Original subtitles

Chaplin as a gift to the world of cinema

he was an extraordinary man you could

say he made at least a dozen

masterpieces ha he had an instinctual

talent and it was a physical one he is

kind of in in one person in the history

of Hollywood people liked him they liked

the look they related to it for all

sorts of reasons I mean he was the

little guy against the sort of world

really he did things with nobody else

even thought of in his day the Tramp was

the most seen face or figure and you're

on any screen anywhere in the world so

arguably Charlie Chaplin we pretty the

most famous person in the world at that

point in time

Charlie Chaplin was born to Music Hall

performers Hannah Chaplin and Charles

Chaplin senior in Walworth South London

in 1889 the origins of Charlie Chaplin

have a kind of legend unto themselves

it's one of those childhoods have

defined the career to come what shaped

it you know it's it's the kind of the

material that created the idea of the

Tramp and all that some of the early

career of chuckling represented both

mother and father were on the stage but

father left pretty early was an

alcoholic and Lily the mother was left

to bring up the children he was left

really on his own with his brother and

both of them were sent to the workhouse

because mother was not fit to look after

them

it would have been horrible I mean you

would have gotten a uniform and a

haircut I've been scrubbed down by an

older child you know got bitten by a

cane if you were misbehaving or even

perceived to be misbehaving and he would

do a lot of hard graft so put him in a

horrible horrible place for a child to

grow up it's impossible to imagine the

kind of deprivation and the poverty that

they suffered at the time but what it

did was I think it fueled in both boys

and certainly Charlie a determination to

sort of just pull themselves out of it I

mean part of that and he gave Charlie

amazing material for his future work

Charlie first performed on stage at five

years old he took over from the wings

when his mother broke down his charming

rendition captured the audience

as he began to sing and the money

started coming down to the stage is how

it works we go through the money from

the audience and it's regarded around

him and as the money went down he

stopped singing and just told the

audience I won't carry on until I've got

all the money and then stage manager

came on and started putting the Govan

and money as well and the young Chaplin

gets a bit bothered by this because he

thinks this guy's taking the money so he

goes up to him and starts chasing and

going give me my money back

refusing to carry on singing and of

course the audiences are just falling

about it become antics that are going on

that was his debut and I think it

probably gave him a sense of what it was

like to perform and to get applause

Chaplin returned to the theatre at the

age of nine when he joined a performing

group that toured the country between

1899 and 1900 he joined a group called

the eighth language a lads it gave him a

taste of regular stage performance and

the fact that you had to go on every

night one night and perform and

discipline for work he was very minor

cog but he was sort of noticed by people

as being someone slightly different to

the normal club dancer if you like he

wasn't a great folk dancer but he was

certainly someone who had something on

the stage which people recognized

despite early-stage success Charlie's

difficult childhood continued as his

mother started to have nervous

breakdowns before being committed to

Kane hill asylum he had to take her

there himself and then lived on the

streets alone until his brother Sydney

returned to London to have had to do

that must have been incredibly scarring

and and he had to learn to be his own

person and learn to kind of cope you

know with what life would throw at him

and as well as money many difficulties

what heartbreak to see your mother first

of all put into a place like that then

to be on your own and feel alone in a

big city like London it would have been

horrible quite how he managed to survive

this period is really really difficult

to tell I mean he has his own stories

about it he lived actually rough on the

streets for a few days Chaffin had to

work odd jobs to survive however even at

such a young age he had enough

determination to find himself a West End

theatrical agent he immediately acted in

some plays and was noted for his comic

performances

it's a shame that this comedy only ran

for two weeks but I think it got him

noticed by the press by the public and

that really kick-started his theatrical

career by 1908 his older brother Sidney

Chaplin had become a star of Fred Karno

his troupe and he managed to convince

Carlo to give Charlie a two-week trial

he was a huge success on his first night

at the London Coliseum it wasn't long

before Carnot arranged for the company

to tour North America

we mustn't underestimate Sydney's

involvement in Charlie's early career

because he really pushed him I think he

must have seen in his young body wasn't

this question rescuing him and keep him

out of the workhouse I think he actually

generally saw the beginnings of some

talent the Karno come over and did

dancing singing and comedy acts mostly

very broad comedy Carlo wasn't all that

impressed with Charlie when he first

arrived thought he was too skinny and

didn't think he was going to make much

of it but minute that he saw him

actually performing he realized that he

had something this of course gave

Charlie the opportunity to perform in

America which was vitally important to

the future of his career

Charlie stood out and during their

second tour in 1912 he was approached by

the New York picture company asking him

to join Keystone Pictures in Los Angeles

under the management of Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett's trooper who was really

