The Chaplin Collection, Vol. 2 (City Lights / The Circus / The Kid / A King in New York / A Woman of Paris / Monsieur Verdoux / The Chaplin Revue / Charlie

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The second magnificent collection of Charlie Chaplin's work is even more stuffed with goodies than the first: six feature films, a round-up of two-reelers, and a new documentary, plus a cornucopia of deleted scenes and context. Each feature is accompanied by a half-hour "Chaplin Today" featurette, in which a filmmaker comments from a 21st-century perspective. Claude Chabrol extols the wicked virtues of Monsieur Verdoux and calls Chaplin "a thoroughly modern director," while Jim Jarmusch speaks gallantly on the political satire of the problematic A King in New York.

The Kid (1921), Chaplin's first feature, relates directly to Chaplin's own hard upbringing. The Tramp adopts a street kid (Jackie Coogan), in a seamless blend of slapstick and sentiment. For A Woman of Paris (1923), Chaplin experimented: straight, adult melodrama, with no Charlie onscreen (save for a brief cameo). 1927's The Circus is prized by many Chaplin critics as pure sublime comedy, less burdened by sentiment or politics than subsequent films. City Lights (1931) is an undisputed masterpiece; the Tramp befriends a blind girl, leading to one of the great bittersweet endings in film history. (Among the extras: a priceless seven-minute deleted scene involving little more than Chaplin and a piece of wood stuck in a grate.) With Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Chaplin turned his back on the Tramp and invented an elegant lady killer (literally); audiences disapproved, but the film stands as a fascinating essay on himself. Finally, after his exile from the United States, Chaplin made A King in New York (1957), which is mostly flat, except as autobiography.

The Chaplin Revue gathers six essential short works, from the superb A Dog's Life (1918) to his last two-reeler, The Pilgrim. A separate disc contains film critic Richard Schickel's comprehensive documentary Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin, which does nicely by Chaplin's life and his working process, with keen comments from admirers such as Woody Allen and Johnny Depp. This box set is more than film history; it's a living treasure. --Robert Horton

Description

The wonder. The magic. The genius. Now for an encore presentation with stunning new restorations, all-new special features and more. The Richard Schickel documentary, "Charlie" available exclusively in this Chaplin Giftset. THE CIRCUS The Little Tramp accidentally becomes a big-top star in the comedy that earned Chaplin a special Academy Award?. CITY LIGHTS A forever classic - and an American Film Institute Top-100 Movie. The Tramp becomes a working man, saving money for an operation that will restore a blind flower girl's sight. THE KID The Tramp and his ragamuffin sidekick (6-year-old Jackie Coogan) triumph over life's hard knocks in the landmark film that changed the notion of what a screen comedy could be. A KING IN NEW YORK/A WOMAN OF PARIS Chaplin jabs at social conventions! U.S. pop culture is the target of his satiric A King in New York. And the whirl of French high society frames director Chaplin's tragic love story A Woman of Paris.

MONSIEUR VERDOUX Killer comedy! Chaplin turns his sunny nature inside out to play a roving gent who wins the love and bank accounts of spinsters, then murders the hapless biddies.

Customer Reviews:

Happy!.......2007-08-27

Nicely remastered. Great selection for both a steadfast fan and someone new to Charlie Chaplin.

Don't expect the box to last..........2007-04-03

When my copy of this set arrived, I found that the set's box (with Chaplin on the cover) was just a little too big for the set itself - maybe an eighth of an inch extra space, so when the whole package got tightly shrinkwrapped, the excess space and the tip of one corner were crushed to fit around the DVDs. Not a huge deal, but it means that the box, already somewhat flimsy for the number of DVDs it houses, lost some of its structual integrity, and now doesn't support itself so well; once you take a couple of the DVDs out, it quickly loses its right angles -- the ramshackle rhombus effect. So I sent it back, and the replacement has just arrived...with the exact same problem. Of course, while Amazon makes it ever so easy to "Leave Seller Feedback" for any of its thousands of Amazon Marketplace affiliates, there is one seller for which they do not allow this option: Amazon itself. Anyway, I'm sure it's a great set, and the defect in question is minor, but it's always a little disappointing when you look forward to a new purchase, then find that it is just a tiny bit damaged before you even unwrap it. I have had this experience twice now, and I guess I'll just give up, and try not to look at what could have been a fairly handsome box. But when you get yours, set the box on a table with the DVD spines lined up in front of you, and have a look at the lower right-hand corner of the box. Hopefully, you *won't* see what I mean. But if you do, you'll find that this box would have been just perfect if the set had included one more, thin DVD.

