Chaplin Special Edition

Studio: Lions Gate
Product Type: DVD

Doctor Zhivago (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Average customer rating:

Doctor Zhivago
Got exactly what I asked for when I asked for it
Brilliant? Hardly!
Do Not Purchase This DVD!
A Great Update

Doctor Zhivago (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Starring: Jose Maria Caffarel , Geraldine Chaplin , Erik Chitty , Julie Christie , and Adrienne Corri
Director: David Lean
Manufacturer: Turner Home Ent
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Special Editions | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Lawrence of Arabia (Limited Edition)
Gone with the Wind (Four-Disc Collector's Edition)
Casablanca
Citizen Kane
The Bridge on the River Kwai

ASIN: B00003CX9M
Release Date: 2001-11-06

Amazon.com essential video

David Lean focused all his talent as an epic-maker on Boris Pasternak's sweeping novel about a doctor-poet in revolutionary Russia. The results may sometimes veer toward soap opera, especially with the screen frequently filled with adoring close-ups of Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, but Lean's gift for cramming the screen with spectacle is not to be denied. The streets of Moscow, the snowy steppes of Russia, the house in the country taken over by ice; these are re-created with Lean's unerring sense of grandness. The movie is so lush and so long that it becomes an irresistible wallow, even when logic suffers--like Gone with the Wind before it and Titanic after. Sharif, who achieved stardom in Lean's previous film, Lawrence of Arabia, mostly looks noble, but the supporting cast is spiky: Rod Steiger as a fat-cat monster, Tom Courtenay as a self-righteous revolutionary, and Klaus Kinski and Alec Guinness in smaller roles. Geraldine Chaplin, in her adult debut, plays the doctor's compliant wife. Robert Bolt's screenplay won one of the film's five Oscars, with another going to perhaps the most immediately recognizable element of the movie: Maurice Jarre's romantic music, with its hugely popular "Lara's Theme" weaving in and out of a swooning score. --Robert Horton

Description

Lara inspires lechery in Komarovsky (her mother's lover who is a master at surviving whoever runs Russia) and can't compete with passion for the revolution of the man she marries, Pasha. Her true love is Zhivago who also loves his wife. Lara is the one who inspires poetry. The story is narrated by Zhivago's half brother Yevgraf, who has made his career in the Soviet Army. At the beginning of the film he is about to meet a young woman he believes may be the long lost daughter of Lara and Zhivago.

Customer Reviews:

Doctor Zhivago.......2007-06-27

Based on Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize-winning novel, David Lean's second masterpiece (after "Lawrence of Arabia") is a sumptuous, absorbing epic in the grand tradition of filmmaking. Sharif and Christie (often glimpsed in adoring close-ups) are ravishing to watch, as Lean turns an earth-shattering moment in world history into high romantic drama. Brimming with unforgettable images of the Russian steppes captured by Oscar-winning lensman Carlo Ponti, Lean's snowy, romantic spectacle is just what the "Doctor" ordered, with marvelous ensemble work by Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Tom Courtenay, and Klaus Kinski.

Got exactly what I asked for when I asked for it.......2007-06-08

I forgot my step-dad's 60th birthday and had to overnight/express ship this DVD set to him and it actually ended up working out better than if I had remembered. He has wanted this movie for years because he went to the premier in the 60's on the east coast. He was home when it arrived on a Saturday and he ended up feeling more special because of all of the fuss and the hand delivery by FedEx. The film is stunning, as ever. I borrowed it as soon as my parents had watched it and it held up beautifully on my HDTV (61" screen) which I did not expect. I was highly satisfied with the whole process and the product. I completely recommend using the ticker on items that tells you how soon you can get them anywhere in the country - fabulous little feature. Excellent service.

Brilliant? Hardly!.......2007-05-21

David Lean was in over his head with this film adaptation of the historic book by Pasternak. There is absolutely no justification for this movie to be so long since it hardly touches the complexities of its source. When I saw the film during its original release, I wondered why it was taking so long to get to the point. I never did get the "point". Then again I don't understand all the fuss around "Gone With the Wind" either.

The performances by Shariff and Christie were amazing. By that I mean that it appeared that they were filmed separately performing their roles, then the results were edited together. Talk about no chemistry!

Yes the cinematography is grand, however, the music score is minimalistic.

If you enjoy daytime soap operas, then you might enjoy this film.

Do Not Purchase This DVD!.......2007-04-22

Many scenes have been cut out. I saw the origninal movie when it originaly came out and this is NOT original.

Do not buy this version if you want the original version. I wish I knew where to get the original.

Please advise.

A Great Update.......2007-04-04

This classic looks great in the new format, happy to have it back in our library

Average customer rating:

The top of Chaplin's art. One of the greatest movies ever made!
City Lights
a beacon in the wilderness
Chaplin's Greatest Movie
The Little Tramp perseveres

City Lights (2 Disc Special Edition)
Starring: Jack Alexander (III) , Henry Bergman , Betty Blair , Charles Chaplin , and Virginia Cherrill
Director: Charles Chaplin
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Special Editions | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Modern Times (2 Disc Special Edition)
The Gold Rush (2 Disc Special Edition)
The Great Dictator (2 Disc Special Edition)
The Kid (2 Disc Special Edition)
Double Indemnity (Universal Legacy Series)

ASIN: B00017LVN2
Release Date: 2004-03-02

Amazon.com essential video

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

Description

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

Customer Reviews:

The top of Chaplin's art. One of the greatest movies ever made!.......2007-07-05

City Lights (1931) is truly one of the greatest films in the art of cinema ever made. It is a summation of Chaplin's genius. If you own this movie plus the boxed set of Chaplin's 12 Mutual Comedies from 1916-17 (90th Anniversary Edition), you have the meat and potatoes of his craft. City Lights is the most poignant film ever made. A blind girl makes friends with a tramp, who is playing up to her as a millionaire. Charlie of course falls in love with her and will do anything to help restore her sight. It is funny, melancholy, sad, outrageous, but I won't tell you the ending, which is perhaps the most moving and touching scene I have ever seen in my life. Even after first seeing this movie in the 1970's, it still gives me goose bumps and puts a tear in the corner of my eye (Shhhh.don't tell anyone). Chaplin's City Lights is on my all time Top 5 and I've seen all the so called "great movies". The music by Chaplin is also very moving. The film took three years to make as the extra documentary shows, and the painstaking efforts of Chaplin show that he indeed was the man creating a masterpiece. The characters that run throughout the movie are also fascinating. This is Chaplin's finest moment. If I could give it six stars I would.