going all over America on the stage

fir'd also decided that the best thing

to do was to make he's one realism to

reelers and put them out silent films of

course but they became extremely popular

what we must remember at this time of

course the cinema industry was in his

infancy it was really at the very

beginning so it was an incredibly

exciting and innovative time people

didn't know what this medium was going

to be and they didn't know who was going

to make it and they were kind of making

up as you go along and the Keystone

studios and Mack Sennett were kind of a

you know primal force in this and they

were looking for what would sell and it

seemed to be those kind of the antics of

kind of Quickfire comedy and this was

silent era so everything had to be

physically defined you know no one's

talking so you're kind of looking for

kind of comedians and stars who had

physicality primarily who communicate

narrative their arms and legs and their

facial expressions charlie was excited

at the prospect of making films in

Hollywood and jumped at the chance

however he was not pleased with the

first film he made called making a

living he then appeared in Mabel's

strange predicament it was here the

Chaplin put together the outfit that

would form his famous persona his next

film kid auto races at venice marks the

debut of the Tramp this keister in time

when he developed the Tramp was was so

important for the rest of his career and

what a character you know it lives on

today a century later it's very

interesting too when you talk about

Chaplin you obviously you're talking

about the birth of cinema in many ways

you know he is probably the first

pivotal panel the first superstar of

cinema he and Keaton and the others were

creating films that were fundamentally

accessible to people because they did

basics and the basis came from

vaudeville and musicals and they those

things were kind of born of what simply

Ordinances wanted Chaplin clashed with a

director Mabel Normand and was nearly

fired but Senate kept him on after

requests for more Chaplin films came in

from distributors he was getting paid

just as much as her and she thought that

was a little bit too much also he had

many ideas about making films he didn't

want to make them the normal way that

Mex and it made them and he was pressing

for for doing some of his own direction

he wasn't allowed to and in the end she

wanted him fired but he was too popular

to be fired

he had an ego on him there's no doubt

about it he had to have an ego on him

you know coming from that kind of

background and I think very early on he

became frustrated with being directed by

others and he had lots of ideas many of

them quite brilliant and I think he he

knew he was the star and felt he should

be concentrated on above all you know he

wasn't going to share you know the

stardom while the screen particularly

Chaplin managed to persuade Senate to

allow him to make his own film with an

insurance of $1,500 promised by Charlie

who directed caught in the rain

cotton the rain was important it's the

first film he directed he knew the

bosses didn't want him to do it

necessarily and he even said he would

pay them back if it was a big disaster

he didn't have to it was a success Joyce

reports remember that this is the very

beginning of what has been conceived as

films they were kind of 10 to 15 minutes

long they weren't feature films but you

know he was discovering and molding the

media as much as you know he was just

becoming a director yeah it wasn't like

the idea of a director was that defined

I think at the time I think it was

saying oh I know how to choreograph my

own routines therefore I must

choreograph the whole film it made total

sense to him

[Music]