Superb and very entertaining.......2007-01-19

Excellent variety of Chaplin movies that are worth many viewings and well-worth the price of the collection. Good quality DVD's of very old films. Monsieur Verdoux, a rare Chaplin "talkie", is dated in plot structure and appeal and includes several scenes of stilted acting (Chaplin is actually a better actor than the others in the cast). Although not of the caliber of the silent films, it makes an interesting addition to the masterpieces, if you are studying Chaplin's works and it is fascinating to hear Chaplin's voice. His physical comedy is artful, masterful, highly acrobatic, perfectly timed, surprising, and hilarious; it has not been surpassed in 80-plus years.

The true comedy collection.......2006-12-15

This wonderful boxed set completes the chaplin collection, this in my view is the better chaplin collection it includes such classics as city lights, modern times, the great dictator, and many more classics.my advice to the other chaplin fans is go out and buy the chaplin collection 1&2 before there all sold out.

Films to Enjoy.......2006-08-15

The fine Humor and art creativity found in this treasure films are incomparable. It's worth the price.

Average customer rating:

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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ASIN: B000096IBG
Release Date: 2003-07-01

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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.

Modern Times - Chaplin Collection (Limited Edition Collector's Set)

Average customer rating:

Amazing.
Funny.
Timeless
"Modern Times" Attacked American Capitalism
Charlie the rebel, Charlie the poet, Charlie the invincibly human...

Modern Times - Chaplin Collection (Limited Edition Collector's Set)
Starring: Norman Ainsley , Richard Alexander , Bobby Barber , Henry Bergman , and Stanley Blystone
Manufacturer: Creative Design Art
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000096IBA
Release Date: 2003-07-01

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Charlie Chaplin is in glorious form in this legendary satire of the mechanized world. As a factory worker driven bonkers by the soulless momentum of work, Chaplin executes a series of slapstick routines around machines, including a memorable encounter with an automatic feeding apparatus. The pantomime is triumphant, but Chaplin also draws a lively relationship between the Tramp and a street gamine. She's played by Paulette Goddard, then Chaplin's wife and probably his best leading lady (here and in The Great Dictator). The film's theme gave the increasingly ambitious writer-director a chance to speak out about social issues, as well as indulging in the bittersweet quality of pathos that critics were already calling "Chaplinesque." In 1936, Chaplin was still holding out against spoken dialogue in films, but he did use a synchronized soundtrack of sound effects and his own music, a score that includes one of his most famous melodies, "Smile." And late in the film, Chaplin actually does speak--albeit in a garbled gibberish song, a rebuke to modern times in talking pictures. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Amazing........2007-06-26

Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)

I've spent the past few decades assiduously overlooking old film comedies, mostly because of my dislike for the contemporary comedy shorts (the Three Stooges, the Little Rascals, et al.). I decided earlier this year that I was going to stop doing that; after all, they can't all be that bad. One of the earliest stops on this new journey of mine was Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin's 1936 extravaganza that makes it into critics' 100-best lists with almost alarming regularity.

The basic idea is that Chaplin, a factory worker, and Paulette Goddard, a homeless waif, team up after Chaplin gets laid off when the factory closes (it's the Depression, remember) and try to make their way in the world. This leads both through a succession of jobs (and a rickety homestead), as well as more than one brush with the law.

I know there's a great deal of social commentary to be found here; I've read more than enough articles on the film to have missed that. But my mind is a sieve, and I can't remember terribly much about those articles. What I found important, and enjoyable, about the film is that it's a wonderfully-choreographed piece, a remnant of the silent era in the age of talkies (there is very little actual speech in the film), and an excellent showcase for Chaplin's talent for physical comedy. Add to this the eye-popping beauty of Paulette Goddard, a pitch-perfect sense of pace, and an array of sets that rivals most of what gets turned out seventy years later, and you have the recipe for a truly classic film. And Modern Times surely is that. **** ½

Funny........2007-04-10

Good laughs. My favorite scene is that with the feeding machine. Even my boyfriend who hates old black and white movies was laughing out loud. Genius.

