Monday, February 07, 2005
The Chaplin Collection Vol. 1
- Who's watched: M & G
- Mentions: *1*
- Commentary: Both my mother and I tend to forget, between watchings of these movies, how riveting they are. Typically, we watch one of these movies when we want to watch something and have absolutely no idea what we want to watch.
This collection, though, contains four films, listed below, very good mini-reviews at the site linked in the title of this post, but, if you're interested in more review material, here are more review resources:
The Gold Rush - both the 1925 and the 1942 editions
DVD Savant reviewed this movie twice, first when the DVD edition came out (that review is the immediately previous link; that is the edition I own) and again when the blu-ray edition hit the market. The reviews are not copies of one another, so I wanted to post both of them.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Charlie Chaplin The Tramp/The Lone Prospector Mack Swain Big Jim McKay Tom Murray Black Larsen Malcolm Waite Jack Cameron Georgia Hale The Girl Henry Bergman Hank Curtis Tiny Sandford Barman Sam Allen Dance Hall Man
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
Modern Times - 1936 It's hard to pick a favorite; these are four of Chaplin's greatest, but judging from her reaction, I think Mom's favorite is probably Modern Times, she loves the man-in-the-cogs scene and never fails to say, "I wonder how they did that?!?"
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Charlie Chaplin Factory Worker/The Tramp Paulette Goddard Ellen Peterson Henry Bergman Café proprietor Stanley Sandford Big Bill
The Great Dictator - 1940 My favorite is The Great Dictator, for too many reasons to mention.
Roger Ebert devoted more than his usual amount of space to reviewing this movie. He not only assigned it "Great Movie" status (that review is the immediately previous link), he reviewed it initially 35 years before he christened it a Great Movie, then published, without comment, a letter from a dissenter of Ebert's opinion of the movie. Interesting reading, all of them.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Charlie Chaplin Jewish Barber/Adenoid Hynkel Reginald Gardiner Commander Schultz Paulette Goddard Hannah Jack Oakie Benzino Napaloni
Limelight - 1952
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Charlie Chaplin Calvero Claire Bloom Thereza Embrose Buster Keaton Calvero's Partner Nigel Bruce Postant
This film also includes several Chaplin relatives, lots of them children, mostly in uncredited, unnamed parts, including Oona O'Neill.
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
All films in this collection were directed by Charlie Chaplin.
Labels: charlie-chaplin, comedy2, satire2, shared-favorite, silent
