Into history? – Shoulder Arms. Or (the sort of a sequel) The Great Dictator
Into political/social issues? – Easy Street, The Kid, Modern Times, Monsieur Verdoux, A King in New York
Want a good cry that tears your heart out and rips it to shreds and stomps it on the ground? – The Kid, Limelight
Romantic? – The Immigrant, The Gold Rush, City Lights, The Circus, Limelight
Film Noir? Monsieur Verdoux
Artsy (and that does not star Chaplin but everything else behind the scenes is Chaplin): A Woman of Paris
Afraid of a strictly silent film and want something in-between all-silent and all-talkie? Modern Times
Want a silent film that is narrated? The 1942 version of The Gold Rush. Chaplin narrates it himself. As well as composed the music.
Great music? 1942 version of The Gold Rush, City Lights, Limelight
A general good place to start (and the first one I saw) – Modern Times
But the best environment to watch his films is with a group of people (which, I know, can be tricky with the current pandemic). There is something about watching with an audience that make films more enjoyable, and in this case, funnier. Especially when it comes to silent films. A great YouTuber I enjoy is Austin McConnell. A couple years ago he did a video about his experiences in how he learned to enjoy silent movies.
And ever since the Covid pandemic started, Ben Model has been running weekly live-streams of comedy shorts of not only Chaplin, but other comedians as well, both famous and not so famous. Every Sunday he provides live piano improvised accompaniment. A fun way to watch with a virtual audience and get some trivia about the movies.
Back in 2017, I decided to watch A Countess From Hong Kong. It was the 50th anniversary. I did not have it due to it not having been released on video until recently. So I bought the DVD, did a live tweeting of it to record my first thoughts while watching it..
I already shared some of my thoughts on Day 10. It was a weird sensation to watch a film of his that:
was in color
widescreen
I had never watched before (outside a couple clips)
I did a live tweet while watching. Below I copied and pasted my tweets, all are timestamped so you an follow along if you wish. Maybe I might do a commentary for it? Hmmm…
My live tweets (typos included)
(I put a star by my favorites)
Livetweeting #CharlieChaplin ‘s Countess From Hong Kong in 20 minutes. Sort of a 50th anniversary celebration 🙂 #CountHK 19:40:46, 2017-07-07
Since #CharlieChaplin wrote and directed it, but only gave himself cameos, I feel I’ll be seeing his “direction” in everyone #CountHK 19:58:33, 2017-07-07
And play… #CountHK 20:00:25, 2017-07-07
Bit nervous for this, don’t know why #CountHK #CharlieChaplin 20:01:34, 2017-07-07
Ah, the familiar dance hall girl theme #CountHK #CharlieChaplin 20:02:52, 2017-07-07
Written and directed by Charles Chaplin. Woop! #CountHK #CharlieChaplin 20:03:42, 2017-07-07
That looked like that hurt #CountHK #CharlieChaplin 21:28:58, 2017-07-07
Ah, lovely Tippi Hendrin. She seems to have escaped the birds #CountHK #CharlieChaplin #badHitchcockjoke 21:30:34, 2017-07-07 *
Charlie could have done better job with the beach. #CountHK #CharlieChaplin 21:36:15, 2017-07-07
The lovely Chaplin girls 😊#CountHK #CharlieChaplin 21:37:28, 2017-07-07
I like that zoom on Brando #CountHK #CharlieChaplin 21:42:37, 2017-07-07
Oooh. BUSTED! Never try to outsmart your wife. She always figures it out! #CountHK #CharlieChaplin 21:44:37, 2017-07-07 *
And the ending credits #CountHK #CharlieChaplin 21:48:32, 2017-07-07
Pretty good! I’ll have to watch it again, but I thought it was nice. VERY weird to watch Chaplin movie in color. #CountHK #CharlieChaplin 21:50:46, 2017-07-07
Reminded me of King of New York. And a few others where Charlie falls for a dancehall girl. #CountHK #CharlieChaplin 21:52:41, 2017-07-07
But that makes me having seen all of Chaplin’s films. Only took 25 years, lol. Don’t like rushing a good thing 😉 #CountHK #CharlieChaplin 21:55:06, 2017-07-07
To end this livetweet: This is My Song sung by Petula Clark, music & lyrics by Chaplin #CountHK #CharlieChaplin https://t.co/3UiNFEnSXj 22:19:41, 2017-07-07
https://youtu.be/6te8487zsbE
Bonus
Curing the filming, Charlie celebrated his 77th birthday with the cast. And shared in on a tall cake with a Little Tramp figure at the top. Film from British Pathé YouTube channel. And, sorry, no sound (which seems fitting).