Timeless.......2007-02-19

Modern Times is among the Best 100 American movies of all time (#81), and it is among the Best 1000 Movies on DVD by Peter Travers. I rate this movie 5 stars or 9 over 10. This movie is timeless, a masterpiece, a pleasure to watch and watch over and over again. It was the last silent movie Chaplin did and the last to feature the Little Tramp (beautiful ending with the two lovers walking arm and arm into a sunset.) The theme of the movie is how technology alienates the human being. Accidentally converted into a working class hero, Chaplin spends some time in jail, where he'd like to stay forever. There we watch one of the funniest scenes of the movie, the lunch with some "white powder". I couldn't stop laughing! In the times of the Great Depression, Chaplin portraits the unemployed and the hunger. Trying to find a steady job, he ends up in a Caffe where he waits on tables and sings. Yes! He does. The nonsense song (with Chaplin original voice in there) stands as one of the best moments in movie history. I can't quit this song off of my mind ... Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's wife at the time, appears here in what's considered her best and liveliest leading lady. This DVD is beautifully repackaged for the Chaplin Collection (a wonderful collection, thanks Warner!) It includes an all-new digital transfer and a soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as original mono. The second DVD comes full loaded with many speacial features, like a documentary about "Chaplin today", deleted scenes, an introduction by Chaplin biographer David Robinson, a Karaoke of the nonsense song, the wonderful song Smile, sung by Liberace, a Behind the Scenes in the Machine Age 42 minutes documentary, and lots of more extras!
I recommend this DVD to everybody, you will not be disapointed, and I would say it's a MUST for movie collectors. A classic, a masterpiece, a timeless movie!
P.S. If you like my review vote YES. You can read all my other reviews if you wish to. I modestly write them to help people form an opinion about movies, music and books, but if nobody reads them (if you don't vote I do not know if you did) there is no point in writing them

"Modern Times" Attacked American Capitalism.......2007-01-14

Charlie Chaplin was minimally a Communist fellow traveler. A staunch supporter of the Soviet Union, he once told an interviewer with the "Daily Worker" that we should "Thank God for Communism." At the very best, Chaplin could be described as a naive utopian. "Modern Times" was a not so subtle attack against American capitalism. Chaplin's Little Tramp is presented as a victim of a social system which victimizes the working class. The modern world is alienating human beings from their authentic selves. A class war exists between the haves and the have-nots. Employers exploit their workers and deserve to be sabotaged and ripped off. Factories allegedly turn the individual into a robotic creature to be pitied. Chaplin focussed exclusively on the negative aspects of the "Modern Times" of the early twentieth Century---and never paid the slightest attention to its overwhelming benefits. Aesthetically speaking, I also fail to appreciate Chaplin's slapstick brand of humor. It seems too over the top. Paulette Goddard, for instance, portrays Chaplin's impoverished romantic interest. Still, her hair and lipstick always look perfect. The unsophisticated audiences of over seventy years ago were much easier to please. Charlie Chaplin would be a nonentity in 2007.

David Thomson
Flares into Darkness

Charlie the rebel, Charlie the poet, Charlie the invincibly human..........2007-01-08

"Modern Times" begins with a shot of sheep going down a runway followed by a shot of workers entering a factory... Charlie is set down in the midst of industrial civilization, which is dominated by machinery and in which men are organized into mechanical units, Capital and Labor... Charlie's real enemies are no longer the Cop or the Boss, with whom he can always enter into some human relation, but a vast impersonality, invisible and invulnerable...

"Modern Times" offered a variety of minor attractions: it featured Chaplin's wife, Paulette Goddard; it had wonderful gags; it indulged in tricks of sound which came to the very edge of being dialog... But what did the picture mean, what was it trying to say? Because Chaplin charged his usual enormous percentage for it, and because of foreign receipts, "Modern Times" made money, but exhibitors were not happy at the limited audience turnout... For the majority, the new Charlie was too serious; for the minority, not serious enough...

Since the picture seemed to be about the dehumanizing effect of machinery, intellectuals called upon Chaplin to join them in reorganizing machine culture to some more human scale of things...

Off the screen, Chaplin said nothing... On the screen, his anarchic hostility for any kind of machine culture expressed itself in scenes like that in which Charlie is fed by a machine and that in which, crazed by the assembly line, he runs into the street, his arms moving convulsively like two pistons... Charlie the rebel, Charlie the poet, Charlie the invincibly human, had been turned into a machine...

