This is not to say that I hate the movie. Not at all. This one just is at the bottom of my list.
A Countess From Hong Kong.
There are things I liked about this, but I think it’s the weakest of his films. Mostly, I think, he was not working with his old crew since this was several years into his exile from the United States. Also he gave himself just a cameo.
It is weird to watch a film of his in color. Very much so. Also widescreen. What world have I popped into?
Absolutely love the music! While he as not at his normal stomping grounds of his studio for filming, he did have an excellent access to a great orchestra.
“This is My Song” is one of my favorite Chaplin pieces, both the instrumental version from the soundtrack…
… and the version sung by Petula Clark
And another version that I like a lot:
The thing that bothers me about it (and I have only watched it one time 3 years ago during it’s 50th anniversary) was I could see Chaplin directing them. Not literally of course, but how Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren, and the rest of the cast acted. It didn’t come off as natural as the cast in his earlier films. Some reason that just got to me.
Chaplin, in one of the 2 cameo shots
Other than the music, I thought that Harvey’s character had interesting growth, from jerk to being thoughtful. And Miss Gaulswallow was a hoot! Sophia Loren as Natasha was very elegant the whole time, even when she was wearing baggy pajamas.
And Charlie’s two cameo spots were nice. And being seasick on a ship was reminiscent of the opening scenes of seasick travelers on a boat to America in his The Immigrant 50 years earlier.
Maybe it was just Marlon that I didn’t like that much. He and Chaplin did not get along on set. Marlon was a method actor, and Chaplin was a “do *exactly* how I act it out or we do it again, and again, and again, and…” directing method which he had been doing since his early silent days. And Marlon didn’t like that.
So, no, not a terrible movie. Just below the other movies he made. Would it have been better if he was in it more? I have wondered about how it would have turned out if he made it back when he wrote it in the 1930s with Paulette Goddard being the female lead. One ting for sure: It certainly is an experience to watch a film of his in widescreen and color.