City Lights.......2007-06-20

A silent released when the talkie sensation was in full bloom, Chaplin's "City Lights" still swept the box office by storm. Produced, directed, edited, and scored by Chaplin himself, "City Lights" melds the sweet, harmlessly buffoonish antics of Chaplin's Little Tramp persona with a larger theme of humanistic social concern. As always, the comic sequences are exquisitely orchestrated, particularly a hilarious boxing match with Hank Mann, as a muscled pugilist. But the real highlight is that eye-opening final scene with Cherrill where Chaplin betrays a touch of something closer to angelic poignancy.

a beacon in the wilderness.......2007-06-11

this is my favorite chaplin movie, both hilariously funny and tenderly moving, as charlot gives his all to help the young blind girl, and then feels he must disappear once she regains her sight so she will not know who her benefactor is. i defy you not to guffaw during the prize fight, and i defy you not to weep at the denouement. plain & simple, a beautiful movie.

Chaplin's Greatest Movie.......2007-04-19

The crowning achievement from Hollywood's first legendary movie star, Charlie Chaplin in his 1931 masterpiece "City Lights" The inspiring and touching story a little tramp who is determined to help a beautiful blind girl with money, in which they have fallen for each other. One of the greatest American films of all time, Chaplin's best, a touching, funny & remarkable masterpiece. If you're Chaplin fan then this is the most must see film or for anyone who loves classic movies.

The Little Tramp perseveres.......2007-01-04

Charlie Chaplin is unparalleled to his abiltiy to pantomime, evoking a whole gamut of emotions playing the kind hearted Little Tramp in "City Lights". Chaplin went way out on a limb producing, directing, writing and composing the music for this 1931 silent film when talkies were the rage of Hollywood.

The crux of the story revolves around the infatuation by the Little Tramp for a blind flower girl played by Virginia Cherrill who he met as he traipsed around the city. In his sojourns Chaplin also met a suicidal schizophrenic millionaire bent on drowning himself in the river, played by Harry Myers, who he convinced to keep a stiff upper lip and work through his difficulties. Myers took Chaplin into his home, lavished him with anything he wished so long as he was tipsy. When he sobered, however, his attitude changed and he spurned the Little Tramp. This kept on happening a number of times throughout the film.

Meanwhile Chaplin tried to do anything to earn money to help the blind girl out of her monetary difficulties, comically working as a sanitation worker, and a boxer. He finally was able to coax $1000 from the millionaire while he was on a bender. He used the funds to pay the appreciative blind girl's debts and for an operation to restore her vision.

"City Lights" was a representation of the tough times of the Great Depression and Chaplin in his film proficiently evoked a feeling of hope for the possibility of better times in the future.

Average customer rating:

Laughter and tears
EXCELLENT CHAPLIN FILM - THE BEST BY ALL ACCOUNTS
A masterpiece
Chaplin's first masterpiece
Wonderful edition of The Kid

The Kid (2 Disc Special Edition)
Starring: Albert Austin , Beulah Bains , Nellie Bly Baker , Henry Bergman , and Charles Chaplin
Director: Charles Chaplin
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( K ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Special Editions | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

City Lights (2 Disc Special Edition)
The Circus (2 Disc Special Edition)
The Gold Rush (2 Disc Special Edition)
Modern Times (2 Disc Special Edition)
Limelight (2 Disc Special Edition)

ASIN: B00017LVNC
Release Date: 2004-03-02

Amazon.com

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

Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

Laughter and tears.......2006-10-21

Chaplin is a rare gem. I don't give five stars lightly, and I don't give them to praise old respected classics. Citizen Kane deserved less. A Buster Keaton silent film was nothing compared to Chaplin. He makes you laugh and cry. What more could you ask for in a movie?

There are some similarities to another Chaplin gem, City Lights. He liked to put comic boxing scenes in his movies. He also liked beautiful and loving women. And the cops are always bad guys giving the tramp a hard time.

The Kid, the title character, is very cute, and very well played by Jackie Coogan. He helps to make it a precious film, and I mean that only in a good sense.

I like happy endings too, and Chaplin is happy to oblige. But one thing I'd really like to see is the sequel to this one, to see how the lives of the three main characters develop.

This film is so far superior to almost every movie coming out today. And I'm not one to praise the old simply because it is old. If an old movie is terrible, I'll say so. But this movie right here is far superior to almost every movie in the theatres right now.

EXCELLENT CHAPLIN FILM - THE BEST BY ALL ACCOUNTS.......2006-09-14

take a look at this film. The extras are unnecessary. Even back then the state could take a kid away from a loving and kind caretaker, but mainly because they were swindling people by breaking windows. BUt hey it was a living and keeping stacks of pancakes on the table.

THe state back then was beatable. Not anymore, and the two are reunited. THis film is really great, but would likely be condemned as kiddie pern nowadays when we no longer give our kids a kiss goodnight or share a cot, or sacrifice all to care for them.

Especially interesting in this film is something unique at the time to Chaplin: the depiction of passing African American characters without racial jokes, but reality. CHaplin is almost alone in this. Stepin Fetchit was making a good penny with racist depictions of Black people. Chaplin dares present real people with wiles and intelligence.

Check out this movie. It has all the classic Chaplin bits, plus the incredible Jackie Coogan (later TV's Uncle Fester) under Chaplin's fine direction. Well-written. Not too much bathos and sentiment and melodrama but just enough to keep things moving. THe scene where the mother and the kid unknowingly see each other at a doorstep is great and classical irony, not overdone. IT must have been a scream in a movie theatre long ago.

You must get this movie. Then get A King in New York to see how the elder Chaplin directed his own son as well years later.

A masterpiece.......2006-07-01

In an era when silent films were cranked out quickly and were far from an art form, Chaplin decided to take a new approach. Although this film started out as another short film, by the time it was done, Chaplin had spent a year on it, and had taken more shots and retakes than perhaps had been done for any film in history. By completion, it had grown into a six reel feature film.

I hesitate to use the word artistry, because it sounds like one of those words used for films that only critics tend to appreciate. But this film is both artistic and accessible. If you are not used to silent films, or the ones you have seen either lacked continuity or were hard to follow, you will find this as easy to watch as any modern film, and find that it tells a story as well as the best of films.

This edition features the musical score written by Chaplin, which underscores both the comedy and the drama of this movie. A host of features on the second DVD give you a feel for the background and the era.

If you are a Chaplin fan, this movie is a must have. If you are not a Chaplin fan, but are curious what all the fuss is about, this movie will let you know.