Average customer rating:

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
Starring: Marjorie Bennett , Barry Bernard , Claire Bloom , Nigel Bruce , and Josephine Chaplin
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00004S89K
Release Date: 2000-04-11

Amazon.com essential video

Description

Leading lady Claire Bloom called it a "fairy godfather" story. Historians said it was frankly autobiographical. Charlie Chaplin knew it as a love story. Chaplin plays Calvero, a vaudeville clown whom time has passed by in 1914 London. Although under few illusions about his own prospects for the future, he is able to impart his passion for life to Terry (Bloom), a young ballerina who believes she is paralyzed and can no longer dance. Calvero alternately nurses and bullies her to recovery and subsequent success as a prima ballerina. From this position, she is able to help Calvero enjoy one last triumphant moment just as he suffers a fatal heart attack. As his life is ebbing, hers is flowing in a brilliant solo ballet that ends the film.

Customer Reviews:

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

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

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

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

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

The All New Adventures of Laurel and Hardy: For Love or Mummy

Average customer rating:

good-natured tribute
Here's another grave-robbing mess they've gotten us into..
fun HALLOWEEN movie for kids
What's the point?
fun for the kids

The All New Adventures of Laurel and Hardy: For Love or Mummy
Starring: F. Murray Abraham , Lara Bye , Timo Chaplin , Josh Cheny , and Susan Danford
Director: Cherry III, John R.
Manufacturer: Coast
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00007K01P
Release Date: 2003-01-14

Customer Reviews:

good-natured tribute.......2007-07-08

Just scroll down. Read the hate filled tantrum of the enraged Laurel and Hardy fan who brags about "hating everyone" while disgustingly using the victims of 911 in a twisted tirade against customers whose children like this movie. That is just one bizarre example of the excessive negativity that has plagued Laurel and Hardy fandom for decades.

Numerous Laurel and Hardy fans have traditionally hated many of the films starring Stan and Ollie. Consider THE BIG NOISE. Excessively negative fans hate it. NOTHING BUT TROUBLE? Hated. THE JITTER BUGS? Hated. THE AIR RAID WARDENS? Hated. THE DANCING MASTERS? Hated. UTOPIA? Hated. A HAUNTING WE WILL GO? Hated. THE BULLFIGHTERS? Hated. It's not surprising then that they hate this children's movie featuring fictional relatives of Laurel and Hardy.

Even the mere suggestion of children having fun watching this movie is hated. The previous post, with its disgusting comments about the tragedy of 911, demonstrates that hatred. It also shows how ugly some Laurel and Hardy fans can be. Sick remarks about 911 aren't even considered off limits. Such negativity demonstrates why good-natured Laurel and Hardy tributes deserve some credit.

Laurel and Hardy comics and cartoons filled me with joy as a child. They didn't fill me with hate. They were respectful, good-natured, and uplifting. This movie is another respectful and good-natured tribute, but it never had a chance of uplifting the spirits of the negatively inclined fans. Laurel and Hardy themselves ultimately couldn't even do that. The Boy's final feature films have been the objects of excessive hatred for years.

Here's another grave-robbing mess they've gotten us into.........2006-06-05

I don't normally do this, but before I started writing this review I actually scrolled down and read a few other "opinions". The obvious one star ratings made me have a little faith left in humanity, but the amount of five star ratings made me hate everyone all over again.

And what is the REASON this insulting, possible legacy tarnishing catastrophe got five stars from these dim-bulbs? "It's a fun movie for kids." This is written on EVERY five star review (is it the same mouth-breather or what?) So, by THAT reckoning, re-making 911 but replacing the suicide bombers by cute fluffy animals, who put a furry paw over their eyes when they're about to crash, followed by a slide-whistle soundtracking the towers collapsing would be OK, too? 'Cos you know, that would be "harmless fun for kids to watch at Halloween time" too. Pffffff.

Anyway, I don't think I need to explain WHY this is so bad. Laurel and Hardy were too genuine one-offs. Genius entertainers who merged eye-watering slapstick with spot-on visual gags, with perfect timing and execution. These two hacks think that if they DRESS like Laurel and Hardy and try and SOUND like them, then the same big laughs will come thick and fast.

They don't. Not once. Not ever. Imitation may be the highest form of flattery in some aspects, but this is an insult, a cheap cash-in on a famous name. Don't be tempted, don't be fooled.