Bit of trivia: the little girl with the blonde hair in pigtails is Tippi Hedren’s daughter, future actress Melanie Griffith.
If I had done this 30 Day Challenge in 30 consecutive days when I began it two years ago last month, I would not have named this film because it had not come out yet. When Jojo Rabbit was released back in October 2019, I was curious about it. Then I heard comparisons to Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, and I was all in on wanting to see it!
One thing that both films tackle is the absurdity of Nazism. In different ways.
And as Taika Waititi says in his tweet below: “what better way to insult Hitler than having him portrayed by a Polynesian Jew?”
Chaplin had one set of problems with Hitler, Waititi had another. If you were to make a Venn diagram, both with a lot of overlap. And both played satires of Hitler. And both were brilliant at it.
Both deal with facing a prejudice by a character having prejudices, then meeting someone who having real encounters with people who they were taught were no good, though in Jojo it is more prominent. In The Great Dictator, the Jewish Barber saves Schultz, a Tomanian (German) officer, during The Great War. Later, even after Schultz finds out the man who saved him was not Aryan but Jewish, he orders no one to be assaulted in the Jewish ghetto.
Similarly, in Jojo Rabbit, when Jojo meets the girl, he doesn’t like her because she’s Jewish, but after days go by and they talk, he begins to doubt his prejudice and likes her.
Well, it’s an okay comparison. Not exactly the same, but similar.
Another similar thing is that both films were nominated for Oscars, including Best Picture. But Jojo won one, for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Reviews and Discussions
Below is one of my favorite YouTuber movie reviewers, Jeremy Jahns, as he talks about what he thought of it.
The German version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” (German version also sung by Bowie) is used in both the trailer and the end of the movie. One of Chaplin’s sons, Eugene Chaplin, was a assistant engineer for the regular English-sung album. Eugene’s son Spencer interviewed him on his Chaplin Talks podcast, and Spencer brought that up:
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.
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.
This post on the Chaplin movie is very involved. So let’s get movin’!
BTW – this is not just a review. This is a variety of thoughts I have on the film. And I know I’m not going to get all my thoughts here in one post. Maybe something else down the road? There’s bound to be something I’ll forget to say.
First, to get it out of the way: Robert Downey, Jr is just magical as Chaplin. Absolutely wonderful! He’s the best thing about it, and there are several great things in the movie. I love him! When playing young Chaplin, I forget that someone else is playing him. And I know that my opinion of him in this is cliché. But it’s oh so true!
Also another thing to get out of the way: Events that happened in the movie, like 90% of it, did not happen exactly as shown. There would have been different people involved, or different setting, but it would still have the same essence. For storytelling/budget/whatever purposes (I suppose), it was told the way it was shown. And I do not blame Attenborough for several of the faults with the film. It was an uphill battle to get it made.
The Trailer
My experience watching it
A picture I took a couple years ago: My very worn out CD of the Chaplin soundtrack, and in the middle, my ticket stub from the United Artists theater where I watched it on it’s nation-wide opening day.
The first three times I saw it, it was in the movie theater. A United Artists theater (not intentionally, I swear!) the first time. I don’t know how many were hard core fans like me who had watched all the movies, read books and articles, watched documentaries. I soon discovered that there certainly a number of them who had never seen Chaplin without his famous mustache. The big clue was when I heard audible gasps when Chaplin peeled it off as he is taking his makeup off in the opening.
I went in with a rather high expectation, having seen and loved Attenborough’s Gandhi. While I did not enjoy it as much as Gandhi (then again, I don’t know near as much), I really liked it, and still do.