in 1914 Charlie Chaplin continued to

direct every film in which he appeared

for Keystone making approximately one a

week in November of that year Chaplin

had a small role in his first

feature-length comedy Tillie's punctured

romance further increasing his

popularity and I think Tillie's

punctured romance was a huge commercial

success the audience has really started

to love Chaplin after this the great

thing for the studio's was that every

time they came out with another film

starring Charlie Chaplin he was big he

could make money for them and there's

nothing that Studios like better than

films that make money especially don't

cost very much Chaplin's contract came

up for renewal and he asked for $1,000 a

week which Senate refused so Chaplin

signed with sna films he knew he could

get more money

Mack Sennett said no too much and I'm

sure had many sleepless nights for

decades to come for letting Chaplin go

after that the JumpShip from Keystone to

SNA Studios who offered him 1250 a week

plus a signing fee of $10,000 which was

an extraordinary man of money at SNA

chap in a surge at a high level of

control over his pictures taking up to a

month to release each new project and

bringing a new slower pace to the comedy

he started to find the character of the

Tramp and what he might represent so

theme arrived in in Chaplin's work

he wasn't just there to make us laugh

there was a kind of principal thing he

wanted to start to tell us things and

toasting about the world around him but

a lot of Tears a lot of things about

himself so the idea of pathos you know

we're meant to laugh at the Little Tramp

but we also feel very sorry for him

[Music]

during 1915 Chaplin became a cultural

phenomenon and a journalist and motion

picture magazine wrote that Chaplin itis

had spread across America Chaplin itis

what a great word and this is the first

time we've seen this phenomenon of Fame

especially connected to the film world a

writer for one of the movie weeklies had

coined this term there were trading

cards there were comics they were

look-alike contests being hosted all

around the world but especially in

America at this time caught Chaplin

eiders people wanted more than just the

films they wanted a souvenir

he was canny enough to be able to

negotiate percentages and fees on all

those made him very very wealthy in a

very early age such was the demand to

see him that he had he created virtual

clones of himself he had other actors

dress up and go to openings and go to

events cuz he got quite reclusive and

got quite a you know antagonistic but

kind of nervous about the idea of his

fame as anyone would I mean he was

redefining the idea of Fame because

cinema was such a mass medium and you

know TV wasn't there yet so in many ways

you know he was defining this idea of

the modern super celebrity he was then

offered a contract with mutual films for

six hundred and seventy thousand dollars

which was so extraordinary it actually

put him in a position of being the

highest-paid human being in the world

he's only 26 can you imagine the public

had never heard anything like this Easy

Street secured the immigrants and the

adventure of the four major films he

made from them one after the other and

bang bang bang they just all they could

do was make money and put him into that

further stratosphere of stardom

[Music]