Chaplin's first masterpiece.......2006-02-12

This was Chaplin's first feature-length film, and it's a beautiful work of art. Chaplin is the tramp who finds an abandoned baby in an alley with a note attached pleading for the finder to care for and love the child. Some inventive scenes of Charlie learning the rudiments of baby care follow, and then it jumps ahead five years. Jackie Coogan is now the kid and it was not only his greatest role, but perhaps the best appearance on screen of any child star until Tatum O'Neill in PAPER MOON; he might also be the best character Chaplin ever worked with. Coogan throws rocks through windows while Chaplin, a glazier, appears on the scene to make repairs: it's a living. In one astonishing scene, officials from the county orphanage come to take the kid away, and Charlie puts up a fight to keep him - racing over rooftops to catch up with the truck with Coogan inside until Chaplin leaps into the truck and rescues him: it's a brilliant piece of moviemaking and was copied a thousand times in westerns with a horse replacing the truck. There is a dream sequence near the end that is very strange and somehow seems out of place. But the movie is a great one. It took one whole year to make at a time when Chaplin was cranking out two-reelers by the week for National and Essenay.

Wonderful edition of The Kid.......2005-10-05

This MK2 edition of The Kid has to be the best available. Beautiful picture quality and great extras, the best in my opinion being another silent starring Jackie: My Boy (1921), which I like as much as The Kid (despite its being completely silent, even devoid of a musical score). All in all, a great package and worth every cent of its price.

Average customer rating:

Superb...One of Chaplin's Best.
Possibly his most underrated
A Friend's Photo
MADE UNDER DIVORCE AND DESPITE SABOTAGE BY WARNERS AND MGM
back when charlot was just trying to make us laugh

The Circus (2 Disc Special Edition)
Starring: Albert Austin , Eugene Barry , Henry Bergman , Jack Bernard , and Stanley Blystone
Director: Charles Chaplin
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Slapstick | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

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Similar Items:

The Kid (2 Disc Special Edition)
City Lights (2 Disc Special Edition)
The Gold Rush (2 Disc Special Edition)
Modern Times (2 Disc Special Edition)
The Chaplin Revue (2 Disc Special Edition)

ASIN: B00017LVMS
Release Date: 2004-03-02

Amazon.com

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

Description

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!

Customer Reviews:

Superb...One of Chaplin's Best........2007-02-18

"The Circus" is one of Charlie Chaplin's best and least-known films. It's got so many comic moments, so much poignancy, that it deserves to rank right up there with some of his best films like "City Lights" or "The Gold Rush." I was hesitant to see this film, not because I didn't think it would be good but because I was afraid that it wouldn't match up to the other films I've seen by him and it would cause me to think less of the man. About ten minutes into the film, I knew I was wrong. If "City Lights" proved how poignant and sentimental Chaplin's work could be, "The Circus" proves how funny he is. Chaplin's famous character The Tramp once again finds himself in a series of comic misadventures that begin when he's mistaken for a pickpocket. On the run from the cops (as is the man that has been pickpocketed), he finds himself in one of those all mirror rooms before running outside and posing as a mechanical figurine. Then he ends up at the circus, where he becomes the ailing shows main attraction...Even though he's not entirely aware of it. As the heads of the circus treat him like a slave, he falls for a young woman. As usual, he doesn't end up with her and, for the record, that is not a spoiler. The final shot is very symbolic and very well done. But there are so many great scenes in this film; The opening, the scenes where he is chased by a horse, the scene where he ends up in the sleeping lion's cage, and the tight-rope walking scene. In my opinion, "The Circus" is also one of Chaplin's most entertaining efforts. As a person who has never really found silent films that entertaining, from me that's saying a lot. Chaplin wrote, produced, directed, starred, and composed the music for the film and the transfer of the DVD is absolutely superb. If you're reading this and happen to be a huge fan of Chaplin, but haven't seen this I recommend you get it right now. If you've never seen a Chaplin film, I think this would be good to start with before you begin watching his masterpieces. This can also serve as a good introduction piece. When a silent film is so good that it makes you forget it's silent, than you know you've found a good one. Well, that's the case with "The Circus."

GRADE: A-

Possibly his most underrated.......2006-12-18

While perhaps not up to quite the same fine level as, say, 'City Lights' or 'Monsieur Verdoux,' this film is a small minor masterpiece in its own right, and frequently cited as Chaplin's most underrated film. Viewing the film, it's hard to believe that the filming experience was such a nightmare, what with things like fires, heavy rains, theft, and Chaplin's messy divorce from his second wife. Generally speaking, Chaplin's features seem to have a bit more drama than endless gags (not that that makes them any less powerful or classic), with the focus being on the narrative storyline and not just a series of funny incidents, but this film rather plays like one of his earlier short subjects, where the laughs were far more frequent. The storyline is simple enough: The Tramp, on the run from the police yet again, even though he didn't really do anything that terribly wrong, eventually stumbles into a circus that's come to town. He makes friends with the horribly mistreated daughter of the circus owner, and falls in love with her, but like in just about all of his films, this love too is unrequited. The pretty bareback rider really loves Rex, the new tightrope walker. While in the circus, Charlie has all sorts of comic misadventures, most famously in the scene where the monkeys are climbing all over him while he's on the tightrope after he's accidentally lost the hidden wire that was keeping him balanced. After this latest mishap, it seems as though his future in the circus is over, though with the scheme he then hatches, things might not be so lost after all.

The extras on the bonus disc are plentiful--movie trailers, a poster and picture gallery, a delightful excerpt from the cute 1923 Jackie Coogan film 'Circus Days,' three brief home movies, a whole extra sequence (26 minutes in length) that was deleted from the final cut of the film, the usual introduction by David Robinson, the trailer for all of the films in the Chaplin Collection, and the featurette on the significance and influence of the film today, footage of the Hollywood premiere in January 1928, a brief film shot by Chaplin's chief cameraman Rollie Totheroh, of 3-D test footage, and simulatenous footage from two different cameras during a scene from the deleted sequence. Unfortunately, none of these bonus films have any soundtracks, not even just some generic piano or organ accompaniment. With all of the care that went into assembling the DVDs in the Chaplin Collection, one would think that the producers would have cared enough to have found soundtracks for all of these bonus short films on the discs.

Quite possibly his most underrated silent feature, if not his most underrated feature period, this film is just as wonderful as all of his other features and, due to how it often plays like one of his shorts from the Teens instead of his more serious features, it could very well be an ideal introduction to Chaplin for a new fan.

A Friend's Photo.......2006-10-02

The technical quality of the DVD is excellent. My interest in the movie is the result of seeing a photo on a friend's wall of Charlie Chaplin and an actor. The actor, Hugh Sasson, was the Uncle of my friend's mother. He appears early in the movie as the person who has his pocket picked. The photo is the shot in front of the hot dog stand when the victim sees the tramp paying for a hot dog out of his wallet. We set the photo on the TV and stepped through this scene on the DVD one frame at a time. It gave us all goose bumps as somehow the extreme slow motion made them seem alive in real time.
Additionally, the story of the production difficulties found on disk 2 are fascinating.