Movie vs. What really happened
There are a few things that spring to mind such as the creation and first film appearance of the Little Tramp. The examples I give below are, by far, not all of them
The Flickers
Movie – Chaplin watching the “flickers” for the first time in Butte, Montana, and while watching them, he gets a telegram handed to him by Stan Laurel. The telegram was from California to go into the movie business.
What really happened – According to “My Autobiography”, Chaplin was in Philadelphia. Although he was with the Karno troupe’s manager, Alf Reeves, had the telegram and Chaplin read it.
Rollie Totheroh
Rollie (David Duchovny, right before X Files), Mack Sennett (Dan Ackroyd), and Chaplin (Downey)
Movie – Chaplin first meets Rollie with Mack Sennett where they are shooting a movie. And under Mack’s directions, cuts Charlie out of his first film appearance. He then goes with Chaplin from the Keystone company onwards.
What Really Happened – I have read conflicting reports. Some say Rollie starting working with Chaplin in 1915 with Essanay. Others say Rollie didn’t work with Chaplin until Chaplin hired him in 1916 during Chaplin’s Mutual period. But it wasn’t with Sennett, that’s for sure. But, he did play a big part in how Chaplin’s films were shot, up to 1952 with Limelight.
Creating the Tramp
Movie – Chaplin, in a rush to put together a costume for Mack Sennett, grabs different pieces of clothing in the wardrobe department and puts together something. Then goes out on a wedding party set and the first appearance of The Little Tramp character is born.
From Mabel’s Strange Predicament. The Tramp character is only a few minutes old. Little did he know, he would have it for over 20 years and this character would change the world
What Really Happened – This is a good example of “It didn’t happen this way, but it got the spirit of it.” No one today knows 100% what film he first performed as the tramp. It is possible that the first movie that was filmed with Chaplin wearing his outfit was Mabel’s Strange Predicament. However, the first time the movie-going public sees the tramp is Kid Auto Races at Venice. It was common for Sennett to not show films in the same order that they were shot.
However, the set that was used for “Chaplin” is very close to the set Chaplin used for The Adventurer for the Mutual company in 1917. Not only the set but also Charlie doing the lampshade gag to hide from his pursuers is also from The Adventurer.
Easter Eggs!
There are several in this film. Some are more “in your face” than others.
Harry Lauder.
When Charlie was growing up, and as a young performer, a popular entertainer/singer/comedian was a Scot name Harry Lauder. Sure, in the movie there could have been just a random guy dressed up in a traditional Scottish outfit with bagpipes who was performing there, but I doubt it.
In the video below, Harry comes to visit Chaplin in 1918 at Chaplin’s studio
Stan Laurel
This “in your face” one is more obvious. That is, if you know that Stan Laurel was Chaplin’s understudy during their Karno music hall days prior to making it big in the movies. Since he only calls him Stanley without a last name, it’s not totally obvious.
I am glad they put Stanley in the film (Chaplin didn’t mention him in his autobiography, except in a photo caption for the Karno hockey team). A bit more would have been nice.
46 Takes.
During the scene where Charlie is directing Edna Purviance for The Immigrant, Chaplin asks her to do another take, and reminds her she is supposed to be starving. She protests “It’s hard to be hungry after 46 takes!” And then a moment later when he invites her out for chili con carne (which has beans in it), she responds “I’ll kill you, Charlie.” Then Charlie shouts out to the crew “MORE BEANS!”, Edna replies by throwing something (bread?) at him.
I remember watching this in the theater and I’m thinking “Is that a reference to Unknown Chaplin?”. Unknown Chaplin is a 3 part documentary about how Chaplin made several of his films using filmed rehearsals (I will talk much more about this later on in the 30 day challenge). In the first part when talking about The Immigrant, there is a shot showing the slateboard showing what take they are on before each shooting. And right before Edna’s character is introduced, is the slateboard with a chalked written 46.
Also in this scene…
Another Easter Egg! The song that is played right before Edna protest about the beans is an instrumental version of a anti-Chaplin song called “When the Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin” which protested Chaplin’s seemingly unwillingness to fight The Great War. In reality, he failed the physical requirements. And people in the military told him that he shouldn’t join anyway because he was important for morale.
David Robinson cameo.
