The CircusThe Circus is generally considered to be a lesser
Charlie Chaplin effort, coming as it does between two unquestioned masterpieces, The Gold Rush (1925) and City Lights (1931). To be sure, the film is not one of
Chaplin's best, but it has a lot going for it. Director
Chaplin casts star
Chaplin in his traditional "Little Tramp" role, who when first we see him is on the lam from the law. He takes refuge under the tent of a failing circus. Unintentionally,
Charlie disrupts the show's big clown act, and the crowd roars. The ringmaster decides to hire
Charlie as a clown, building the whole circus around him.
Charlie has many an adventure and close shave while performing under the Big Top, the best of which involves a tightrope, a broken support wire, and a playful monkey. The standard
Chaplin pathos rears its head when
Charlie falls in love with pretty tightrope walker
Merna Kennedy. When sweet
Merna chooses handsome
Harry Crocker,
Charlie is left alone once more--but, with a characteristic shrug, he shuffles into the horizon and onto his next adventure. The Circus has several gaping logic holes which tend to pull the film down (we're supposed to believe, for example, that
Charlie is unaware that he's a sensation as a clown, even after several weeks of performing before appreciative audiences), but the film contains several excellent setpieces, including a Hall of Mirrors sequence which anticipates
Orson Welles' more serious Lady From Shanghai climax by twenty years. The Circus won
Chaplin a special Oscar in 1928, then lay unseen for forty-two years; it was reissued in 1970, with a new musical score by
Chaplin himself (who can be heard singing the theme song in the opening scenes). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
City LightsCharles Chaplin was deep into production of his silent City Lights when Hollywood was overwhelmed by the talkie revolution. After months of anguished contemplation,
Chaplin decided to finish the film as it began--in silence, save for a musical score and an occasional sound effect. Once again cast as the Little Tramp,
Chaplin makes the acquaintance of a blind flower girl (
Virginia Cherrill), who through a series of coincidences has gotten the impression that the shabby tramp is a millionaire. A second storyline begins when the tramp rescues a genuine millionaire (
Harry Myers) from committing suicide. When drunk, the millionaire expansively treats the tramp as a friend and equal; when sober, he doesn't even recognize him. The two plots come together when the tramp attempts to raise enough money for the blind girl to have an eye operation. Highlights include an extended boxing sequence pitting scrawny
Chaplin against muscle-bound
Hank Mann, and the poignant final scene in which the now-sighted flower girl sees her impoverished benefactor for the first time.
Chaplin's decision to release the silent City Lights three years into the talkie era was partially vindicated when more than one critic singled out this "comedy in pantomime" as the best picture of 1931. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The KidThe Kid was
Charles Chaplin's first self-produced and directed feature film; 1914's 6-reel Tillie's Punctured Romance was a
Mack Sennett production in which
Chaplin merely co-starred.
The story "with a smile and perhaps a tear," begins with unwed mother
Edna Purviance leaving the Charity Hospital, babe in arms. Her burden is illustrated with a title card showing Christ bearing the cross. The father of the child is a poor artist who cares little for of his former lover, carelessly knocking her photo into his garret fireplace and cooly returning it there when he sees it is too badly damaged to keep. The mother sorrowfully leaves her baby in the back seat of a millionaire's limousine, with a note imploring whoever finds it to care for and love the child. But thieves steal the limo, and, upon discovering the baby, ditch the tot in an alleyway trash can. Enter
Chaplin, out for his morning stroll, carefully selecting a choice cigarette butt from his well used tin. He stumbles upon the squalling infant and, after trying to palm it off on a lady with another baby in a carriage, decides to adopt the kid himself. Meanwhile
Purviance has relented, but when she returns to the mansion and is told that the car has been stolen, she collapses in despair.
Chaplin outfits his flat for the baby as best he can, using an old coffee pot with a nipple on the spout as a baby bottle and a cane chair with the seat cut out as a potty seat.
Chaplin's attic apartment is a representation of the garret he had shared with his mother and brother in London, just as the slum neighborhood is a recreation of the ones he knew as a boy.
Five years later,
Chaplin has become a glazier, while his adopted son (the remarkable
Jackie Coogan) drums up business for his old man by cheerfully breaking windows in the neighborhood.
Purviance meanwhile has become a world famous opera singer, still haunted by the memory of her child, who does charity work in the very slums in which he now lives. Ironically, she gives a toy dog to little
Coogan.