MADE UNDER DIVORCE AND DESPITE SABOTAGE BY WARNERS AND MGM.......2006-09-06

it is amazing this final little tramp movie ever got made

his wife was giving him a divorce from hell

and the giant studios kept burning down his sets and destroying his negatives and copies

it took years to make, and the wife and the big studios destroyed the king of cinema in the process but it got made

he had to flee hollywood and the little tramp and the independent (artistically and politically) studio he built and the team he formed

but it got made

so wrenching an artisitc birth he could not even refer to it in his autobiography for fear of the major studios retaliation

but we have this film

okay so the second commentary disk is an uneeded bore

but we have here the crown of the entire little tramp genre

GET THIS MOVIE TO SEE WHAT A WONDERFUL CULTURE WE WERE TO BE

back when charlot was just trying to make us laugh.......2006-08-03

i think this was the last time chaplin just decided to be funny, rather than also being relevant. and let us be thankful for that! charlot in the lions cage, charlot on a tight rope, charlot just reaching for a chair: who was funnier? while it is not one of the more viewed of his features, it is certainly among his most enjoyable.

The Chaplin Revue (2 Disc Special Edition)

Average customer rating:

Somewhat uneven
Review of the Revue
Wow! Charles Chaplin was an amazing filmmaker....
Great DVD, but not all the films are equal.
Where are the actual dvd Reviews??

The Chaplin Revue (2 Disc Special Edition)
Starring: Albert Austin , Henry Bergman , Syd Chaplin , Edna Purviance , and Mack Swain
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Special Editions | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

The Circus (2 Disc Special Edition)
A King in New York / A Woman of Paris (2 Disc Special Edition)
Monsieur Verdoux
Limelight (2 Disc Special Edition)
The Kid (2 Disc Special Edition)

ASIN: B00017LVLE
Release Date: 2004-03-02

Amazon.com essential video

Seven Charlie Chaplin two-reelers are included on this two-disc set, including The Chaplin Revue, a 1959 compilation comprising three silent comedies (A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms, and The Pilgrim). Among the high points are the flawless A Dog's Life, in which the Tramp befriends a mutt (among its sublime routines is a superbly executed scene with Chaplin stealing pastries from a street vendor), and the ambitious Shoulder Arms, which sends Charlie to the trenches of World War I. There's also The Idle Class, which casts Chaplin in two roles: as the Tramp, and as a foppish rich man with a weakness for drink (and a weakness for absent-mindedness, in a brilliant scene in which he forgets his trousers). A Day's Pleasure is a lark with good gags aboard a swaying boat, while Sunnyside is downright peculiar at times--though Chaplin's addled dance with imaginary nymphs is pure acrobatic daffiness. --Robert Horton

Description

That Charles Chaplin's Little Fellow (his own name for the Little Tramp) is such a Comic Everyman enabled the master moviemaker to place the character in all manner of situations. That versatility abounds in this treasure chest of seven marvelous movies made for First National between 1918 and 1923. Included are such touchstones as Shoulder Arms (his popular portrayal of World War I trench life), The Idle Class (skewering the rich) and The Pilgrim (lampooning small-town hypocrisy), along with the charming and hilarious views of family life and romance in A Dog's Life, A Day's Pleasure, Sunnyside and Pay Day.

Customer Reviews:

Somewhat uneven.......2006-11-24

This two-disc collection showcases Chaplin's final 7 short subjects, made at First National Studios and spanning the years 1918 to 1923. While he began showing signs of greatness as early as 1915, most of his short subjects are kind of uneven, even though he got better year by year, refining his craft more and more. By about 1918, he had really hit his stride, although generally speaking I prefer his features to his shorts.

The shorts themselves are somewhat of a mixed bag, though none of them would I consider at the same level as his earliest shorts from 1914 and 1915. 'A Dog's Life' (1918), which kicks off the first disc, is one of the best on here. Everything is so flawless and perfect, by far one of Chaplin's best short subjects. Even the dog, Scraps (named Mutt in real life), is wonderful in his role. (It's kind of sad to watch it, though, knowing that not too long after it was released, Mutt died of a broken heart when his master went on away a Liberty Bonds drive.) Next up is 'Shoulder Arms' (1918), also a very strong comedy. Although this is a WWI-themed film and therefore demonstrates some of the usual anti-Hun propaganda of the times, it doesn't feel badly dated at all on account of that. The main focus of the short is on Charlie's adventures as a soldier, not a bunch of one-dimensionally evil rampaging Huns. The final short on disc one is 'The Pilgrim' (1923), his final short, and also one of his best. This one features the theme of mistaken identity, something Chaplin used a number of times in his work.

While the shorts on the first disc are all excellent and flawless, the ones on the second disc are more uneven. I personally consider the best to be 'The Idle Class' (1921), which also features the theme of mistaken identity, and 'Pay Day' (1922), featuring Charlie as a jovial bricklayer who is mercilessly henpecked by his domineering wife. The other two are 'A Day's Pleasure' (1919), built around the simple theme of Charlie trying to take his family out for a nice afternoon on the water but meeting obstacles at every turn, and 'Sunnyside' (1919), where Charlie works as a farmhand and in a general store. I'd say 'Sunnyside' is the weakest short on here; the story isn't that developed or engaging, and neither are the characters, which is somewhat suprising for a film done by this point in his career. It almost feels like one of his hit-and-miss shorts from his days at Keystone or Essanay. 'A Day's Pleasure' has a similar uneven feel, but at least it's somewhat more engaging. Probably one could attribute these two shorts' uninspired lacklustre feel to the fact that there were a lot of serious problems in Chaplin's personal life in 1919, such as his floundering first marriage and the death of his firstborn child just three days after his birth.

Extras are picture and poster galleries, a brief introduction by David Robinson (who does the introductions on all of the Chaplin DVDs), the trailer for all of the films in the two Chaplin boxed sets, the trailer for 'The Chaplin Revue' (a 1959 reissue Chaplin made of the three films on disc one, with his narration at the beginning of each segment), deleted scenes from 'Shoulder Arms,' a deleted scene from 'Sunnyside,' the propagandistic one-reeler 'The Bond' (1918), a two-reeler Chaplin made in 1918, 'How to Make Movies,' showing the viewer his new studio and how his films are made there, a short home movie from 1918 showing him with his friend Harry Lauder, and another home movie (I'd say from about 1919, judging by the presence of the set from 'Sunnyside') showing various celebrities hanging out at Charlie's house. Unfortunately, none of the bonus short films or deleted scenes have any accompanying music. I know that such short films don't justify doing a whole special score, but at least they could have put a generic piano or organ soundtrack on them to make them seem more alive.

While Chaplin's later short subjects are among his finest shorts, showing that he got better and better as he progressed, not all of them are up to the same top-notch level. While some of them would be very good for a first Chaplin film, overall it's not something I'd recommend to a brand-new fan. Most of the bonus films also aren't anything I'd want to watch over and over again, particularly because of their lack of a soundtrack.