The movie is based on two books: Chaplin’s My Autobiography, and Chaplin: His Life and Art by David Robinson. And it took many years before I knew Mr. Robinson had a very brief appearance. Thanks to the cool feature that Amazon Prime Video and Google Play has where they will identify who is on the screen. During the party at Doug Fairbanks’ place, you can see him as Doug’s manservant. Mr. Robinson is the gentleman on the left, arranging Doug Fairbanks’ (played wonderfully by Kevin Kline) outfit.
Blink and you’ll miss him.
Toraichi Kono
While I was happy to see him appear, he should have been in it more.
Kono was a Japanese immigrant who found himself hired by Chaplin. He became Chaplin’s chauffeur, valet, bodyguard. Pretty much if you wanted to get to Chaplin, you went through Kono.
He was mostly behind the scenes though. He did briefly appear in Chaplin’s 1917’s The Adventurer as Edna’s character’s chauffeur who comes to the rescue. However Kono’s wife opposed to him being in movies believing he was dishonoring his family. So he never appeared in another one. I have often wondered how minorities in film, especially Asians, would have be seen if he was in more films. (I also talk a little about Kono here in my Doctor Who meets Charlie Chaplin comic book review)
Back to Chaplin, they should have replaced that Frank guy (who I am 99.9% sure is another fictional character) with Kono, and that would have been much better.
The Totherohs
A couple cool “blink and you’ll miss it” fellows were David and Jack Totheroh, grandson and son of Rollie Totheroh, Chaplin’s main cameraman from 1917 until 1952. David is (I think) at the photography camera on the left, and Jack is on the movie camera on the right.
The drawbacks
There are a few faults with the film, and a good number of them I do not blame Attenborough for. He had an uphill battle to get this film greenlit, fight to keep Downey (the studio wanted someone with a bigger name), and then somehow shoot it.
Sydney. The biggest one that bothered me is the depiction of Charlie’s older brother, Sydney. Syd played a massive role in Charlie’s life and (from the way Charlie talks about him in Charlie’s autobiography) wouldn’t have protested near as often as what is depicted in the movie. Those two had a close bond and Syd did a great job being his little brother’s manager. He was a very talented comedian in his own right, playing a vital role in getting Fred Karno to hire Charlie.
Also costar a few times, such as in A Dog’s Life (see below). I adore this scene!
His portrayal was good, up until he protests “The Immigrant” where Charlie kicking an immigration officer in the butt. From then on, I feel he symbolically represents the growing critical pressure Charlie really was beginning to get around that time, and that would continue to grow and lead to his exile. They could have created another character/s who did the protesting.
The overall accuracy
Again, it goes back to most of it not happening the way it was shown. And not putting enough emphasis on certain key moments, like the forming of United Artists. That was mentioned, but that’s it. I don’t blame Attenborough at all, he was constantly told to cut things out due to time, money, and who knows what else was thrown at him. As he says in one interview years later, he wishes he could redo it. Unfortunately, that never happened.
The Music
John Barry
I bought the soundtrack before seeing the film. When I first picked it up in the store, and looked over the track listing. I saw not only a couple version of Smile, but then I saw track 7, “Salt Lake City Episode” and it stated it was a re-recording of a song from City Lights (original 1931 and another re-recording conducted by the wonderful Carl Davis and played by the City Lights Orchestra). My reflex response was “Gimme!” and I went right up to the register and bought it. Because this was before the internet boom. No MP3s or YouTube to download it. And being able to listen to Chaplin’s music in my boombox and my car was just not able to be done before.
What I love from the soundtrack
John Barry composed the score, a couple years after doing the soundtrack for Dances with Wolves. And I still love it to bits! Track 4, “To California/The Cutting Room” is my favorite, When I visited California back in April of 1993, I listened to this song while riding along the road along the pacific coast that overlooked the ocean. Gah! Both were beautiful! Recommended if you get the chance. Also the following track, “Creating the Tramp/Wedding Chase” is fun. Track 7 “Salt Lake City Episode” I already mentioned above.