Chaplin and
Coogan's close calls with the law and fights with street toughs are easily overcome, but when
Coogan falls ill, the attending doctor learns of the illegal adoption and summons the Orphan Asylum social workers who try to separate
Chaplin from his foster son. In one of the most moving scenes in all of
Chaplin's films,
Chaplin and
Coogan try to fight the officials, but
Chaplin is subdued by the cop they have summoned.
Coogan is roughly thrown into the back of the Asylum van, pleading to the welfare official and to God not to be separated from his father.
Chaplin, freeing himself from the cop, pursues the orphanage van over the rooftops and, descending into the back of the truck, dispatches the official and tearfully reunites with his "son". Returning to check on the sick boy,
Purviance encounters the doctor and is shown the note which she had attached to her baby five years earlier.
Chaplin and
Coogan, not daring to return home, settle in a flophouse for the night. The proprietor sees a newspaper ad offering a reward for
Coogan's return and kidnaps the sleeping boy. After hunting fruitlessly, a grieving
Chaplin falls asleep on his tenement doorstep and dreams that he has been reunited with the boy in Heaven (that "flirtatious angel" is Lita Grey, later
Chaplin's second wife). Woken from his dream by the cop, he is taken via limousine to
Purviance's mansion where he is welcomed by
Coogan and
Purviance, presumably to stay.
Chaplin had difficulties getting The Kid produced. His inspiration, it is suggested was the death of his own first son, Norman Spencer Chaplin a few days after birth in 1919. His determination to make a serio-comic feature was challenged by First National who preferred two reel films, which were more quickly produced and released.
Chaplin wisely gained his distributors' approval by inviting them to the studio, where he trotted out the delightful
Coogan to entertain them.
Chaplin's divorce case from his first wife
Mildred Harris also played a part; fearing seizure of the negatives
Chaplin and crew escaped to Salt Lake City and later to New York to complete the editing of the film.
Chaplin's excellent and moving score for The Kid was composed in 1971 for a theatrical re-release, but used themes that
Chaplin had composed in 1921.
Chaplin re-edited the film somewhat for the re-release, cutting scenes that he felt were overly sentimental, such as
Purviance's observing of a May-December wedding and her portrayal as a saint, outlined by a church's stained glass window. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
A King in New YorkKing Shadov (Charles Chaplin), the newly deposed monarch of a small European country, arrives in New York to face a life in exile. No sooner does he get here, however, than he discovers that his prime minister has stolen the entire royal treasury and departed for parts unknown. Stranded in New York in a luxury hotel without any money, the king tries to adjust to life in America and elicit interest in his plan for the peaceful use of nuclear power. He finds America in 1957 to be too noisy for his taste, however -- a run-in with some
ock & roll dancers leads to some slapstick antics, and he doesn't take much to modern movies or the blaring entertainment that goes with them. He meets a pretty young lady (Dawn Addams) in a slightly risqué slapstick encounter in which he is trying to "rescue" her, and she maneuvers him into helping to plug a deodorant on television. The king proves so beguiling on the small screen that he is deluged by offers from advertising agencies, which he rejects at first. But the king soon finds that advertising may be the only thing he can do to earn enough money to keep him living like a king in exile, and he tries to work the system to his advantage, his earnings from television enabling him to remain in the country and push his peaceful nuclear plan. He soon finds the true dark side of life in the United States, however, when he crosses paths with an unhappy little boy (
Michael Chaplin, the star/director's own son) whose parents are about to be jailed as part of the anti-Communist hysteria of the period. In the end, the king provides a shelter to the boy but compromises himself in the process, and while he does make the Congressional committee investigating him look foolish, he sees that he has done all of the good that he can do for now in the United States and leaves. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
A Woman of ParisCharles Chaplin's first, long-awaited, independent production for United Artists begins with an only partially true caveat from its creator: "To The Public -- In order to avoid any misunderstanding, I wish to announce that I do not appear in this picture. It is the first serious drama written and directed by myself.
Charles Chaplin," -- Chaplin does appear in a walk-on as a train-station porter. It is indeed a serious drama but it is much more than that. It is a film that set new standards in silent dramatic acting and directing. It influenced other filmmakers so deeply that many of its innovations seem outdated only because of their constant imitation in films by others. It is a study in the psychology of the vagaries of love.