Review of the Revue.......2004-09-13

In the "Chaplin Collection" DVD series, this is the one entry where Chaplin's short films are given the same digital cleanup, analysis and care that his features did. To be honest, this balance seems about right. I find his short films to be very hit-and-miss affairs with some occasional brilliance coupled with some material that I simply find a bit dull. He genius would be fully realized, I feel, when he moved into full-length movies and had more time to develop his storylines and his jokes. But the films presented here are fairly good -- not my favorites, but good. Although I enjoyed much of it, I had a few quibbles.

The only real annoying thing about this collection is that it's based upon re-releases that Chaplin did decades after the fact. Perhaps worried that the footage from the late 1910s would look dated, he decided to slow down some portions of the movie to reduce the jerkiness and make the movements look more natural. I'm not alone in stating that I feel this ruins some of the gags and completely throws off the timing. It's true that a lot of the jokes are funny enough to survive this, but I cannot help but find these speed variations distracting.

Of course, with the rough comes the smooth, and when Chaplin re-released those films, he did so with a synchronized soundtrack. I love Chaplin's musical compositions, so it's great to get some here for his short work. I particularly like the theme song he creates for "The Pilgrim", a slow rambling country song that sounds a hell of a lot better than most stuff that comes from "real" country musicians.

Negatives aside, there's a lot of fun stuff to be had. I like Chaplin's attitude, his sense of gallows humor. Themes we would see further developed and fleshed out later in his career are forming here. Constantly present is his sticking up for the "little guy", whether that be for the tramp or for, say, the soldier in "Soldier Arms".

These films aren't the funniest or the best, but they're a decent representation of Chaplin's short movies. If you already know that you like the films presented here, then this is definitely a good DVD set to pick up. The picture and sound quality are as good as we're going to get for stuff of this age, and the extra material is worthy of a viewing or two. Just note that they've messed up the labeling on this; the listing for disc one is actually describing the contents of disc two (and vice versa). Don't waste as much time as I did looking around the menus for things that are actually on the disc that's still in the packaging.

Wow! Charles Chaplin was an amazing filmmaker...........2004-08-18

The new Chaplin Revue is the best. Especially for a sixteen year old like myself from Australia and I love all the Chaplin features and early shorts but I never got accustomed with his films for First National till now since before this they were never widely available.

The first film in this extraordinary collection is:
A DOG'S LIFE (1918). This is a beautiful film made in the same style as Chaplin's earlier masterpiece EASY STREET (1917). Chaplin, Edna Purviance and Syd Chaplin are just marvelous in this wonderful yet very emotional comedy.

SHOULDER ARMS (1918) is definitely one of my favourite movies of all time. It's funny and witty and just plain out superb and it has all my favourite Chaplin stock company players-Syd Chaplin, Edna Purviance, ALbert Austin, Henry Bergman, Loyal Underwood, Park Jones, interestingly Chaplin's cameraman Jack Wilson playing the German Crown Prince and Tom Wilson. A Marvelous film though I loved the original version better with all the emotional scenes with the 'Poor France' segment and other wonderful scenes of sentiment, however, for the 1959 reissue, Chaplin discarded it all so I reccomend the uncut version but this version is still very good.

Next we have:

SUNNYSIDE (1919)
A very funny comedy with a lot of nice Chaplinesque sequences but as a whole the film is not at all one of Chaplin's best.

A DAY'S PLEASURE (1919)
Can be funny at times but this movie is pretty crappy because it was just an excuse for Chaplin to give his distributor a new product whilst planning his masterpiece THE KID (1921).

THE IDLE CLASS (1921)
A brilliant and terrific short comedy and definitely one of CHaplin's finest shorts.

PAY DAY (1922)
This was one of Chaplin's favourites of his shorts and it's very clear why. This is an excellent short film and features better lighting and direction than in any other Chaplin shot, perhaps because it was his last of this sort. ALso features a wonderful score by Chaplin composed in 1972!

And last but not least we have THE PILGRIM from 1922 and released in 1923. This is one of Chaplin's forgotten masterworks but it is one of his finest comedies. The ending in particular is beautiful for its construction of camera shot and jokes.

Plus there are two bonus films on the DVD: THE BOND a WW1 Propaganda film Chaplin made to help the war effort by selling bonds and his unreleased project HOW MOVING PICTURES ARE MADE which he planned to release but his distributor did not allow plus other reasons. However it was reedited and retitled in the 1980s and restored by David Gill and KEvin Brownlow and it's a insightful look at the Chaplin Studios and some of the footage is shown in THe Chaplin Revue feature.

All in all, an excellent DVD and all films have been digitally remastered and they look like they were filmed today!
You'll love it all!

Great DVD, but not all the films are equal........2004-04-04

Since Chaplin was making dozens of shorts a year, it's easy to guess that not all of them are of the same quality. So it is with this collection. There are several must-owns on here, however, and they have been mastered well onto DVD with loads of extra materials, so this release remains essential in a Chaplin collection.

The two flagships for me are "Shoulder Arms" and "A Dog's Life". "A Dog's Life" was the first complete Chaplin film I saw, and it continues to delight me with its lightning pacing, masterful gags, and fascinating use of music -- the high-comedy bits still feature the merry scores of usual Chaplin films, but the main theme is a weepy, dramatic orchestral piece which, when juxtaposed against the famous Chaplin sight gags, are remarkably funny, almost perverse. Chaplin's physical skills are unparalleled in this film, with the "human puppet" sequence, the employment centre, the fight with the wild dogs, and the opening "roll with the cops" sequence being the highlights. "Shoulder Arms" was a brave stab at making the First World War funny and Chaplin succeeded grandly. Luckily, he also had the good sense to cut out an entire first act, seen here on the DVD bonus materials, which had little to no bearing on the story and isn't all that funny anyway. The trench gags in this film are fast and hilarious; though the "enemy territory" section drags a little, the film remains great.

The remaining films range from hilarious to just okay: I like "Sunnyside", which takes the Tramp's frequent dashes of unrequited love to a new level; but "The Pilgrim" wears out its central gag long before it's over, and "The Idle Class" and "A Day's Pleasure" are excruciatingly slow.

There are more films on these two discs than on the other Chaplin DVDs in this series, so there is slightly less bonus material to peruse. But there's still quite a bit, such as a propaganda film with Chaplin and Edna Purviance, and deleted scenes from "Shoulder Arms". It's always great to actually see deleted scenes from such old films. This DVD set is still a worthy addition to this impressive series of Chaplin reissues.