You got to have “Smile” in there, that’s track 13 (what I like to call the ballroom dancing version because that’s what I picture when listening to it). And there’s also a version of Downey himself singing it at track 16. At first I did not like this version at all. It sounded way to modern and just… ick. But it didn’t take long for me to warm up to it, and soon love it. And the Main Theme is something I hope to play on keyboard one day. It’s slow paced, so somewhat manageable
A few years later, 2004, Downey made his own album. And on there, he sang Smile again. A slow jazz version.
The rest of the cast
As I said, Downey is just drop-jaw good. There are a few others that I wanted to talk about.
Hannah Chaplin
Played by Geraldine Chaplin. This was a big one. To have Charlie’s oldest daughter play her own grandmother, Hannah Chaplin, was wonderful casting. Geraldine’s first film appearance was in her father’s movie Limelight. And it was lovely to see her here, playing her grandmother. Interestingly, she never knew Hannah. Hannah had passed away in 1928. Geraldine was born in 1944. She just knew her from her father’s stories about her.
Hetty Kelly & Oona Chaplin
An interesting casting choice was having Moira Kelly play both of Charlie major love interests: his first love Hetty Kelly and his fourth (and last) wife Oona. I liked it, though it seems to divide some fans.
Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford
Wonderfully played by Kevin Kline. I absolutely loved him in this! Stole every scene he was in. In real life as in the movie, Doug was Charlie’s best friend. Since both of them were huge silent film stars, neither of them felt like the other was trying to steal the other’s fame. They could have made a whole film of the adventures of these two and I would have been happy :). As for Mary Pickford, I don’t know why it showed Charlie and Mary not getting along. According to his autobiography, they were great friends, and he admired her business sense when it came to running United Artists.
Mack Sennett
Canadian born Mack Sennett, the person who gave Chaplin his start in movies and almost fired him right away. Played wonderfully by Canadian born Dan Ackroyd. On the picky side, they should have greyed Ackroyd’s hair some, but other than that. I really liked him.
And the Mack Sennett Studios was good to see! And hearing the rooster crow follows Chaplin’s own description of the studios in his autobiography that the studio seemed like it was part farmhouse barn.
Mack Sennett’s real cyclorama...and the reproduction in Chaplin
Where are the freakin’ Oscars?!?
Ok, I might be over dramatic. But serious, Downey deserved the Oscar. John Barry also deserved it for his magnificent score.
The film also got nominated for a few Golden Globes, Downey for Best Actor, Geraldine for Best Supporting Actress
But speaking of Motion Picture Academy, I’ll share a clip from the 1972 Oscar that parts were used towards the end of the movie:
Behind the scenes and film locations
And last year on the Film Stories podcast episode “Thor The Dark World (2013) and Chaplin (1992)” (Chaplin talk starts 20:14 into the episode. First half of the show is about the second Thor movie) where Simon Brew talks about th whys and hows “Chaplin” came about. Great show, and a I learned a few things. Like how badly Steven Spielberg wanted Attenborough to be in Jurassic Park, but Attenborough was making Chaplin, so Spielberg delayed JP. Among other facts. Worth a listen!
Locations.
Some locations and information about several locations and their history can be found here
Favorite Quotes/Scenes
Suit of armor
Sennett (looking impatiently at his watch): Jesus! Rollie: You told him to get changed, remember? Sennett: What’s he putting on, a suit of armor?
Why I like it: This is great because the tramp outfit/character really protected Charlie from being fired, which he really thought was going to happen. But he became a huge success. But in the last few years this line has taken on a new meaning… Iron Man.
And the scene with Charlie first creating the Tramp and first scene. As I mentioned in an above segment, not accurate but a lot of fun to watch.
Family Feud
Sydney: Who the hell is gonna pay to see you when everybody else has gone to sound? Charlie: Who? I’ll tell you who. The Japanese for one thing, and the Russkies for another. And anyone else who doesn’t happen to speak English. Or have you forgotten about the other 9/10 of the globe?
Why I like it: Outside of my feelings about Syd being portrayed this way, this is a good example of Charlie’s uhhh….stubbornness about not wanting to switch to sound, even after everyone else had done so. He wanted to tell his story his way and nobody was going to talk him out of it (haha, sorry about the pun.) People did think he was crazy for making silent picture several years after the industry started sound. And he knew that it would be easiest for people around the world to enjoy it
The Nazi
At a party, Chaplin and Doug Fairbanks encounters a Nazi diplomat. After refusing to shake the Nazi’s hand, the Nazi asks: “What have you against us, Mr. Chaplin?”