If people really ARE on the look-out for something to make their kids laugh, then show them the real Laurel and Hardy films. People falling through roofs and getting hit with ladders will ALWAYS be funny, especially if it's the two REAL masters at work. Show the kids Laurel and Hardy's "The Music Box", and leave this disgrace gathering dust where it belongs.

The_Curmudgeon_Hates_You@yahoo.co.uk

fun HALLOWEEN movie for kids.......2005-12-15

The New Adventures of Laurel and Hardy: For Love or Mummy is a safe and enjoyable movie to show the kids in your life at Halloween. One reviewer suggests that a movie starring the "REAL" Laurel and Hardy would be better HALLOWEEN entertainment for kids, but most "REAL" Laurel and Hardy fans consider Laurel and Hardy's A-Haunting We Will Go to be "garbage" and despise the animated Laurel and Hardy's encounter with Scooby Doo too. These Scrooges completely miss the fact that Laurel and Hardy related projects like these provide fun for the littlest Laurel and Hardy fans who desire some spooky entertainment for Halloween. I guess the purists would rather have kids watch Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein instead.

What's the point?.......2005-11-28

One of the most pointless endeavors in recent memory is this 1998 attempt to recreate the Laurel & Hardy partnership. Bronson Pinchot (PERFECT STRANGERS, BEVERLY HILLS COP) and Gailard Sartain (FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, ALI), cast as the nephews of the original Stan and Ollie, help museum curator F. Murray Abraham (was this the only role available to the Academy Award winner?) track down a reanimated 3,000-year-old mummy. Pinchot and especially Sartain seem to relish the opportunity to replicate the two comedy legends, but co-directors Larry Harmon (the man behind the BOZO'S CIRCUS franchise) and John Cherry (the auteur behind the ERNEST movies) don't offer them much assistance.

Perhaps the most disheartening thing about this whole enterprise (aside from Larry Harmon's egomaniacal "cameo" in the film) is the fact that I've actually seen this DVD filed among legitimate Laurel & Hardy movies at outlets like Virgin and Tower Records. And as for showing this to kids...why don't you show them a REAL Laurel & Hardy movie?

fun for the kids.......2005-11-01

It's too bad that so many Laurel and Hardy fans can't take this for what it is: harmless fun for kids to watch at Halloween time. I went into this knowing it was aimed at little kids and involved the "nephews" of Laurel and Hardy, a rampaging mummy, the director of Ernest, Bozo the clown, and "cousin Balkie". I found it to be cute and kids love it. That makes it OK in my book.

The Great Dictator - Chaplin Collection (Limited Edition Collector's Set)

Average customer rating:

a brilliantly orchestrated dark dramedy (drama/comedy).....
the best parody about the führer :-)
Fabulous
The Great Dictator
Overrated Chaplin

The Great Dictator - Chaplin Collection (Limited Edition Collector's Set)
Starring: Henry Bergman , Charles Chaplin , Chester Conklin , Henry Daniell , and Robert O. Davis
Manufacturer: Creative Design Art
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000096IB8
Release Date: 2003-07-01

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Since Adolf Hitler had the audacity to borrow his mustache from the most famous celebrity in the world--Charlie Chaplin--it meant Hitler was fair game for Chaplin's comedy. (Strangely, the two men were born within four days of each other.) The Great Dictator, conceived in the late thirties but not released until 1940, when Hitler's war was raging across Europe, is the film that skewered the tyrant. Chaplin plays both Adenoid Hynkel, the power-mad ruler of Tomania, and a humble Jewish barber suffering under the dictator's rule. Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's wife at the time, plays the barber's beloved; and the rotund comedian Jack Oakie turns in a weirdly accurate burlesque of Mussolini, as a bellowing fellow dictator named Benzino Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria. Chaplin himself hits one of his highest moments in the amazing sequence where he performs a dance of love with a large inflated globe of the world. Never has the hunger for world domination been more rhapsodically expressed. The slapstick is swift and sharp, but it was not enough for Chaplin. He ends the film with the barber's six-minute speech calling for peace and prophesying a hopeful future for troubled mankind. Some critics have always felt the monologue was out of place, but the lyricism and sheer humanity of it are still stirring. This was the last appearance of Chaplin's Little Tramp character, and not coincidentally it was his first all-talking picture. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