despite much success Chaplin's film

output had slowed down as he sought to

take more care over it

he amicably parted ways with neutral

Chaplin's brother Sidney was his

business manager and they sought to gain

a contract giving Chaplin as much

independence as possible when he'd

finished with mutual which was

incredibly successful he then joined

first national and that was completely

independent it was not financed by

anybody he financed himself he got a

million dollars which was a huge amount

the key element of it is the

distribution he had everything from the

start from the basic idea of the script

through the script writing process

through the filmmaking process to the

dissemination of the finished product I

think that set him up creatively to do

some some good work and you know as a

precedent seeing an artist and a

producer his producer negotiating for

that I think it's really important in

the history of the film industry Charlie

Chaplin built his own Studios on five

acres of land off Sunset Boulevard they

were completed in 1918 with the finest

production facilities working under

contract with first national Chaplin

made critically in financially

successful films including a dog's life

one of the most significant films of

this period was the dog's life

it shows the trend is still the trend

figure but he shows me slightly new

lights you do see the Tramp character

having a little bit more pathos and

being a little bit more dramatic it's

not silly in slapstick and running

around it's it's a little bit weightier

it's still funny Chaplin was criticized

for not fighting in World War one but

revealed he had volunteered in Britain

and the US but had not been called up

despite this his popularity spread and

his films were a favorite of troops

fighting in France during the wartime

period Chaplin was called out for maybe

not fighting for the Brits or for the

Americans so he got myself a little bit

in the hot water with the press the

troops still supported him though he did

say that the Americans had never asked

him and nor had the British so he felt

that actually doing what he was doing

was entertaining everybody which was

rather more valuable than just being a

soldier what he did was to make two

films one called the bond which was

basically a propaganda film to raise

money for war bonds at the time more

controversially he made a film called

shoulder arms in which he put he

positioned the Little Tramp in the

trenches of the First World War

everybody was incredibly nervous about

this because this was a period when you

know thousands upon thousands of

thousands of young men were dying

it was really an appalling period and

the idea that you could actually sort of

make a comedy set in the trenches was

just beyond belief he managed to

maintain the pathos so he didn't Mock

the battlefield didn't mocks the idea of

the common soldier he always going to

embraced it but brought comedy to it or

accessibility and brought all the kind

of antics we know and it was huge it was

just kind of massive the audiences loved

it they got it and I think it shows at

that time and possibly that continues to

this day that he had he had a better

idea of what audiences would would

stomach can take than any commentators

or critics in September 1918 Charlie

Chaplin married 17-year old actress

Mildred Harris after she claims she was

pregnant one of Charlie's problems was

his fondness for women and young women

in particular and it left him vulnerable

to paternity suits and kind of things

and the first one of these was an

actress called Mildred Harris in order

to be able to avert any terrible scandal

he married her it turned out that she

wasn't pregnant and he created a

situation of wish unfortunate he be

tended to repeat

[Music]

after being denied more money from first

national Chaplin along with fellow

actors Douglas Fairbanks Mary Pickford

and director DW Griffith's formed a new

production company United Artists the

idea was to form a kind of collective

distribution stroke studio run by the

actors run by the people and the

directors run by creating the films it

was a radical and quite daring idea at

the time to kind of push against it kind

of established community of many people

and then distributors that pre-existed

them I think it would have shocked

Hollywood bosses that these artists were

banning together and creating United

Artists on their own sort of saying

we're the talent we're the ones the

public wants to see on screen why should

we let the sort of fat cats and the

offices dictate our every move but it

also gave Chaplin a certain sense of

artistic time as well as freedom as his

ambitions for growing and you're about

to move into kind of his golden era but

the most famous you know slightly longer

films he created Harris fell pregnant

and on the seventh of July 1919 gave

birth but the baby was deformed and died

three days later the marriage did not

survive this tragedy Chaplin threw

himself into his work he wanted to do

something more than just comedy and in

August 1919 started production on the

kid his first feature film it took until

the following May to finish the

production it was a terrible time for

him it took him a long time to get over

it and of course in the process of which

he defected what he was actually doing

as an artist it definitely affected the

material and the way that he wanted to

do it in the way that he approached the

whole idea of children and a father

figure because let's not forget he'd

never had a father figure in his life

I think this fed nourished the film

actually because it was him and very

young Becky Kuhn and it proved to be an

enormous hit it struck a nerve with a

lot of people

concerned that his former wife Ramirez

divorcing would take the film he took

the negative and cut it in a hotel room

in Salt Lake City the kid was released

in January 1921 and was an instant

success

in 1922 Charlie Chaplin was free to make

films as an independent producer for his

next production

he chose a film with a romantic theme

that also felt true to life a woman of

Paris was acclaim for his revolutionary

subtle approach on its release in 1923

[Music]

it was not at all what people expected

from champion even though it had some

very funny things in it it was all it

was really a dramatic film it was really

the first of his films in which he did

not appear himself and people didn't go

and this is just one of the examples

that they wanted to see Charlie you know

think if they wanted to see if they were

going to see a Charlie Chaplin film or

had his name attached to it and he

didn't appear people with whom they'd

been cheated so that was a lesson but he

learned very quickly on

[Music]

hurt by the failure of a woman of Paris

for his next feature Chaplin returned to

comedy in the Tramp persona the goldrush

set the Tramp as a lonely prospector

hunting for gold and looking for love it

took 15 months to shoot and cost 1

million dollars to produce so after the

disappointment of something like a woman

in Paris he really wanted to focus on a

great comedy film again and that was the

gold rush one of the greatest of his

films - moon gnome times me because it

was a huge epic which was the gold rush

and it contains some of his best work in

many critics eyes it is it is certainly

one of the top three that he ever made

the gold rush was a huge success upon

his release making back 5 million

dollars at the box office the film

contains some of Chaplin's most famous

gaze

it was absent Wow everybody went to see

it

he got out now from making normal small

films who know films and look into the

into epic I mean he was he was touching

on I wouldn't say he was touching on DW

Griffith's but he was moving into that

kind of arena of big movies

he's actually said it's the film he

would like to be remembered for so the

man himself loved this one the audiences

loved it it's a high point of his career

whilst making the Gold Rush Chaplin

married for the second time Lita gray

was another teenage actress who suddenly

announced she was pregnant this was

potentially even more scandalous because

she was 16 when he met her again it was

a it was an unhappy affair as my happy

marriage I think the problem was that he

was such a workaholic that he really

couldn't hold down a normal home life

and the fact that he had such young

Brides didn't help at all the couple's

first son Charles Spencer Chaplin jr.