Charlie: “What have got against everybody else?”
A few moments later as Chaplin, Paulette, and Doug leave the party:
Doug (sarcastically): “Lovely little international incident you caused in there”
(Moment later)
Doug: “It’s funny, you know. You look a lot like him. Adolf, I mean. You know, with your mustache on. I think he stole your act!”
Why I like it. Yeah, Chaplin really did NOT like the Nazis. At all. And although I really doubt this event actually happened, I can totally see Charlie reacting this way if put in that situation. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend The Great Dictator.
Exile
Oona: (holding the telegram) They’ve thrown you out.
Charlie: Thrown me out? Thrown me out of what?
Oona: Of America
He looks down, then back to the New York City skyline slowly disappearing, then back at her.
Charlie: I… I can’t go back?
Why I like this
It’s one of the crucial moments of his life, and what makes him understandably bitter with the United States, hence A King in New York
Cheered People Up
Charlie (talking to George): “End of the day, you’re not judged by what you didn’t do, but by what you did. Didn’t change things… I just just…. he just… cheered people up. Not bad, that.”
Ten Years Later
Oona: That was California calling. You really have to give them an answer.
Charlie (frustrated): No, They took 20 years to make up their minds. They can take another afternoon.
Oona: Enough. Enough! (gives him a chocolate)
Charlie (calms down, and then looking concerned at her): What if they still hate me?
Why I like This
In real life, Chaplin went back and forth about whether or not he should return to the States, and if Hollywood liked him again. But Oona talked him into going back. And I’m so glad she did!
Also I really liked the transition from 1963 with George leaving Charlie asleep on the porch. Then blurry screen. Then it’s 1972. And that sweet music that gets me choked up every freaking time.
Hmmm….
And you know what I just discovered while writing this? Blooper about it being “Ten Years Later”. Because Charlie made his triumphant return to Los Angeles in 1972. So it’s actually 9 years later. Haha! Always noticing something with this film!
A couple lessons in slang
Cockney rhyming
Another thing that the movie taught me was the use of cockney slang.
During the scene where Charlie and Hetty had been “politely” thrown out of a posh restaurant due to being in the theater (actors were looked down upon in society for years until the advent of… wait for it…. the movies), Charlie starts to imagine the future when he would be wealthy and they could go into whatever place they wanted.
Charlie: You wait. Someday they’ll beg. Yeah. We’ll walk in there, you and me, you in a fur, dripping jewels. Me in me own whistle.
Hetty: Whistle?
Charlie: Yeah, whistle and flute. Suit.
It took me a few months to get this. Around this time, my brother had a French tutor who was British. When I took him over for his lessons, she and I somehow got in a conversation about the rhyming and she taught me about the basics of Cockney rhyming. And then this scene made much more sense!
Any Old Iron
Also in the song that Syd and Charlie sing a couple different times has a lot of slang and I still don’t totally understand it. The song was a popular Music Hall song called Any Old Iron. It’s full of cockney slang
Below is a fun little video put out by the Anglophenia YouTube channel a few years ago that helps explain some of the words:
Nice little flivver, Chas
One word I never was able to figure out until closed captioning was during the scene where Charlie meets up with Syd and his wife at the train station. Leaving the station, Syd says “Nice little flivver, Chas. When do I get to meet Mr. Sennett?”
Charlie, Minnie, and Syd riding in Charlie’s new flivver
According to Wikipedia: flivver – “early twentieth-century American slang for an automobile”. And according to Google, it’s also slang for “a cheap car or aircraft, especially one in bad condition”. So Syd could have easily been poking fun at Charlie’s fancy new car by calling it a piece of junk, LOL
If you want to learn more: A cool website to lookup slang of the past is Alpha Dictionary.
A few more thoughts
This was a very ambitious movie. And I never gave much grief about Attenborough because he really tried. And I think it mostly paid off. It is fun to watch and, as I said just a few lines above, there is always something I catch that I hadn’t before. And I have heard from a number of Chaplin fans who became a fan from watching this movie.