a brilliantly orchestrated dark dramedy (drama/comedy)............2007-08-31

I first saw THE GREAT DICTATOR when I was in grade school, around the time that SCHINDLER'S LIST was released, a far more sober look at the devestating effects of the Holocaust on countless Jews and gentiles alike, as well as the work of Oskar Schindler during that time of such unrest and profound social injustice. THE GREAT DICTATOR is a social satire, directed by and starring "The Little Tramp", himself, Mr. Charles Chaplin. I know it sounds really strange, gruesome and even inappropriate to create a film that is centered on poking fun at the evil commited by the Third Reich and the effect of Hitler, the Nazi regime and how that resulted in the death, torture, and imprisonment of droves of Jews, Gypsies, Jewish sympathizers, Gentiles and many others. I ask that you suspend your imagination and give this film a try anyway.

Charlie Chaplin plays two very opposite men. One is Adenoid Hynkel, a swarthy and short-tempered fascist dictator, based on none other than Adolf Hitler himself. The other man is a very good and courageous Jewish barber who must face the wrath that Hynkel inflicts on his ghetto. What's more, Hynkel is alligned with Benzino Napoloni (Jackie Oakie), an Italian fascist dictator (based on Mussolini). Together, they hope to completely drive out Jews and other groups they feel are standing in the way of the master race.

This film was Chaplin's first "talkie," is brilliant, thoughtful, humorous and provocative. I reccomend that you give this one a try. You won't be sorry and it will really leave you thinking hard about the state of the world when you are done watching it.

the best parody about the führer :-).......2007-07-24

i recommend this classic movie highly ... it is available at last!!! great special edition. if we germans would have seen this movie in the thirties history would have taken another course ... hopefully!

Fabulous.......2007-07-06

This is a great DVD, especially if you can get it for a good price.
The film itself looks like it was made yesterday (in B&W) and clearly a lot of time has been spent restoring it.

We all know the plot, this is a parady of Hitler and its brilliantly done. I've never been a great Chaplin fan but you have to give the man credit - this is a masterpiece. Not only is it funny, but its message, especially the end speech, is deeply moving. The film shoot started 6 days into WW2 and took another 559 days to complete and Chaplin changed the ending completely when he realised that Hitler was even more of a lunatic than he first thought!
The extras are good. There is some colour footage that his brother shot, and a very interesting documentary (thats been on TV) which parallels the life of Hitler and Chaplin. They were born in the same week of the same year.
The DVD packaging is very good, and in truth I can't fault it any way.

The Great Dictator.......2007-06-25

In his first-ever talkie, writer-director Chaplin ferociously lampooned the sadistic politics and fiery rhetoric of Hitler, juxtaposing his mustachioed Little Tramp character with Der Führer himself, whose unintelligible rantings Chaplin plays to hilarious effect. The most political of Chaplin's films, "Dictator" combines slapstick humor and vicious parody; in particular, portly actor Jack Oakie's Mussolini-like incarnation of Napaloni, dictator of Bacteria, is pure genius. Notably, Chaplin's pointed criticism of the Nazis occurred before Hollywood at large was daring to follow suit. (Most brilliant sequence: Hynkel's sublime dance with a balloon-like globe.)

Overrated Chaplin .......2007-05-26

Having heard for many years of this famous film, I finally caught up with this 2 disc set and looked forward to the viewing event with enthusiasm. Why was I so disappointed?

As a piece of film making, it is very ordinary. It plays like a cartoon with cardboard sets, a poorly developed story without much logic and some corny gags, many of which can be seen in the skits of Benny Hill who incidentally Charlie Chaplin admired tremendously. Paulette Goddard is poor and most of the supporting cast have little to do with the notable exception of Jack Oakie who wildly burlesques the famous character he imitates and is quite funny. There are a few jewels like the dance with the globe but most of the humour is pretty basic. By 1940, Hollywood was capable of much more sophisticated satire.

However, the DVD print is excellent and the film really can not be appreciated without an understanding of the context of its release. Accordingly, the DVD contains an excellent documentary which follows the lives of Chaplin and Hitler, who co-incidentally were born within a week of each other. As a result of the documentary, I watched the film again and there is no doubt that it was an extraordinary undertaking by Chaplin to make the film at all. His final speech resonates and is patently sincere. The film opened to controversy and I asked my 89 year old mother if she recalled it. Her reply was enlightening. She said that she was never much of a fan of Chaplin but she specifically avoided this film when it was released because her own world was turned upside down by the events of the day and at the time the uncertainty about her own future was such that she felt Chaplin's film was offensive. I am sure she was not alone.