Where are the actual dvd Reviews??.......2004-03-04

All the reviews posted on this dvd are for the vhs!! It's so annoying that no one seems to realize that there are not three, but SEVEN early chaplin shorts presented on the dvd (the extras have even more shorts)!! Also, the three from the 1958 re-edit entitled the 'chaplin revue' are available on the dvd in their ORIGINAL VERSIONS as well as the recut!! So will people stop complaining and give these shorts the attention and respect they deserve!! Also, I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend to get the box set for the chaplin collection vol. 2, which includes this, because to get the 7 movies separatly would be $175 retail and the box set includes a special documentary on chaplin NOT AVAILABLE SEPARATLY as well as the seven films for a retail of only $100!!

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Limelight
truth at the heart of humor
The most underrated of Chaplin's work...
as close to a masterpiece as he came in those last years
NOONEMENTIONS THE PERSECUTION AND BLACKLISTING OF CHAPLIN AT THIS TIME

Limelight (2 Disc Special Edition)
Starring: Marjorie Bennett , Barry Bernard , Claire Bloom , Nigel Bruce , and Josephine Chaplin
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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A King in New York / A Woman of Paris (2 Disc Special Edition)

ASIN: B000096IBG
Release Date: 2003-07-01

Amazon.com essential video

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

Description

A fading comedian and a suicidally despondent ballet dancer must look to each other to find meaning and hope in their lives.

Customer Reviews:

Limelight.......2007-06-26

Famous for the only on-screen pairing of Chaplin and Keaton, the all-time masters of physical comedy, Chaplin's self-directed, self-scored, and evidently semi-autobiographical "Limelight" is a bittersweet comedy. The ravishing Bloom is spirited playing opposite the maudlin, melancholy Chaplin, and Keaton certainly holds his own with his idol in that memorable final scene. Hilarious at times but also woebegone in its farewell tribute to a music-hall tradition the director no doubt misses, "Limelight" is the furthest thing from a clown show.

truth at the heart of humor.......2007-02-05

Charlie Chaplin's movies from very early on were not only funny, but always seemed to reveal some basic truths about humanity. Unlike most of his works, which were comedies with a little pathos, Limelight is pathos with a little comedy. Yes, Chaplin can still make you laugh, but in Limelight he will make you cry, he will make you think, he will make you understand the truths about life and love. The dialogue in this movie is not only filled with great, insightful lines, but has a distinct and mesmerizing rhythym. And the musical score has one of the most hauntingly beautiful melodies ever written. If you think that Limelight is nothing but sappy, overemotional melodrama, then either you haven't grown up or you're not paying attention to the important things in life.

The most underrated of Chaplin's work..........2007-01-29

This is Chaplin's most underrated film, and one of his most moving and poignant. He plays the once great Calvero, a clown who has seen better days and is now a self pitying alcoholic. But then he meets an actress/dancer down on her luck (Claire Bloom), and his life begins to change around, slowly but surely. It climaxes in a great duet with Buster Keaton on stage. Chaplin only made 5 sound films (four of which he starred in), and I've always felt that ALL of them were vastly underrated (except his last one, A Countess from Hong Kong, which is really awful). The critics and some fans always think of the tramp with him, and dismiss these great works as an afterthought (this film and Msr. Verdoux are my favorites). Chaplin was a great actor, and he had a magnificent speaking voice. Unlike a lot of silent stars who faded into obscurity, Chaplin made a late, but still, smooth transition (unlike his rival, Buster Keaton, who spent years in the wilderness of Hollywood with drug/drinking problems) to sound. This film is almost like a nostalgic walk down memory lane for Chaplin, who started out in the dance halls depicted in this film. Sadly, the film was not very popular in the US, mainly because the public thought Chaplin was a Communist (an idiotic assumption). This is a wonderful, beguiling film, and it should be better known.

as close to a masterpiece as he came in those last years.......2006-10-06

probably the best of chaplins later movies (ive never seen "countess from hong kong" but ive never known of anyone who likes it) this movie tells the tale of who charlie might have become had he NOT become charlot: a washed-up has been trying to refind his glory through mentoring a beautiful young dancer, played rather stiffly by claire bloom. the film is touching, that schmaltzy musical score tuga st the heart, buster keaton offers a brilliant cameo, and the music hall routines are a riot. we still miss the little tramp, but this is a fine film in its own right.

NOONEMENTIONS THE PERSECUTION AND BLACKLISTING OF CHAPLIN AT THIS TIME.......2006-08-20

One driving force behind this film before CHaplin's exile from the USA back to EUrope is his hounding by the congressional Un-American activities witch hunting of the time which branded Chaplin as a leftist because of his sympathies with humanity and the poor and his courageous stand against our then fashionable fascist political persecutions. For a flavor of the times, watch Goodnight and Good Luck, or The Front. This is what drove Chaplin away forever, only later to receive an honorary reward which he had long deserved but only belatedly received when politics in America permited a bit more breathing room and reality and artistic freedom.

THe sniping mentioned here conocerning editting of Buster KEaton overlooks the fact that Keaton's genius had much earlier been destroyed by the iron-clad Hollywood studio system. As a young man grown up in vaudeville he produced incredibly genius works in The General, etc., much of it improvised. Then talkies came in and the studios demanded detailed scripts and killed both his irrepresible ingenious character, and tied him to being Jimmy Durante's straight man, and driving him to drink. This consummate physical acrobat was destroyed long before Chaplin kindly included him in this swan song for the both. While getting Chaplin, also include Keaton in your search, and get his earliest films. Then try to find Samuel Beckett's Film, one of Keaton's final appearances. Read Beckett's biography for a view of how professiional and prepared Keaton really was to the end.

Anyway, please get this film here and now. We do not allow aging clown geniuses onto our cultural scene anymore, not even the wearisome Mel Brooks. This shows these great men in their sunset, and we learn to grow old heroically and with dignity despite all odds and humiliations through them.

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

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It took a British Jew to express that much compassion
CHAPLIN'S FIRST SERIOUS SILENT DRAMA AND FINAL COMIC POLITICAL JAB AT THE USA
One overrated and one underrated
Chaplin's Idiosyncrasies Captured in Two Wildly Diverse Semi-Classics
A Chaplin Comedy-Drama

A King in New York / A Woman of Paris (2 Disc Special Edition)
Starring: Dawn Addams , Robert Arden , Maxine Audley , Phil Brown , and Clifford Buckton
Director: Charles Chaplin
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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ASIN: B00017LVQE
Release Date: 2004-03-02

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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

Description

Cinema immortal Charles Chaplin brings his talents to both sides of the camera in this deluxe double feature. The comedy king gives American pop culture and politics the royal treatment in the satiric, penultimate Chaplin film A King in New York. Advertising, movies, TV, rock music, celebrity and more are in Chaplin's comic sights as he portrays a deposed European monarch who becomes a U.S. media sensation. The acclaimed Silent-Era classic A Woman of Paris is Chaplin's first drama (a genre he visited again in Limelight). Directing with keen-eyed finesse and appearing in only a bit role, Chaplin jabs at French high society while telling a tale of tragic love. The early Chaplin. The later Chaplin. A remarkable genius infuses both in this special collector's compilation.