Chaplin’s life, because so much happened in almost his 90 years on this planet, it needed more screen time. Like a mini series. Nine parts, with each part covering about a decade of his life. Maybe 10 parts. Something like that. Because there were things I wish were covered. Like a bit more about his music (and him winning an Oscar in 1973 for Best Original Music Score for Limelight, which he made in 1952!), more than just a passing mention of the formation of United Artists, and that mystery around the death of Thomas Ince (though that was interestingly covered in The Cat’s Meow), his first Oscar at the first Academy Awards in 1928, his second divorce (only briefly mentioned, but wow that was a burden), his travels around the world that led to him making Modern Times, and somehow something was missing with the making of The Great Dictator. And other things. And having more accuracy with what was shown.
A Few More Pictures
Rollie (David Duchovny) and Charlie (Robert Downey Jr) from a deleted scene. From the looks of RDJ’s costume, it’s something around the 1916 The Cure.Hugh Downer (as 5 year old Charlie) and Downey (as adult aged Charlie)Sir Richard Attenborough and Downey outside the reconstructed Chaplin Studios (which looks amazing!)Sir Richard directing, with Downey behind him.
Something New
During the time I wrote this, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum share several videos from their Chaplin Days event from 2017. It contains a very interesting panel before and after a screening of the movie. The panel consisted of Sam Gill, Dan Kamin (mime expert who taught Downey), Marc Wanamaker (worked on the research for the film), and David Totheroh (Rollie’s grandson)
And that’s pretty much it. I know that as soon as I publish this, I’ll slap myself on the forehead and say “I forgot to say X! How could I possibly have forgotten X?”
As for the ending, both the Oscars using the actual clips from his films (come on Academy! Release the *whole* presentation!) and the title cards about what happened to the major players were nice. And that some of the very last words spoken were by Daniel “sounds like a spice” Taradash’s very poetic speech during the Oscar presentation:
“A few years ago, Mr. Chaplin said ‘My only enemy is Time’. We respectfully disagree. For wherever and whenever there is communication, a screen and an audience, whether here on Earth and now, or in some unfathomable future on some far away star, Time is Charlie Chaplin’s dear and eternal friend.”
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.”
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
A Native American, Theodore Roosevelt, a night guard, Attila the Hun, a monkey, an Egyptian Pharaoh, and the night guard’s teen aged son walk onto a bus…
A couple weeks ago I went to see Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. I had only seen bits of the first one so I had an idea of what the series was about. And I also went because I was, in a way, paying my respects to Robin. I did not become a sobbing mess like I thought I would be when it got to the scene where Robin Williams’ Teddy says goodbye to Larry. Not going to lie though, I did get choked up. Backtracking, it was good to see Dick Van Dyke again (another person from my childhood), though only for a couple minutes. Mickey Rooney makes an even shorter cameo in his last (?) movie (ah, another one lost in 2014!). Sir Ben Kingsley makes a regal appearance as the father Pharoah, and Sir Lancealot is played by Dan Stevens (of Downton Abbey fame)
Ben Stiller returns, making an interesting straight man for a group of somewhat historical misfits.
And this was all preceded by a trailer for the upcoming Peanuts movie (seeing Snoopy fighting the Red Baron has always been one of my childhood’s fondest memories.)
Wow. So many bits of my youth all in one afternoon.
Memorable scenes: The bit with Jedediah and Octavius watching a cat video on YouTube.
Seen in the trailer where Sir Lance and Teddy introduce themselves to each other:
Sir Lancelot: Sir Lancelot, at your service. Teddy Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America. Sir Lancelot: I have no idea what that means.
The bit in the MC Escher work, “Relativity” was very smartly done..
Hugh Jackman. Was not expecting to see him in the movie. Loved when he broke into his Wolverine pose. Lance asks what is he doing. The woman says he’s doing “his Wolverine thing.”
I did expect, and laugh, when Teddy gives Larry one more scare just like he did in the first movie.
One of the reasons why I like these types of movies is that you have people from various different places on the panet, and from different historical eras, all working together. And saying things that you would not expect to hear, like Larry slapping Attila the Hun and telling him “Huns don’t hyperventilate” (another one of my favorite lines)
Some extra stuff
I came across some videos playlisted on NYT’s site containing clips of the film, interviews, and trailers. Here’s one of them.
I read a lot of professional critics saying it wasn’t that good, but I enjoyed it. Not the best movie out there, but definitely a lot of fun. A good popcorn movie. YouTuber movie reviewer Jeremy Jahns made a good video about his thoughts on it:
Behind the Scenes
And for those of you who like behind the scenes type stuff, Movie Bloopers & Making of uploading 3 parts of various raw clips of the making of the movie.
So it’s Christmas time once again, and I thought I would share some of the things I like to watch around this time of year. In no real order. Except Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown always comes in first!
A Charlie Brown Christmas
What is there not to like in this classic 1965 cartoon? Everything is so perfect that I can’t imagine it any other way. The characters, the wonderful, upbeat music, how just about every line is quotable.
Added bonus – If you are as old as I am, you might remember the special being preceded by this CBS intro
The Blue Carbuncle
The beautiful Granada series that starred Jeremy Brett and David Burke as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in this wonderful story set at Christmastime. Ah, a Victorian Christmas! This is one of my favorite episodes of the show. Back when VHS reigned supreme this was the only episode I bought (they cost $15-20 each back then!)
This is based off the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story of the same name (text from Wikisource; audio part 1 and part 2 from Project Gutenburg, a fantastic reading!)
Mork’s First Christmas
From the Mork and Mindy tv series, this one has recently been added (though I have seen it at least a dozen times since August). Mork finds out what the true meaning of Christmas is (not a horrible plague…watch to find out his telling of his first encounter with Christmas) And what a sweet ending!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leOMutMen_k
The Greatest Gift
From one of my favorite scifi shows, Warehouse 13 (I miss that show! 🙁 ), this is their Christmas episode from season 3. Something happens to Pete where he wakes up as if he never was born. The story and title comes from the short story written by Philip Van Doren Stern that led to the film classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
Unfortunately, I am not able to find the full episode, so here is a clip from near the beginning:
If you have Netflix, it’s on there. Amazon also has it. Or you can buy it from Google
(Another tv episode that was inspired by It’s a Wonderful Life was also from Mork and Mindy, “It’s a Wonderful Mork“, but it’s not a Christmas episode so I don’t really include it in this list. But it’s really good, and a bit of a tearjerker due to recent events).
It’s a Wonderful Life
There was a time when I was growing up that this movie would be on a bunch of channels, sometimes at the same time. You turn to one channel and it would be at one scene, and go to another channel and it would be at another scene. And it remains and endearing movie, full of heart and makes you realize how much you can make a difference to someone else, even if it’s a small one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PlYcT6DmJY
A true classic starring Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, and Henry Travers.
The Gold Rush
Not exactly a Chistimasy type of movie, but it takes place over Thanksgiving and Christmas. This 1925 silent film by Charlie Chaplin is considered to be his best. Charlie, as the Little Tramp, goes to the mountains in hopes of finding gold. He encounters a friend. and enemy, boils and eats a shoe, does a dance with rolls, and falls in love.
The below version is the 1942 (tweaked) re-release with Chaplin’s own narration (in place of the typical silent film title cards) and musical score. While I like this one better overall, I like the story of the original better (mostly the same version, just a couple important cuts that Chaplin took out)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8a83CI1B1o
A Christmas Carol
Take a classic Charles Dickens story, and the 11th Doctor, and you get Doctor Who’s 2010 Christmas episode (my favorite Who Christmas episode so far, though I didn’t quite understand the whole thing about the fish and shark). And there is the absolutely beautiful, operatic song, “Silence is All You Know”
As with Warehouse 13, the full episode is not online for free (that I can find), so below is a trailer and a clip.
This episode is on Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon, and a few other places.
Backtracking, it was good to see Dick Van Dyke again (another person from my childhood), though only for a couple minutes. Mickey Rooney makes an even shorter cameo in his last (?) movie (ah, another one lost in 2014!). Sir Ben Kingsley makes a regal appearance as the father Pharoah, and Sir Lancealot is played by Dan Stevens (of Downton Abbey fame)