Marie St. Clair (
Edna Purviance), a simple girl living in a small French town, plans to elope with her lover, artist Jean Millet (
Carl Miller), even though her suspicious stepfather attempts to stop her. Jean brings her to his home, but they are also scorned by his father. Jean and Marie resolve to leave for Paris that night. They go to the railroad station, where Jean leaves Marie with money for tickets, while he returns home to pack. A final parting with his parents brings on a fatal stroke to his father, and when Marie calls to find out why he's late, Jean tells her that he must stay. Taking this as a rejection, Marie boards the train by herself.
A year later in Paris, Marie is a kept woman, and her keeper is Pierre Revel (
Adolphe Menjou), the richest bachelor in town and one of the slimiest. When a magazine article announces Pierre's engagement to an equally wealthy woman, Marie tries to react coolly, but her body language shows she is clearly upset. Later, Marie confronts him about the engagement and is told that it will make no difference in their relationship, that "we can go on just the same," but Marie refuses to go out with Pierre. Later, she is invited to a wild party in the bohemian Latin Quarter, and she gets the address wrong, accidentally arriving at the studio where Jean and his mother now live. The two are glad to see each other, but the passage of time has made them formal and they conceal their real emotions. Observing their penurious condition, Marie hires Jean to paint her portrait.
As the days pass and the portrait nears completion, Jean again falls in love with Marie, but when he professes his love, Marie is noncommittal. She confronts Pierre with her desire for marriage and children, and he chides her, pointing to her pearl necklace as evidence of her happiness. Pierre in turn confronts her about the artist and she admits that she loves and will marry him, news that he takes coolly and dubiously, telling her that he'll see her for dinner the next evening. In the artists garret, Jean and his mother argue about Marie, and, browbeaten by his disapproving mother, he finally declares that he has reconsidered his proposal. He is overheard by Marie, and she coolly confirms that the proposal was a mistake. Later as he sets out to stalk Marie in hopes of re-establishing their relationship, the desperate Jean is seen loading a revolver. At the fancy restaurant where Pierre and Marie dine that night, Jean confronts the couple. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
Monsieur Verdoux"Von Clausewitz said that war is the logical extension of diplomacy; Monsieur Verdoux feels that murder is the logical extension of business." With his controversial "comedy of murders" Monsieur Verdoux,
Charles Chaplin makes his final, definitive break with the Little Tramp character that had brought him fame and fortune. Verdoux (Chaplin), a mild-mannered family man of pre-war France, has hit upon a novel method of supporting his loved ones. He periodically heads out of town, assumes an alias, marries a foolish, wealthy woman, then murders her for the insurance money. He does this thirteen times with success, but wife #14, brassy
Martha Raye, proves impossible to kill (nor does she ever suspect what Verdoux has in mind for her). A subplot develops when Verdoux, planning to test a new poison, chooses streetwalker
Marilyn Nash as his guinea pig. She tells him so sad a life story that Verdoux takes pity on her, gives her some money, and sends her on her way. Years later, the widowed and impoverished Verdoux meets Nash once more; now she is the mistress of a munitions magnate. This ironic twist sets the stage for the finale, when Verdoux, finally arrested for his crimes and on trial for his life, gently argues in his own defense that he is an "amateur" by comparison to those profiteers who build weapons for war. "It's all business. One murder makes a villain. Millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify..." Sentenced to death, Verdoux remains calmly philosophical to the end. As the condemned man walks to the guillotine, a priest prays for God to have mercy on Verdoux's soul. "Why not?" replies Verdoux jauntily. "After all, it belongs to him." The original idea of Monsieur Verdoux originated with
Orson Welles, who'd wanted to make a picture about notorious modern "Bluebeard" Landru. Welles wanted to cast Chaplin in the lead; Chaplin liked the idea, but preferred to direct himself, as he'd been doing since 1914. It is possible that Chaplin might have gotten away with the audacious notion of presenting a cold-blood murderer as a sympathetic, almost lovable figure. Alas, Monsieur Verdoux was released at a time when Chaplin was under a political cloud for his allegedly Communistic philosophy; too, it came out shortly after a well-publicized paternity suit involving Chaplin and
Joan Barry. Picketed in several communities, banned outright in others, Monsieur Verdoux was Chaplin's first financial flop. Today, it can be seen to be years ahead of its time in terms of concept, even though the execution is old-fashioned and occasionally wearisome. Monsieur Verdoux doesn't always hit the bull's-eye, but it remains one of Charles Chaplin's most fascinating projects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles ChaplinAmerican film historian and author Richard Schickel directs the documentary Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin. Schickel offers an exploration into Chaplin's life, from his childhood in London until his death in 1977. The film also contains insight on his multifaceted film career and much-publicized private life. Includes archive footage, film clips, and narration by Sydney Pollack. Interwoven with the vintage bits are contemporary interviews with Hollywood personas such as Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, and Johnny Depp. Chaplin's children Michael and Geraldine also provide contributions. Charlie was shown at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
A Day's PleasureCharlie Chaplin's fourth film for First National is generally considered a lightweight entry and a throwback to earlier days. It begins with Charlie, Edna and their two boys leaving their house (actually a corner of Chaplin's studio at La Brea and De Longpre in Hollywood) for a day's outing. The family piles into the family flivver, and after Charlie's amusing efforts to keep the engine running, they arrive at a dock and board a crowded day cruiser.