The DVD contains a few other extras which are variable. There are scenes from other Chaplin films, clearly included to encourage purchase of those DVDs. There is also some rare home movie footage in colour of the making of the film but it quickly becomes boring to watch.

Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin

Average customer rating:

I love Chaplin

Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin

Manufacturer: MK2/Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

ASIN: B0002AL62Y

Product Description

Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, Written & Directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel. Includes interviews with Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr., Claire Bloom, Geraldine Chaplin, Syndney Chaplin, Milos Forman, Richard Attenborough, Norman Lloyd, Andrew Sarris, Jeanine Basinger, Bill Irwin, Marcel Marceau, David Raskin & Jeffery Vance + clips from many of Chaplin's classic films + rare home movies(inc. Charlie playing tennis with Groucho Marx) + much, much more. Premeried at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.

Customer Reviews:

I love Chaplin.......2007-06-23

This would be a great introduction to Charlie Chaplin. I decided to start wiht the Robert Downey Jr. film, "Chaplin." That was a bad move on my part. This came in a box set called "the chaplin collection." It is a great film narrated by Sydney Pollack. Great interviews with family members, friends, and footage from the most famous Chaplin films. Buy this, you will not regret it.

Average customer rating:

good-natured tribute
Here's another grave-robbing mess they've gotten us into..
fun HALLOWEEN movie for kids
What's the point?
fun for the kids

The All New Adventures of Laurel and Hardy: For Love or Mummy
Starring: F. Murray Abraham , Lara Bye , Timo Chaplin , Josh Cheny , and Susan Danford
Director: John R. Cherry III
Manufacturer: Monarch Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Slapstick | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00000JJHV
Release Date: 2000-01-18

Customer Reviews:

good-natured tribute.......2007-07-08

Here's another grave-robbing mess they've gotten us into.........2006-06-05

fun HALLOWEEN movie for kids.......2005-12-15

What's the point?.......2005-11-28

fun for the kids.......2005-11-01

Average customer rating:

Narrated silent movie
True Chaplin Fans Stay Away!

Chaplin's Art of Comedy
Starring: Charles Chaplin , and Ben Turpin
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Biography | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

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

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00000ILEJ
Release Date: 1999-06-08

Amazon.com

Sail right past the off-putting prologue (which sounds and feels like one of those hideous educational films from the 1950s) of this otherwise satisfying collection of clips from Chaplin's early work, and you'll be in good shape. Assembled by producer Samuel M. Sherman, the program consists of nine generous slices of Chaplin's one- and two-reel output at Essanay Studios, to which the great man fled for a spell in 1915 after feeling creatively constrained at Mack Sennett's Keystone Film Co.

Lots of good stuff here, though none of it is presented in its entirety. The classic "A Night at the Show," a cinematic re-creation of one of Chaplin's most beloved stage routines in England, is still hilarious, with the star playing dual roles as a drunk aristocrat and a disruptive peasant. "A Woman" finds the Tramp shaving his moustache in order to dress in drag (for a good reason, of course). "The Champion" is wonderful knockabout comedy featuring Chaplin's alter ego as a surprisingly effective pugilist, and "The Tramp" finds the star-director constructing one of his most delicate, even mystical, pieces. You can see much of this material in its complete state elsewhere, but this serves as a handy introduction to Chaplin's early growth as a master of broken hearts, belly laughs, and beauty. --Tom Keogh

Description

The original king of comedy! Nobody made the world laugh like Charlie Chaplin, whose genius forever elevated the genre of comedy. "Chaplin's Art of Comedy" is a documented cavalcade of some of Chaplin's wildest and most inventive humor. His classic films sequences are here, as well as rare footage unavailable until now.

Customer Reviews:

Narrated silent movie.......2003-01-31

This is a compiled and narrated version of some of Chaplin's Essanay films. The only reasons to buy it is if you want a total complete collection of Chaplin's releases, or if you want to experience, how people thought about silent movies in the sixties. The narration make you feel like you are treated like an imbecile.
If you buy Images other releases, the Essanay films vol. 1-3, you will get the real quality of Chaplin's great films.

