Chaplin, Charlie

City Lights (2 Disc Special Edition)

Talkies were well entrenched when Charles Chaplin swam against the filmmaking tide with this forever classic that's silent except for music and sound effects. The story involving the Tramp's attempts to get money for an operation that will restore sight to a blind flower girl provides the star with an ideal framework for sentiment and laughs. The Tramp is variously a street sweeper a boxer a rich poseur and a rescuer of a suicidal millionaire. His message is unspoken but universally understood: love is blind.Running Time: 186 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085393764821

City Lights is a film to pick for the time capsule, a film that best represents the many aspects of director-writer-star Charlie Chaplin at the peak of his powers: Chaplin the actor, the sentimentalist, the knockabout clown, the ballet dancer, the athlete, the lover, the tragedian, the fool. It's all contained in Chaplin's simple story of a tramp who falls in love with a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill). Chaplin elevates the Victorian contrivances of the plot to something glorious with his inventive use of pantomime and his sure grasp of how the Tramp relates to the audience. In 1931, it was a gamble for Chaplin to stick with silence after talking pictures had killed off the art form that had made him famous, but audiences flocked to City Lights anyway. (Chaplin would not make his first full talking picture until 1940's The Great Dictator.) After all the superb comic sequences, the film culminates with one of the most moving scenes in the history of cinema, a luminous and heartbreaking fade-out that lifts the picture onto another plane. (Woody Allen paid homage to the scene at the end of Manhattan.) This is why the term "Chaplinesque" became a part of the language. --Robert Horton

The Kid (2 Disc Special Edition)

The Kid is one of the purest expressions of Charlie Chaplin's art on film. It unites Chaplin with a boy he had spotted in a vaudeville act, 6-year-old Jackie Coogan--whose life would lead to the child-protective Coogan Act and a role as Uncle Fester on TV. The story has the Tramp adopting an abandoned waif and teaching him streetwise survival skills. The gags are flawless, but for Chaplin the huge advance (other than a running time longer than his two-reelers) was the exploration of a rich vein of sentiment; the emotionally wrenching separation of the Tramp and the Kid is probably the most Dickensian sequence ever captured on film. Chaplin drew on his own rough childhood for the material (and may have been inspired by the death of an infant son immediately before beginning the project). Jackie Coogan's gift for mimicry allowed him to replicate Chaplin's exacting direction, making him the perfect Chaplin co-star. --Robert Horton

For the first time as a filmmaker Chaplin stepped into feature-length storytelling with this tale of the down-but-never-out Tramp (Chaplin) and the adorable ragamuffin (6-year-old Jackie Coogan) who rescued as a foundling and raised in the School of Hard Knocks by the Tramp is his inseparable sidekick. Memorable scenes include a lesson in table manners the bully brawl and the Tramp's angelic dream. The Kid earns its wings.Running Time: 199 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSIC UPC: 085393764524

Monsieur Verdoux

This blistering little black comedy was well ahead of its time when released in 1947. Originally, Orson Welles had wanted Chaplin to star in his drama about a French mass murderer named Landru, but Chaplin was hesitant to act for another director, and used the idea himself. He plays a dapper gent named Henri Verdoux (who assumes a number of identities), a civilized monster who marries wealthy women, then murders them (as we meet him, he's gathering roses as an incinerator ominously bellows smoke in the background) and collects their money to support his real family. The Little Tramp is now a distant memory, though this was the first film not to feature Chaplin's beloved creation. Verdoux is largely viciously clever until it gets too heavy-handed, as evidenced when a woman he spares returns years later as the mistress of a munitions manufacturer. Ultimately, Chaplin breaks character (much as he did in The Great Dictator) to preach to the masses, declaring that against the machines of war that grip the planet, humble killer Verdoux is "an amateur by comparison." --David Kronke

Charles Chaplin turns his traditionally sunny sensibilities inside out with this sublime black comedy about a family man who secretly uses murder to support his beloved invalid wife and child. There's little of the immortal Tramp in Verdoux yet the fastidious dandy is not lacking in comic graces. Most hilarious of all are the always-foiled attempts to dispatch the raucous Annabella (Martha Raye). When this most atypical Chaplin film opened the world was not ready to look death in the face and walk away smiling. Today Monsieur Verdoux ranks among Chaplin's best works. It is killer comedy.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085393765224

Limelight (2 Disc Special Edition)

Charles Chaplin's Limelight is a glimmering homage to what was a proud look at a bygone entertainment era; and a bittersweet tale of an artist passing the torch to a new generation. Chaplin portrays Calvero (the "Tramp Comedian" per an old theatrical poster in his room) who rescues a distraught ballerina (Claire Bloom) from suicide and mentors her to success. Among the film's comedy highlights is a musical routine that's anything but routine in the hands of legend Chaplin and stone-faced Buster Keaton.Running Time: 132 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085393764920

