| Charlie Chaplin Box - The Gold Rush/ City Lights/ Modern Times/ The Great Dictator (1940) |
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| Plot |
| City Lights The story of City Lights is simple. The Little Tramp meets a beautiful blind girl selling flowers on the sidewalk who mistakes him for a wealthy duke. When he learns that an operation may restore her sight, he sets off to earn the money she needs to have the operation. In a series of comedy adventures that only Chaplin could pull off, he eventually succeeds, even though his efforts land him in jail. While he is there, the girl has the operation and afterwards yearns to meet her benefactor. The closing scene in which she discovers that he is not a wealthy duke but only The Little Tramp was described by critic James Agee as "the highest moment in movies" and brought audiences to tears. Modern Times In Modern Times "The Little Tramp" battles it out with technology, unemployment, jail burglars, demanding customers, bosses and the Gamin. He wins some and loses more but, at the end, walks undaunted into the sunrise. Although it is known as Charlie Chaplin's last silent film, Modern Times is remarkably unsilent. From the opening notes of the rich orchestral score to the first and last time the voice of "The Little Tramp" is heard near the end of the film, the effect is of a film that speaks with a clear, well-rounded voice. The Gold Rush Only Charlie Chaplin could add the criminal depths to which people will sink in search of gold to the cannibalistic lengths they will go in search of food and come up with a comedy like The Gold Rush. As he said in My Autobiography, "...we must laugh in the face of our helplessness against the forces of nature - or go insane." In his autobiography, Chaplin reported that his first moment of inspiration for the film occurred while he was looking at a stereoscopic view of a long line of prospectors climbing up the Chilkoot Pass in Alaska's Klondike. From this single image, his imagination took flight. "Immediately, ideas and comedy business began to develop," he said. Subsequent reading about the Donner party's experience with cannibalism led him to one of the funniest episodes in The Gold Rush, involving The Little Fellow's own cooked boot and a hallucinatory chicken. The Great Dictator In The Great Dictator, his first talking film, Charlie Chaplin skewers both Adolf Hitler (Adenoid Hynkel) and Benito Mussolini (Benzino Napaloni) on sharp spears of ridicule. I'm a clown, he said in an interview with the New York Times Magazine shortly before the film's 1940 premiere, and what can I do that is more effective than to laugh at these fellows that are putting humanity to the goose-step? Chaplin plays both the malevolent dictator and an innocent Jewish barber who is in love with Hannah (Pauliette Goddard). The plot turns on the astonishing resemblance of the dictator to the barber. Mistaken for "the Phooey" (der Fuhrer) Hynkel, the barber makes a speech at an enormous rally for the "Sons and Daughters of the Double Cross" that double-crosses the double-crossers. |
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| Extra Features |
| City Lights: Interview with Musical Director Carl Davis Bonus Materials: Original Story Notes, Production Data and Publicity Items Chaplin's own score digitally recorded and married to the film. Includes new digital recording of the original score conducted by Carl Davis and Chaplin's original 1931 recording Modern Times: Bonus Materials: Original Story Notes, Shooting Log and Production Reports For "Feeding Machine" Sequence A Witty Video Reminiscence by Music Arranger David Raskin, Accompanied by Original Photos and Manuscripts The Gold Rush: 1942 Re-Release Narrated by Chaplin with Intertitle Cards Deleted An Interview with Lita Grey Chaplin, who gave up the role of the film's leading lady when she married the leading man Bonus Materials: Production Photographs Taken on Location and Production Summary Original Scenario by Charlie Chaplin Called The Lucky Strike - A Play in Two Scenes That Chaplin Wrote In Preparation For The Gold Rush The Great Dictator: Bonus Material: A 7 Minute Sequence Shot In 1918 for Sunnyside that Inspired the Famous Barber Scene in The Great Dictator A 1933 Fox MovieTone Newsreel about Adolf Hitler Original Story Notes, Drafts of Scripts and Production Records Documenting Chaplin's Work on Sequence "X" - the Final Speech And More... |