Charlie has a disagreement with another passenger (Tom Wilson), when he squeezes himself into a place on the bench next to the fellow's hefty wife, (Babe London). When Wilson tosses the famous derby onto the dock, Charlie races off the boat to get it. As the vessel pulls away from the dock, a large woman with a baby carriage tries to board, but ends up stretched between the dock and the boat. Charlie, returning with his hat uses her as a gangplank, then tries to pull her aboard with a grappling hook.
Once the boat is under way, the passengers dance to the music of a small combo, but soon everyone is feeling the effects of the violently rocking cruiser. Charlie has to stop dancing with the lovely Edna to sit by the railing near the trombonist, whose own mal de mer turns the black man quite pale. Meanwhile, Edna and the kids are napping on deck chairs and Charlie decides to join them. In typical Chaplinesque fashion, he cannot seem to assemble his chair. Overcome by seasickness he collapses into the lap of the equally bilious Babe and is covered with a blanket by a helpful steward. When the lady's jealous husband returns with drinks he tries to attack Charlie, but becomes too nauseated to continue, of which the now recovered Charlie takes advantage.
The return trip in the family car is equally eventful. Charlie runs afoul of a couple of traffic cops, is blocked by some irate pedestrians, one of whose foul language spurs Charlie to indicate the divine retribution awaiting him, and backs into a tar truck which spills its contents on the street. The cops, berating Charlie for blocking traffic, get stuck in the tar along with Charlie, but he cleverly steps out of his large shoes and drives off with his family, much to the amusement of the onlookers. This last scene may have originally been intended to occur earlier in the film, according to continuity sheets existing in the Chaplin archives, but was placed at he end of the film for the released version. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
SunnysideCharlie Chaplin's third film in his First National contract is a simple story of country life, an idyll, which contains two separate dream sequences, a characteristic Chaplin story device. Charlie is a farm hand and general factotum at a combination farm, general store and hotel. His boss,
Tom Wilson, drives him hard, waking him early to prepare breakfast while he sleeps in. Charlie has devised some labor-saving techniques, such as sitting a chicken on the frying pan so she can lay an egg in it, or milking the cow directly into the coffee cups. After Sunday breakfast, the boss goes off to church along with most of the town, while Charlie must tend to the cows. Charlie, reading the Bible, loses the herd as they stroll peacefully up a country road. He finds them in town and must shoo them out of various buildings. When the whole parish comes running out of the church, Charlie enters heroically and comes out riding the bull, which eventually dumps him in a stream below a wooden bridge.
Unconscious, Charlie dreams of dancing through the meadows with four lovely wood nymphs, in a scene of balletic grace and humor. Awakened at the bottom of the stream, he's pulled out by four men including his boss, who kicks him all the way home. Sunday afternoon is Charlie's time for visiting his girl,
Edna Purviance, bringing her flowers and a ring. Their romantic tryst is hampered by her mischievous teenage brother, until Charlie sends him out to play blindman's bluff in traffic. Then Edna's father (
Henry Bergman) interrupts their musical interlude at the pump organ, ordering Charlie away. Back at the store/hotel Charlie is again scolded for being late. A traffic accident outside brings a new visitor, a "city slicker" who is injured and must stay at the hotel. He's attended to by a horse doctor and shown to his room by Charlie, who later sits down to rest. Later, the slicker is preparing to leave when Edna enters the store and attracts the handsome visitor who follows her out of the store.
