reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (08/26/84)
I just saw a three part TV series (made in England) called "The Unknown
Chaplin". It's largely made up of outtakes from Chaplin's movies, home
movies by Chaplin, unused scenes, bits of uncompleted pictures, and so on.
Sounds dull? Wrong. This stuff is absolutely fascinating, and a lot of
it is terribly funny. I strongly recommend it, should you get a chance to
see it.
It includes a seven minute sequence not used in "City Lights". (Chaplin notices
a piece of wood stuck in a grating. He tries to push it through, but it
rotates instead. The comic permutations he puts on this are amazing.) There's
also an extended sequence from "The Circus", in which Chaplin, to impress a
girl, bribes a prizefighter to let Chaplin beat him up. Unfortunately, Chaplin
is unaware that the fighter has a twin brother... This sequence also contains
a great bit where Charlie's attempt to be gallant backfires when he tries
to pick up a loosely wrapped package of fish for an old lady.
There's a medical examination left out of "Shoulder Arms"; the beginning of an
uncompleted short film called "The Professor" (Chaplin as a seedy vaudevillian
with a flea circus, a theme he returned to in "Limelight"); Chaplin fooling
around with Harry Lauder (a famous vaudevillian), the King of Denmark (who
he enlists in an impromptu film), and Douglas Fairbanks; a cut sequence from
"Modern Times" involving Charlie trying to cross a street against the light;
and a hair-raising sequence (never used) in which Chaplin again and again
walks up to a falling axe, which buries itself half an inch deep in the floor
and no further than that from his foot. This latter turns out to be an
ingenious camera trick (it was filmed backwards), but you would never have
noticed it except that his hat fell off in one take, so it appears to be
jumping back up onto his head.
Besides these scenes, producers David Gill and Kevin Brownlow (the latter
probably the greatest of film historians) have compiled wonderful footage
from outtakes which show how Chaplin worked. We get to see how a wholly
improvised film, based on a slender idea, evolves into one of the most
acclaimed of Chaplin's shorts. We see him tenaciously holding on to a gag
for take after take, finally discarding it when it doesn't work, only to
use it in a slightly different form in a later film.
If you have even the slightest interest in how silent films were made,
or if you just like great comedy, you shouldn't miss "The Unknown Chaplin".
It is in three parts, each a bit less than 1 hr. Parts 1 & 3 (3 is the best)
will screen at UCLA's Melnitz Hall next Friday, August 31st, at 7:30 for
free. Those in other parts of the country should watch universities,
museums, and revival houses for this program.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher