The Real Charlie Chaplin opens in a manner
most apropos for the last silent film star to embrace the new sound medium -
with a title card. "Enjoy any Charlie Chaplin you have the good luck to
encounter, but don't try to link them up to anything you can grasp. There are
too many of them." - Max Eastman, writer and friend of Charlie Chaplin.
Before there was Beatlemania in 1964, there
was the "Chaplin Craze," "Chaplin Fever,"
"Charlie-Mania," and my favorite: "Chaplin-oia.""Chaplin-itis has swept across America"
reads one paper's headline. It is December, 1916 and in railroad stations
across the United States, and at the same hour, people wait for his arrival.
Look-alike contests sprung up around the
world. Chaplin himself allegedly entered one and finished twentieth!The character that propelled Chaplin to fame
had many names; "The little man," "The little fellow," and
of course, "The Tramp."Often
imitated, and lawsuits often followed, no one quite had the same appeal, the
same je ne sais quoi.Perhaps it was the way he looked directly
into the camera at us.
Perhaps it was that crooked smile, the
naughtiness behind those eyes, pathos, or just the Everyperson's need to root
for the underdog.Charles Spencer
Chaplin understood that role. He lived it. "In a society sharply defined
by class, the Tramp not only stands up to the man. He gives him a kick up the
arse for good measure."
Before I go on I must mention the narrator.
It is Pearl Mackie. Possibly known to you Doctor Who fans as Bill Potts, the
final companion of the 12th Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi.She is amazingly deft at nuance and possesses
the right amount of gravitas to make things compelling while moving the tale
along.
Chaplin was born on in 1889. An auspicious
year that began with a total eclipse of the sun. Charlie was born on April 16.
Four days later in Austria-Hungary his doppelganger, Adolf Hitler is born.
Coincidence? Fate? The Eiffel Tower was opened to the public. Jack the Ripper
is still at large while London installs electric street lamps. In Kyoto, Japan,
a playing card manufacturing company, Nintendo (yes, THAT Nintendo. Do your own
research here...) is formed. It is the early, beginning days of both film and
sound recording.
One can say Chaplin and film grew up
together. Both he and film grew to be among the most famous icons on Earth.
"The Tramp will make Chaplin more famous than any King, Queen or Emperor.
More famous than any philosopher, artist or religious figure. Famous in a way
no one has been before."
His parents were in the "Variety
business." His father ran away with a chorus girl, abandoning his wife,
Charlie and his older half-brother Sydney.
They lived in a four-wall flat on Fitzalan Street until his mom was sent to a
mental home and he was sent to the Lambeth Workhouse.
It's here where we meet Effie Wisdom. She
grew up with Chaplin and her interview, with historian Kevin Brownlow, when she
was 92 in 1983 informs us about the retched conditions Chaplin grew up in. The
scenes are recreated from the actual recordings.
At fifteen, he joined Fred Karno's Mumming
Birds troupe where he learned the essentials of physical comedy -how to take a trip, a punch, to fall down
stairs. In 1910, with the Troupe, he came to America. In between 3-a-day shows
he teaches himself the cello, Greek and yoga. When Mack Sennett loses his lead
Keystone Cop, Ford Sterling, he hires the Brit Chaplin away from Karno at a
salary of $150 per week, three times his current salary. He decides he'll try
it for a year.
Eventually, we learn of Chaplin's dark sides.
The insecurities, the abuses, the predatory behavior towards underage girls
(see: 'Chaplin' the 1991 film directed by Richard Attenborough starring Robert
Downy Jr. for more on that), the lawsuits, the abortions, Communist sympathies,
expulsion from America, life in Switzerland with Oona O'Neill and his
triumphant return at the 1972 Oscar ceremony.
Much of the information we receive comes from
a 1966 interview he did with Life Magazine, one of the few times he spoke to a
reporter with a tape recorder running. Again, some of it recreated but with
photos taken from the interview itself.
Not all his ex-wives stories are here. His
second wife, Lita Grey Chaplin's story is touched upon. I won't get into it
here. It's not pretty. There are interviews with some of his and Oona's
children done after Chaplin passed. No mention of his being a Romany Gypsy is
here, which I found strangely conspicuous.
Judge for yourself what Chaplin's life was.
There's no denying the man's genius and abilities; he was a one-man wrecking
crew who oversaw EVERY aspect, every shot of his films. For example, it took
him 534 days of shooting, with multiple actresses (only to rehire the
original), to get one scene right for City Lights, his silent opus in the
beginning days of sound. "Talking is an artificial thing," he said,
"whereas movement is as near to nature as a bird flying. The voice is very
beautiful but it is not as great as the silence of somebody just
looking."50,000 people showed up
for the premiere of the film.
Chaplin was once the most famous man in the
world.The highest paid actor.Eventually, his public fall from grace and
closet skeletons defined how he was perceived.The film is full of archival footage including home movies of family
life in Switzerland.With features such
as these and never-before- heard recordings a Chaplin is revealed that the
world has never seen before.