the 1st regeneration:
A cool thing about this story is that it takes place in 1986, which is the year that I became a Whovian :).
Tomb of the Cybermen is another great one, this time with the 2nd Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria (not to be confused with Vicki)
And below, the sweet little chat the Doctor and Victoria have. This made the rounds last year when Deborah Watling, who played Victoria, passed away.
This story also introduces us to the nasty little pests known as the Cybermats.
Audio Adventures
For the audio adventures, I had already mentioned how Real Time scared me silly, so much so I can’t listen to that again because it creeped me out.
One story I have not heard yet, but I have heard many, MANY good things about is Spare Parts. One day (yes, one day) I’ll buy it. And be creeped out yet again!
Next on Doctor Who 30 Day Challenge – Favorite Friendship
doesn’t have complete control over where he wants to go.
A bunch of scenes or whole stories takes place in the living settlement on the River Thames. Starting with the very first episode, An Unearthly Child, taken place at the fictional Coal Hill School in London, up to present day.