Customer Reviews:

It took a British Jew to express that much compassion.......2007-06-14

Charles Chaplin is setting up his own troubles with the anti-American activities commission on the screen, and that is quite funny though particularly dramatic. That episode of US history is so strange but also tragic that it should be remembered forever for the mistake not to be ever renewed in the future, though with no guarantee that it will be so. Unluckily in this kind of business there seems to be always a repeat and another repeat and a third repeat, without any ending. Charles Chaplin turns his own mishap into a comedy, with some very traditional but always lively and kind of born again gags and tricks. But he does succeed to turn a dramatic situation into a laughable short episode, though it means a child of ten is turned into a fink who exposes other people to protect his own interest, with no guarantee of any truth in what he may say, since he is a child, and with the certainty that he will be spoiled forever by the episode. This film, no matter how well-felt it may have been, will remain a testimony of that McCarthy period, mocked in his very victims that become Macaby. But we will regret that such a great artist was obliged to come to making this film to bring an end, or at least help to bring an end, to this sorry episode. We would have liked him to have reached his acme in political films with the Dictator and never gone beyond, but unluckily life made him write and shoot another episode which is just as sorry, even if not as bloody, as the previous one.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

CHAPLIN'S FIRST SERIOUS SILENT DRAMA AND FINAL COMIC POLITICAL JAB AT THE USA.......2006-08-20

In the Woman of Paris, Chaplin wrote and directed a very early silent full length feature film seriously examining the loose life style he discovered in Hollywood, not so much in Paris. He dared not place it in the America of the time, and so relied on American prejudices about Paris to place his tale of love and deceit there. He cleverly presented themes in a way which might pass the censors of the time, including gently alluded nudity, etc. And he got excellent performances from his actors, including Mr. Menjou, who subtly at the end expresses that he too deeply regrets having lost the Woman of Paris. A profound and interesting morality play, which reveals Chaplin's intellectual and creative side beyond the vaudeville escapades which made him rich and famous before being exiled at the behest of the powerful studios which could not control him.

In fact The King in New York directly examines the irony of his being accused of communism in America while actually practicing an overly successful capitalism which threatened the politically powerful studio system. It is like cutting back Tom Cruise's price tag by accusing him of scientology, but then it cancelled Chaplin's career and forced him to flee to Europe, at which point the US government refused his re-entrance.

This excellent double disk DVD explores carefully these and other issues, and is highly recommended.For further study of the political persecution explored in the King in New York, take a look at the Front with Woody Allen and Zero Mostel, The Cradle will Rock about Orson Welles, and of course Goodnight and Good Luck with George Clooney.

The King In New York also features a unique performance by Chaplin's own son as a radicalized young man spouting left wing opinions as virulently and mindlessly as the powerful right wing forces, although of course, far less effectively. Certainly Chaplin makes a point here about political rhetoric, a point rendered poignant by the boy's later utter defeat and humiliated regret at his betraying his parent's friends.

But this is essentially a comedy, with some sense of the Marx Brother's Fredonia and much of Chaplin's mugging and surprising agility even in old age. The commentary and extras are mainly a valuable addition rather than a distraction or embarrassment as in many other cases.

Above all do not miss a dedicated viewing of a Woman of Paris. Chaplin, early and intelligent, attempted something similar to a play by Ibsen, examining closely relationships of a wide variety: Fathers and Sons, Mothers and Sons, unsanctioned love, ideal love, commercialized love, commited and caring relations, commited but uncaring relations, etc. Read this movie as you would a serious romance novel of the period, as you might read Flaubert, or Joyce's Dubliners. Chaplin was reaching for a mirror of life that we might reflect, and learn from for our own lives. Chaplin here was ready to outgrow the popular Little Tramp comedies and write his best work. He included an apologetic message to his audience, which nevertheless wanted only broad entertainment and not high-brow reflections upon life and its meaning.

Now perhaps we are ready for such fare. Liv Ullman provides interesting insight into how to view this film when she suggests we see it as a modern movie done with different technology. Modern movies should yet approach this degree of subtlety and sophistication, of insight and of philosophy. We might even say it is an early feminist film; it is certainly humanist.

One overrated and one underrated.......2006-03-04

This two-disc collection contains Chaplin's penultimate film, 'A King in New York,' which was also his final starring film, and a much earlier film he directed but only appears in for all of two seconds in a heavily disguised cameo role, 'A Woman of Paris.' I find the former to be very underrated, and the latter to be rather overrated.

For the life of me, I can't understand why so many film critics love 'A Woman of Paris' and praise it as a beautiful classic masterpiece. Seeing it more than once hasn't changed my opinion of it. It's certainly not a horrible film, but overall it just strikes me as an average melodrama, with characters I didn't really like or feel that connected to. Apart from the fact that it was directed by Chaplin, there isn't much explanation as to why this film is thought of so highly. I've heard the other explanation that many critics like it because it's about an affair yet isn't moralistic or preachy about it. The best thing about this movie is the dapper Adolphe Menjou. This was his breakthrough role; prior his biggest claim to fame was playing Dr. Raoul de St. Hubert in 'The Sheik.' Menjou steals the show in this otherwise ordinary melodrama, and his acting is as great as it was in all of his other films. Even though I'm repelled by his odious behavior during the McCarthyist witch hunts, there's no denying that, politics aside, this was a brilliant actor. This film was also, so Chaplin believed, supposed to have jump-started the solo career of his leading lady Edna Purviance, but it was not to be. However, my reasons for not caring much for this film are not the reasons why most people in 1923 stayed away in droves. Back then they didn't like it because they saw Chaplin's name on the marquee but were disappointed they didn't see him in the film, and it wasn't even a comedy, which people had come to expect from him.

'A King in New York' is a very funny film and a brilliant satire of America in the Fifties. It took a lot of guts to make such a film, when America was in the throes of McCarthyism. Because of the political climate of the time, it wasn't released in America for quite some time, but it was very well-received in Europe. However, I agree that this film isn't quite as perfect as it could have been, since it tries to take on too many targets at once instead of just focusing on one or two main things to attack and spoof. He takes on wide-screen movies, television, commercials, the McCarthyist witch hunts and violations of civil liberties, the atomic bomb, plastic surgery, and rock and roll. Chaplin may have been approaching seventy when he made this film, but he was still just as funny, inventive, original, and genius as ever. Even though a lot of fans don't like his sound films as much as his silent classics, I've found that I enjoy his sound films just as much as his silents. They were great and funny in different ways. There are also moments in this film harkening back to his silent days, such as the comedy routine onstage when he's trying not to laugh so his plastic surgery won't come undone, or when he's pantomiming his restaurant order to the waiter over the din of the band playing right behind his table. The storyline about young Rupert and his Communist parents, and how his affiliation with Rupert got King Shahdov pegged as a Communist as well, really brought the evils of McCarthyism home for me. I'd long known all about what went on and was outraged how the government got away with violating so many peoples' basic civil liberties and rights to freedom of expression and political affiliation for that long, but seeing it acted out onscreen as opposed to merely reading about it really made it seem even scarier and more enfuriating. It really served the HUAC right when King Shahdov accidentally sprayed them with the hose!