True Chaplin Fans Stay Away!.......2000-02-13

This DVD labels itself as a 'Documentary', but it's far frominformative. There's no personal Chaplin information, no realsubstance about his life and times. This DVD is really nothing but a few old Chaplin 2-reelers from his First National Days, with a narrator explaining what is going on.

The narration is uninformative, boring and does nothing but state the obvious.

Amazon.com essential video

After the box-office failure of his first dramatic film, A Woman of Paris, Charlie Chaplin brooded over his ensuing comedy. "The next film must be an epic!" he recalled in his autobiography. "The greatest!" He found inspiration, paradoxically, in stories of the backbreaking Alaskan gold rush and the cannibalistic Donner Party. These tales of tragedy and endurance provided Chaplin with a rich vein of comic possibilities. The Little Tramp finds himself in the Yukon, along with a swarm of prospectors heading over Chilkoot Pass (an amazing sight restaged by Chaplin in his opening scenes, filmed in the snowy Sierra Nevadas). When the Tramp is trapped in a mountain cabin with two other fortune hunters, Chaplin stages a veritable ballet of starvation, culminating in the cooking of a leathery boot. Back in town, the Tramp is smitten by a dance-hall girl (Georgia Hale), but it seems impossible that she could ever notice him. The Gold Rush is one of Chaplin's simplest, loveliest features; and despite its high comedy, it never strays far from Chaplin's keen grasp of loneliness. In 1942, Chaplin reedited the film and added music and his own narration for a successful rerelease. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Great Chaplin.......2007-09-12

I was stunned, in the negative, the first time I saw this film with the 1942 narration. As another reviewer commented, I totally prefer the original longer version. One may argue editing decisions but a voice-over to substitute for title cards showed me that even Chaplin could make a very wrong-headed decision.
There is a contemporary news show (maybe on FOX?) which has a segment where people read political cartoons using character voices. The practice doesn't come near the humor that can be experienced by our own reading in our minds. The same result happens with the Chaplin narration vs. our reading the title cards.
Luckily the original version of "The Gold Rush" is included here.

The Gold Rush.......2007-06-20

This brilliant Klondike comedy follows the antics of Chaplin's Little Tramp character through the trials and tribulations of frenzied fortune hunting in the Alaskan wilderness. In addition to the famous boiled-boot sequence, the visual gags are plentiful and hilarious, especially concerning the three prospectors' impending starvation (just watch Big Jim chase Chaplin around with an axe). But it's the bittersweet love story involving Hale's contemptuous saloon girl that makes "The Gold Rush" quintessentially Chaplinesque.

The Gold Rush (2 Disc Special Edition).......2007-03-10

A classic that captures the essence of survival in the far north softened by the humor of Charlie Chaplin's character of "The Tramp."

Rushing for Gold.......2007-02-19

"I'm going away, and when I return I shall come back!" - Charlie Chaplin, Gold Rush

I hadn't watched any Chaplin since I was a child, and a couple years back I rented a DVD with his *very* early material, and I was sorely disappointed. But Gold Rush is really good, surprisingly funny. I was in stitches at his physical comedy, like when two big men fight over a loaded shotgun, and the gun keeps pointing at Charlie ("the Little Fellow") no matter where he tries to flee to in the room.

The Little Fellow is simply superb!.......2007-01-02

If any single figure can fairly be said to symbolize the glory years of the silent films--the cinema's truly international epoch--it is Charles Chaplin's indomitable tramp... The Little Fellow, as millions came to call him, was at once tatty and debonair, brow-beaten and irrepressibly optimistic--and he was, without question, the best-loved international star in all of film history...

His coat was too small, his pants too large, his mustache patently false--and the resultant silhouette instantly recognizable wherever movies were shown... Charlie Chaplin's tramp spoke to all walks of life--and never more eloquently than in such silent films as "The Kid," and "The Gold Rush."

"The Gold Rush" is superb... It deals with Charlie's adventures to win the affection of a local dance-hall girl, and his hilarious efforts to avoid being eaten by bears and by prospectors who are bigger and hungrier than he...

The most memorable scene is one in which he dines on an old shoe... Chaplin's exquisite grace, turned the boiled shoe into a gourmet feast: he carves it carefully, smacks his lips in anticipation, and then eats it with gusto and appreciation, sucking the nails as if they contained the most juices and twirling the laces around his fork as if they were spaghetti...

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