Certainly, Charlie Chaplin at this point in his career (1952) had earned the right to reflect on his years as an entertainer, and could make his film as overlong and soppy and sentimental as he darn well pleased. But that doesn't mean the rest of us have to abet this kind of melodramatic indulgence. Chaplin stars as Calvero, a fading clown who helps a paralyzed dancer regain the use of her legs and achieve great fame, but of course at grave cost to Calvero. The film is famous for featuring the only onscreen teaming of Chaplin with the other legendary comic of the silent era, Buster Keaton, and is equally infamous for Chaplin having allegedly cut out most of Keaton's best bits in their sequence together. How much Chaplin sabotaged his own movie to keep Keaton from shining has been much debated, but consider: In Keaton's autobiography, he calls Chaplin the greatest screen comic of all time. In Chaplin's autobiography, he never mentions Keaton. --David Kronke

The Circus (2 Disc Special Edition)

When we first meet Chaplin's Tramp in this comic gem he's in typical straits: broke hungry destined to fall in love and just as sure to lose the girl. Mistaken for a pickpocket and pursued by a peace officer into a circus tent the Tramp becomes a star when delighted patrons think his escape from John Law is an act. Classic highlights include a frenetic fun-house sequence the Tramp turning a magic skit into mayhem and his teetering tightrope walk while monkeys cling to his head. This is comedy without a net!Running Time: 185 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085393764425

Made in 1928 while he was in the middle of a painful divorce case, Charlie Chaplin's The Circus was so associated with bad memories for its maker that he refused even to mention it in his 1964 autobiography. Consequently, it has enjoyed less of a reputation than such films as The Gold Rush (1925) and City Lights (1931). However, while it's not quite in their league, The Circus undoubtedly deserves to be rescued from relative obscurity.

Here, Chaplin's Tramp is taken on as a clown at the circus, having been chased into the big tent by a policeman wrongly suspected of theft and wowing the audience with his pratfalls. He falls in love with the ill-treated ringmaster's daughter (Merna Kennedy) but is swiftly rivaled by a new addition to the circus, a handsome tightrope walker. To try to win back her affections, the Tramp himself attempts the same act, culminating in the best sequence of the film, when he is assailed by monkeys as he totters amateurishly and precariously along a rope suspended high in the tent. Although The Circus is marred by the rather hackneyed and (even in 1928) stale melodramatic device of the cruel father and imploring daughter, it scores high on its slapstick content, with routines involving a hall of mirrors and a mishap with a magician's equipment demonstrating Chaplin's dazzling ability to choreograph apparently improvised mayhem. --David Stubbs

A King in New York / A Woman of Paris (2 Disc Special Edition)

Chaplin working as usual on both sides of the camera was in self-imposed exile from the United States when he launched this pie in the face at targets that include overhyped movies overamped music celebrity facelifts ad pitchmen and political witchhunts. Chaplin plays a deposed European monarch who comes to Manhattan and is soon made a media sensation by advertisers eager to cash in on his name. Charlie's son Michael Chaplin plays the firebrand youth who helps the king rediscover his ideals. The comedy sequences are imaginative and many. The satire is topical yet timeless. Today as yesterday Chaplin rules.Running Time: 362 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 085393765323

A King in New York
A King in New York, Charlie Chaplin's penultimate film--featuring his final starring performance--was made in 1957 but wasn't officially released in America until the '70s, when it, surprisingly enough, won an Oscar for Chaplin's score. What took so long? Thanks to his politics and unorthodox personal life, Chaplin was pretty roundly hated by the late '50s, but had the movie been better, someone might've brought it stateside sooner. Chaplin plays King Shahdov of Estrovia, on the lam when revolution grips his homeland. In New York, despite the occasional indignity, he's treated as royalty until he takes a stand against the commie-hunters, a plotline that hit way too close to home at the time (Chaplin, remember, was ahead of everyone in attacking Hitler when he made The Great Dictator). There's one inspired bit, as Shahdov orders dinner over the din of a supper club, but overall, the satire is strident, and Chaplin's takes on such things as technology and pop music make him look decidedly like an old fogey. --David Kronke

A Woman of Paris
At the height of his popularity, Charlie Chaplin chose to make a straight dramatic feature--without himself in a starring role. The plot of A Woman of Paris is perhaps not new: after a tragic misunderstanding, a small-town girl (former Chaplin paramour and longtime co-star Edna Purviance) goes to Paris and becomes the mistress of a rich playboy (Adolphe Menjou). But if the outline is familiar melodrama, the film still looks remarkable for its measured, adult attitude toward its characters; they are not black or white, but complicated, sophisticated shades of gray. Menjou, in particular, is a charming and thoroughly delightful cad. The film's matter-of-fact spirit on the subject of how adults conduct their sexual lives is also impressive. Critics loved the picture, but audiences did not, and Chaplin soon returned to comedy. He can be glimpsed, disguised, in a one-scene walk-through as a clumsy train porter. --Robert Horton