For someone just getting into Chaplin, these aren't two of the movies I'd recommending buying or seeing first, but for someone who's seen most of his masterpieces already and is ready for the lesser-known stuff, this would be a good place to start getting into that territory.

Chaplin's Idiosyncrasies Captured in Two Wildly Diverse Semi-Classics.......2006-01-25

Combining two of Charlie Chaplin's more inconspicuous features into one DVD package really attests to the fact that neither 1923's "A Woman of Paris" nor 1957's "A King in New York" rank with his classics, but each provides certain pleasures that only a master filmmaker of Chaplin's status could create. Neither touches upon his Little Tramp character, which actually makes his artistic achievements in each film easier to discern. For Chaplin aficionados, viewing is a must. For others, realize that these two films represent marginally lesser work from this genius when one thinks of masterpieces like "City Lights" and "The Gold Rush".

Released in the UK in 1957 but not in the US until 1972, "A King in New York" is Chaplin's seriocomic indictment of the 1950's McCarthy witch-hunts and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), topics that have come back into the limelight thanks to George Clooney's evocative take on the Murrow-McCarty feud in "Good Night and Good Luck." At that time, Chaplin himself was expelled from the US forbidden to re-enter the country for nearly two decades. The plot focuses on King Shahdov of the fictitious country of Estrovia, an exile who arrives in New York after escaping a revolution occurring in his homeland. In a manner that recalls a bit of Elia Kazan's "A Face in the Crowd" (also released in 1957), a shrewd TV "specialist" makes the King a popular TV celebrity thanks in part to a hidden camera at a dinner party. This portion of the film is pretty amusing, especially when the King does commercials to help gain support for his high-minded plans to harness atomic power.

Unfortunately, the film starts to take a nosedive into polemics soon afterward, as the King strikes up a friendship with a precocious, politically aware ten-year old named Rupert, the son of labeled Communists who refuse to cooperate with the HUAC. There is still some Chaplinesque slapstick in this part of the film, but the contrived sincerity of the dialogue, along with some jokes that fall completely flat, weighs the film down considerably just when you hope it will take off into a more pointed satire. In his last starring role, a nearly 70-year old Chaplin plays the King jauntily, while Dawn Addams has a few sharp moments as the specialist, and Chaplin's son Michael plays Rupert with surprising aplomb. It's not the anti-American diatribe one would expect but rather a whimsical, sometime provocative film that progresses into heavy-handedness.

"A Woman of Paris" is far more of an anomaly in Chaplin's filmography. First, he doesn't star in this early silent film, although he does have an unrecognizable cameo as a porter. Second, it's a melodrama, not a comedy, except for a few passively amusing scenes with a masseuse. Considering that the film is over eighty years old, it looks surprisingly good with a consistently sharp focus and nice black-and-white contrasts thanks to Roland Totheroh's masterly cinematography. There are some tableaux-style shots of a Paris nightclub toward the end that are quite impressive. Chaplin re-scored the film music just before his death in the 1970's, and it provides a nice aural complement to the visuals of the often heavy-handed drama.

The story is centered on a small-town French girl, Marie St. Clair, who plans to elope to Paris with Jean, a struggling artist. Through a misunderstanding, Marie goes to Paris alone, where over the course of a year, she becomes the mistress of Pierre, a wealthy, insouciant playboy Pierre. Through a party location mix-up, Marie accidentally meets Jean in Paris, where they rekindle their love. However, Jean's clinging mother disapproves, and there are melodramatic twists which finally end when Marie finds her true calling. There is not as much exaggeration in facial expressions or physical gestures as one would expect from a silent film, and Chaplin wisely inserts title cards only when they are necessary, not every time a character speaks. At the same time, the plot twists on rather contrived dramatic turns that make the story seem more dated than it is. The long-forgotten Edna Purviance, a longtime Chaplin protégé and leading lady, can hardly convey the frailty of Marie with her Rubenesque stature, but she does manage the mercurial character changes with a certain finesse. Looking strikingly youthful, Adolphe Menjou, who was to become a dependable character actor for the next forty years, is terrifically dapper and surprisingly sympathetic as Pierre.

There are a number of extras with the DVD package that will interest mainly Chaplin aficionados. Some deleted scenes are included for both films but nothing that noteworthy. In half-hour segments, director Jim Jarmusch talks about his admiration of "A King in New York", while actress Liv Ullmann does the same for "A Woman in Paris". In various film clips, Chaplin is seen conducting his orchestra for "A King in New York" and appearing in a very old short based on Alexandre Dumas's "The Lady of the Camellias". There is also some home-movie footage of Paris in the 1920's.

A Chaplin Comedy-Drama.......2004-06-25

I have the honor of owning this film. Chaplin as King Shavow may be serious, but like in all his films, their is a little humor in him. His son Michael's preformace as Rupurt is unforgetable. his speech to the Atomic Commission is closely silmiar to Chaplin's specch in Monsuier Verdoux in 1947. To think it wasn't released until 1975. two years before his death

Charlie Chaplin: The Kid (2 DVD Special Edition) [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import]

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Charlie Chaplin: The Kid (2 DVD Special Edition) [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import]

ProductGroup: DVD
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Special Editions | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: 8323782806

Product Description

The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put that relationship in jeopardy... The Kid was director Charlie Chaplin's first full-length film and is considered one of his best. Co-starring five-year-old Jackie Coogan, whom Chaplin discovered on a Los Angeles vaudeville stage, The Kid is the story of a child abandoned in a limousine by his unwed mother (Edna Purviance). When The Little Tramp finds him, he tries unsuccessfully to find a home for the boy. Obliged to keep him, The Little Tramp teaches the youngster about life on the streets and just as they have bonded and become a family, the boy's mother returns in a bittersweet finale. --------------------------------------- Special Features: Introduction to THE KID /Documentary: THE KID / Featurettes - 1. NICE AND FRIENDLY, 2. JACKIE COOGAN IN PARIS, 3. JACKIE COOGAN IN CHAPLIN STUDIOS, 4. HOW TO MAKE MOVIES / Bonus Film: MY BOY / Trailers / Outtakes / Stills Gallery Poster Gallery.

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Chaplin Special Edition

Manufacturer: Lions Gate Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Special Editions | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video

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