↧
Charlie & Jackie Coogan (in costume for The Kid) with a visiting French viscount at the Chaplin Studios, c. 1920
↧
Accidents will happen
During the filming of this scene in The Great Dictator (1940), Charlie's left hand was caught in the slamming gate, breaking his middle finger.
Leading lady (and Mrs. Chaplin) Paulette Goddard quickly called a car and rushed Chaplin to Hollywood Hospital, where they found themselves completely ignored by the hospital doctors & staff. After an interminable wait, Goddard approached a doctor and said that Mr. Chaplin's case needed immediate attention. The doctor looked more closely at Chaplin and his finger, then immediately apologized, stating, according to the original press book of The Great Dictator, "When I saw you both coming in in makeup, I thought it was a couple of Hollywood jokers having a little fun at our expense."(Chaplin: The Dictator & The Tramp, BFI, 2004)If you watch the film closely, you can see Charlie favoring his finger in certain scenes, including the the one right before the gate closes, which suggests that he must have reshot this scene after the accident.
You can clearly see a bandage on Charlie's finger in the coin-eating scene:
At the October 1939 funeral of Ford Sterling, Charlie is sporting a bandage on his finger (his hair is also dyed for the film).
 |
| L-R: Harold Lloyd, Mack Sennett, Barney Oldfield, CC, Douglas Fairbanks, Donald Crisp and Charlie Murray. |
This was not the first time Charlie was injured while making a film. During the scene in Easy Street (1917) where Charlie pulls the lamp post down on the bully (Eric Campbell), the lamp's sharp metal edge cut across the bridge of his nose requiring stitches. The injury contributed to a delay in the release of the film.
There are also noticeable bruises on his left arm in The Bank (1915):
In his autobiography, Charlie mentions a "slight accident" with a blowtorch during the filming of this scene in The Idle Class (1921). "The heat of it went through my asbestos pants, so we added another layer of asbestos."
↧
↧
Mildred Harris ((November 29, 1901 – July 20, 1944)
In 1927, Mildred wrote the following about her former husband:
I came to know him as a strange brooding spirit, haunted by good, and, perhaps, sometimes bad impulses or temptations, inspirations and fears, all pulling in different ways and giving him no rest. ("Mildred Harris' Own Story," Syracuse Journal, Feb. 1927)
↧
With Konrad Bercovici, Chaplin Studios, c. early-mid '20s
↧
c.1948
↧
↧
MODERN TIMES on TCM (USA) tonight @ 10:00 EST
↧
Charlie skates blindfolded near the edge of a drop-off in Modern Times (1936)
This stunt was achieved using a visual effect technique called a “glass matte" shot. The drop-off to the department store’s lower floors was painted on a pane of glass, placed in front of the camera and aligned with the real setting, creating a seamless illusion.
If you look closely, you will see Chaplin’s skate wheels disappear briefly behind the painting in one or two frames.
Screenshots:
Modern Times (Criterion Collection)
"A Bucket Of Water & A Glass Matte: Special Effects in Modern Times" (Criterion Collection)
↧
Portion of the original dialogue script for Modern Times
↧
Charlie vs. Groucho
This is footage of a doubles tennis match held on July 13th, 1937 to celebrate the opening of the Beverly Hills Tennis Club. The game pitted Charlie Chaplin & Fred Perry against Groucho Marx & Ellsworth Vines. Chaplin and Perry won 6-1, 9-7. Other familiar faces in the video include Paulette Goddard and Douglas Fairbanks.
This is my edit of a longer version of the footage which can be found here. I also added some music (from The Chaplin Revue/A Dog's Life).
Note Groucho's buff bod.
↧
↧
Chaplin with visitors on the set of The Kid, 1920
The top photo is more commonly seen cropped, showing just Charlie. There is also a cropped version of the bottom photo in the Maurice Bessy book (pg. 62).
Charlie's guest is a man named Morris Greenhill from London.
↧
"The Ideal Woman" --according to Charlie
In 1926, Vanity Fair magazine asked several famous men to list the attributes of the "ideal woman." Charlie was one of them. They were probably unaware that this was the worst possible time to broach this subject with Charlie. His response reveals a man somewhat jaded by the opposite sex, although it was probably meant to be tongue-in-cheek.
From "Yessir, That's My Baby!—Wherein Several Experts Define the Perfect Female," Vanity Fair, August 1926:
From "Yessir, That's My Baby!—Wherein Several Experts Define the Perfect Female," Vanity Fair, August 1926:
Mr. Chaplin’s contribution to the symposium strikes a rather acid note at times, for one so versed in the poignancy of simple sorrow. He writes:
1. When in my company, she never admires the other men.
2. If I am obliged to leave her in order to keep another engagement, her disappointment is always keen enough to be flattering to me, but never quite keen enough to keep me from going where I am going.
3. Her diamond bracelets never need cleaning.
4. Her shoulders are never shiny.
5. She never takes advantage of a voluptuous situation to narrow her eyes.
6. She always reads all of the Sunday papers (the funny sheet first) but, having read them, she refolds them neatly and leaves them as they were.
7. She knows the words of no popular dance music, or, if she does, never sings them in my ear when dancing.
8. She uses only a faint eau de toilette during the day, but sprays herself plentifully with L’Heure Bleue upon retiring.
9. I am not exactly in love with her, but
10. She is entirely in love with me.
↧
The Chaplin brothers, 1917
↧
Reading Cinémonde, 1946
The issue Charlie is reading (below) is dated April 16th, 1946 (his 57th birthday). Note Charlie's (real) mustache for Monsieur Verdoux.
↧
↧
Charlie christens a boat called the Nomad before its trip around the world, April 1929
↧
Peter Sellers (September 8, 1925 – July 24, 1980
Charlie was a fan of Sellers, who was briefly considered for the role of Hudson in A Countess From Hong Kong. During an interview with Francis Wyndham in 1964, Charlie said he hated most American films but was enthusiastic about Dr. Strangelove and did "an hilarious impression of George C. Scott squirming in the war room." Charlie was also a fan of the film's director Stanley Kubrick. One of the last films Charlie ever saw was Kubrick's Barry Lyndon.
↧
Charlie (far left) with Fred Karno’s London Comedians, Spokane, WA, c. 1910
↧
With visitors during the filming of THE IDLE CLASS, 1921
↧
↧
c. late 1930s
↧
Very brief clip of Charlie clowning for the cameras in New York after his return from Europe, Oct. 1921
↧
MONSIEUR VERDOUX on TCM (USA) tomorrow morning @ 8:30AM (EST)
↧