Chaplin's Goliath: In Search of Scotland's Forgotten Star

Starring:Eric Campbell, Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Bill Paterson
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

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Eric Campbell looms large in the history of silent comedy on the basis of a mere 11 films. Between 1916 and 1917 he appeared as Charlie Chaplin's hulking nemesis in 11 of his 12 comedy classics for Mutual, a literal Goliath to Chaplin's David. With heavy, frowning eyebrows and a slow-burn stare, this huge yet agile Scottish actor became one of the most recognizable faces on the screen and even inspired copycats (one delightful piece of archival footage shows a young Oliver Hardy in a thick black beard blatantly imitating Campbell). In December 1917, on the verge of a brilliant career, Eric Campbell died in a car accident. Writer-director Kevin Macdonald uses archival footage and photos to illuminate his rich career on the British stage and music hall circuit, and interviews paint a portrait of a gentle family man. Macdonald pads out the film with a Scottish-pride slant on Campbell's success (the film's subtitle is "In Search of Scotland's Forgotten Star") and the reminiscences of Campbell's granddaughter, pleasant but unnecessary diversions. The film is at its best when examining his gifts as a screen comic, seen in clips and notably in rare outtakes from his work with Chaplin. His improvisational talents show that "Big Uncle Eric"--as he was known to kids around the world--was no mere foil for Chaplin. Eric Campbell was a creative artist and a comic partner, a vital part of Chaplin's most productive period. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Funny man who did not sound Scottish in those silent films.......2005-05-06

If you have seen any of the twelve two-reelers that Charlie Chaplin produced between 1916-1917 for the Mutual Company, then you have probably seen Eric Campbell, who played the menacing villain to Chaplin's Tramp in all but one of those silent comedies ("One A.M."). Campbell provided Chaplin with his most memorable foil, not only because of his immense size and fierce looking makeup, but also because of his comic ability, honed on the music hall stages of England with Fred Karno's company. "Chaplin's Goliath: In Search of Scotland's Forgotten Star," written and directed by Kevin MacDonald, traces the actor's brief film career, which was cut short by a car accident in December 1917 when he was doing his first dramatic film with Mary Pickford. But as this 1996 documentary evidences, Campbell's career will forever be identified with that of Chaplin.

"Chaplin's Goliath" uses rare footage and historical documents, along with interviews with Campbell's granddaughter and such Chaplin experts as biographer David Robinson, to tell the actor's story from his roots in Scotland to his long delayed burial in a Hollywood cemetery. Indeed, the documentary essentially begins and acts with the placing of plaques commemorating Campbell in those two locations. The result is not only a compilation of pretty much everything that is known about Eric Campbell, but a look at what comedy was like during the silent film era, especially when Chaplin had become the most famous face on the planet. There are film clips of music hall comedians of the period and not only of some of the comedians who impersonated Chaplin (e.g., Billy West), but poignant screen tests of Chaplin trying to find a replacement for Campbell and no less a film icon than Oliver Hardy doing an impersonation of Campbell is a silent comedy.

Of course, there are also clips of Campbell's best scenes with Chaplin from "The Immigrant," "Easy Street," and other Mutual comedies. Like "Unknown Chaplin," MacDonald takes advantage of outtakes that survive from those films to show how Campbell fit into Chaplin's creative process. The prime example is that Campbell was not originally cast as the waiter in "The Immigrant," and so we get to see before and after footage as Chaplin tries to make a scene work and gets what he wants once Campbell becomes part of the comedic equation. If watching this documentary makes you want to check out both the original Mutual comedies and the three-part documentary looking at the painstaking creative process by which Chaplin created his films then you should go with the impulse, especially if for some strange reason you are interested in "Chaplin's Goliath" having never seen them in the first place.

The documentary also tells about Campbell's personal life, which included lying about his age to get married, the sudden death of his first wife, and the rather strange marriage and divorce that followed. Unfortunately Campbell's life had become unstable at the point when he was killed and while we would like to believe that he would have gone on to a long and successful film career, it is just as likely that he was in the process of self-destructing and that the accident ended what his behavior was already destroying. This is especially true when you get to the story of what happened to Campbell's ashes, which provides his life store with a final tragic touch as one of the larger real-life Pagliacci's of the silent comedy era.

Simply Outstanding about Charlie's Goliath.......2001-01-25

Eric Campbell would have been an excellent actor. Unfortunatelly he had an early death. This documentary is the deserved tribute to the man who worked hard with Charlie Chaplin in the best silent short moovies ever, those, for the Mutual Film Corporation, between 1916 - 1917. Eric Campbell is trully Scotland's forgotten star.

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