Countess From Hong Kong

Charlie Chaplin's last film is the cinematic equivalent of Willie Mays staying too long in baseball--a sad farewell from someone who has clearly lost his touch. Marlon Brando (who famously did not get along with Chaplin and initiated, with this film, his curious habit of undermining his directors' best intentions) plays an American millionaire leaving Hong Kong to assume an ambassadorship. He discovers Sophia Loren--playing a daughter of Russian aristocrats and a former gangster moll--concealed in his closet onboard the outbound ship, hoping to gain passage to the States. Brando, looking none too pleased, agrees to help her, with not terribly comic or romantic results. Chaplin's one modestly clever touch is to have the camera rock gently and slowly back and forth, ostensibly emulating the movement of the luxury liner. The humor falls flat, Brando and Loren have no chemistry, and the story isn't terribly engaging. The former Little Tramp appears, mercifully briefly, as a seasick steward who opens and closes a door, swooning in between. Appropriately enough, in silence. --David Kronke

Slapstick Festival - 35 Shorts

Hilarious slapstick skits from comedy's golden age! This collection includes such legendary performers as Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang, Fatty Arbuckle, The Keystone Kops, Buster Keaton, The Three Stooges. W.C. Fields and Charlie Chaplin! Included 1. Bad Boy (Silent) 2. Baloonatic, The (Silent) 3. Bangville Police, The (Silent) 4. Bear Shooters 5. Blacksmith, The 6. Boat, The (Silent) 7. Brideless Groom 8. Cure, The 9. Daydreams (Silent) 10. Dentist, The 11. Disorder In the Court 12. Easy Street (Silent) 13. Electric House, The (Silent) 14. Fatal Glass of Beer, The 15. Fatty's Suitless Day (Silent) 16. Follies of Our Gang 17. Ghost Parade 18. Golf Specialist, The 19. Her Painted Hero 20. Just Ramblin' Along 21. Love, Speed and Thrills (Silent) 22. Mabel & Fatty's Married Life (Silent) 23. Malice in the Palace 24. Mud and Sand 25. My Wife's Relations (Silent) 26. Oranges and Lemons (Silent) 27. Paleface, The (Silent) 28. Playhouse, The (Silent) 29. Rink, The (Silent) 30. Schools Out 31. Sing a Song of Six Pants 32. Stolen Jools, The 33. That Little Band of Gold (Silent) 34. Waldo's Last Stand 35. Wife and Auto Trouble (Silent)

The Kid [Remastered] 1921

'The Kid' is a powerfully emotive and wonderfully hilarious motion picture and a tremendous breakthrough in Charlie Chaplin's oeuvre. Chaplin hadn't filled a film so fully with pathos since 'The Vagabond' (1916), and then it was in a very limited way, subject to the confines of two-reel length. Additionally, 'Sunnyside' (1919) was a failure. The feature length of 'The Kid' also allows Chaplin to elaborate and refine the gags, pranks and set pieces, and with the support of Jackie Coogan, it's one of his funniest comedies. The parent-child relationship has proved potential as sentimental entertainment, and, for me, not many have neared Chaplin in exploiting that formula in 'The Kid.' The sequence where they take the kid, for a workhouse, away from the tramp is probably the most powerful and endearing tearjerker moment in the film--or of all film. In addition to Chaplin and Coogan, Edna Purviance is also quite effective in the dramatic side of the picture. Furthermore, Chaplin and cinematographer Roland Totheroh's photography had by now improved vastly over their work at Mutual, and Chaplin was already an eccentric perfectionist, but the musical score added to the 1971 release, composed by Chaplin, taken from Tchaikovsky, gives the emotive parts its most verve. Of the slapstick, one of my favourite scenes involves the tramp in fear of a bully. It's reminiscent of his Mutual short 'Easy Street' (1917), which is made especially clear when the bully bends a lamppost with one punch. There are many other great moments of humorous pantomime and farce in this film. Yet, 'The Kid' is much more than that, which makes it such a breakthrough; the slapstick fills the plot, and there is more of a developed plot here than in Chaplin's previous work. This was the beginning of the tramp as the sympathetic, pitiful hero, as well as clown, that's so recognizable and beloved to this day. Moreover, the dream sequence is an ingenious plot device; it adds dimensionally to the narrative and asserts its themes while delaying the inevitable conclusion of the outer narrative to poignant effect. It's also funny in a silly way. It's somewhat analogous to the outer reality story, although with much ambiguity. I wasn't always sure Chaplin was making any clear point, such as with the Christ image earlier in the film, but that seems unimportant; 'The Kid' affects the emotions and isn't aimed at engaging the mind. At six reels, with more sets and a developed plot, this film was already an expansion compared to Chaplin's previous films; the dream sequence satisfyingly expands the narrative depth, thus making 'The Kid' Chaplin's first complete feature.

Chaplin's Essanay Comedies, Vol. 02

Volume 2 includes: "The Tramp" "By the Sea" "Work" "A Woman" "The Bank" and "His Regeneration." Digitially mastered and speed corrected with piano music by Eric James and orchestral score by Robert Israel.System Requirements:Running Time: 135 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 014381541427 Manufacturer No: ID5414DSDVD