Worried by the competition, Charlie eventually arrives at Edna's, observing through a window his rival's fashionable ways -- the spats on his shoes, the handkerchief up his sleeve and the cigarette lighter in the handle of his walking stick. Seeing that he's losing Edna, Charlie returns home and tries to emulate his rival by putting old socks over the tops of his shoes and rigging a match to the end of a stick. When he visits Edna she rejects him, giving back his ring. Despondent, Charlie walks out to the street and stands in the way of an approaching car. The impact he feels, however, is from the boot of his boss as he awakens Charlie from his second reverie. The guest is really leaving this time, and when Edna enters the store, she gives the slicker's advances the cold shoulder as Charlie proclaims his devotion to her. He helps the slicker load his baggage into the car and receives a tip. Charlie and Edna celebrate his departure with a loving hug, as the camera irises in. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
The Idle ClassCharlie Chaplin's eighth film under his million dollar contract with First National is a return to the two reel form, and to the lightness of the Mutual style.
Chaplin plays dual role, that of a vacationing Tramp, and a high society inebriate husband.
Arriving in Miami on the same train are
Edna Purviance, a neglected and lonely wife, who descends from the coach, and
Chaplin, who emerges from the baggage compartment under a train car, complete with baggage and golf clubs.
Chaplin hitches a ride on the back of
Purviance's limousine.
Purviance's forgetful,
alcoholic husband is a natty double for
Chaplin. A telegram tells us he was supposed to meet
Purviance at the train. Already late, he leaves the hotel room without his pants. Escaping notice of the other guests in the lobby causes him to delay his departure, to the point where newly arrived
Purviance finds him hiding in bed.
That afternoon he receives a note telling him that his wife has moved to other lodgings until he stops drinking. He gazes longingly at
Purviance's picture and, his back turned to the camera, appears to be sobbing. As he turns, however, we see the cocktail shaker he is expertly manipulating.
Purviance, meanwhile, is out for a horseback ride, and
Chaplin has found the nearby golf links. His hilarious golf game, highlighted by his run-ins with
Mack Swain and
John Rand pauses when he sees
Purviance pass by on horseback. After looking longingly at her, he fantasizes rescuing her from her runaway horse (in another of
Chaplin's dream sequences), imagining their lives all the way through marriage and children. But the dream ends and
Chaplin returns to his golf game, in which his drive breaks
Swain's whisky bottle causing him to burst into tears, and in which he again runs afoul of
Rand.
The inebriate husband has received a note from his wife, saying that she will forgive him if he attends her costume ball. Dressed in a suit of armor, his visor jams closed, preventing him from taking a drink, and he spends great effort trying to open it.
Meanwhile
Chaplin has got himself in trouble with the law - while sitting on a park bench his neighbor has been pickpocketed and
Chaplin is the suspect. Pursued by a cop, he sneaks his way through an arriving limo and into
Purviance's costume ball.
Purviance, naturally mistaking him for her husband, makes moves toward reconciliation, which
Chaplin welcomes as affection. When greeted by
Swain, who turns out to be
Purviance's father,
Chaplin expects trouble from their golfing encounter, but is amazed that
Swain thinks he's
Purviance's husband.
Chaplin denies that thy are married, which gets him knocked down several times. Caught together by the still visored husband,
Chaplin is attacked but the unknown assailant is subdued by the other guests. Eventually he frees himself and identifies himself to
Swain, who tries to remove the helmet. Eventually
Chaplin uses a can opener to peel back the visor (revealing an unknown actor double), and the confusion is explained. Told unceremoniously to leave,
Chaplin departs, but
Purviance decides they've treated him shabbily and sends
Swain after him to apologize.
Chaplin accepts his hand, but points to
Swain's shoelace. When
Swain bends over to tie it,
Chaplin delivers a swift kick to the derriere, before sprinting off into the distance.
The golf sequences in The Idle Class were inspired by an earlier, unfinished Mutual called The Golf Links, featuring
Eric Campbell and
Albert Austin, portions of which were included in
Chaplin's 1918, How to Make Movies. A still, showing
Campbell and
Chaplin teeing off on the same ball made its way into
Chaplin's autobiography, labeled as being from The Idle Class (made four years after
Campbell's death) and was a source of confusion to
Chaplin aficiandos, until How to Make Movies was assembled by
Kevin Brownlow and
David Gill.
Chaplin's lovely score for The Idle Class was composed for its reissue in 1971. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