was born on the fifth of May 1925

unhappily married Chaplin spent long

hours at the studio working he started

on the feature film the circus based

around the idea of the Tramp being

besieged by monkeys on a tightrope the

circus would be a trouble production for

Chaplin despite the birth of their

second child gray filed for divorce

accusing Chaplin of infidelity and abuse

however his fan base was strong and

Chaplin managed to survive the scandal

the circus was finally released in

January 1928 - a hugely positive

reception in spite of the fact that he'd

had real personal problems he managed to

finish his next film the circus although

it was very stressful for him and he

wasn't entirely sure when he must pull

it off he needed worried because in fact

that year saw the first academy award

ceremony and he won for the circus

[Music]

even though it went on to get Oscar

nominations and was pretty well received

by the public Chaplin never liked that

film it just brought back all these

horrible memories of this bitter divorce

[Music]

at this time Hollywood was now embracing

the arrival of sound Chaplin was cynical

of the new medium and the technical

shortcomings it presented he didn't

think that he could make the transition

from what he would been doing in the

past into the new era of sound the

talkies were coming in but he was

although affected by them he just didn't

really want to do them he was late on

the talkies because he felt that his

methods required the silenced

[Music]

I mean the big test was always gonna

come was as sound came around

what would this make of him he was

defined by the silent era it was defined

by never speaking by expressing himself

through his arms and legs and then his

antics um and he kind of cheated a

little bit really with sound he was

convinced that giving the Tramp a voice

would limit his appeal so instead he

began developing another silent film but

one with sound effect city lights

started production at the end of 1928

after Chaplin had worked on the story

for over a year

city lights was a very very late

silent film he got over this by using

sound within the film and also of course

he composed his own music so he was able

to actually create his own soundtrack

for the film but he didn't use dialogue

[Music]

city lights was one of the last of the

silence for him a great success about

the way people lived in the big cities

of the world and how they were really

badly treated it was really a socialist

trapped underneath underneath the fun

and the games

[Music]

extraordinarily enough considering the

fact that it was launched into what the

then of course was a new era because

people now going to the talk is I mean

Jesse had already been out there people

already sort of Wow being wowed by

hearing people talk and saying he made

it work and the critics he even with

critics lighted they did not think that

it was passe or long fashioned many of

them said frankly Charlie Chaplin is the

only person on the on this planet who

could have pulled it off

but pull it off he did city light took

over three million dollars at the box

office after its huge success chaplin

went on what he intended to be a short

european trip but which turned into a 16

month tour he felt incredibly lonely

during his time a feeling that changed

when he met paulette goddard a 21 year

old actress

they were both not just film stars and

celebrities but they both had

inquisitive minds they had socially

inquisitive minds and they went

travelling and I think it boasts

developed in them through their desire

not just accidental a great social

awareness

with a newfound interest and awareness

of contemporary politics Chaplin looked

to make a feature about the state of

labour in America a subject and troubled

him deeply modern times which took 10

months to film followed the Tramp and

Goddard as workers in during the Great

Depression due to its political nature

it received mixed reviews and made less

at the box office on his recent film

he's the most famous person in the world

he was going to be influencing people

and as his films grew he became more and

more socialist minded you know he

traveled around America and saw the

effects the depression their modern

times was was a film about what was

going on in America well you look at

modern times now it seems like a lesson

for today as well as for for the

thirties somebody fighting against

mechanization fighting against all the

modern things which meant the work that

was less and less important and the

equipment was more and more important

but that was an extraordinary film

[Music]

quit stalling get back to work so modern

times was a different kind of Chaplin

film he started he was reflecting on the

social issues of the day a bit of

politics it got somewhat mixed reviews

but is now considered one of his his

great films Chaplin went on another far

east trip with Goddard after the

completion and release of modern times

but by 1938 the couple had drifted apart

with their different career ambitions

deeply disturbed by the surge of German

nationalism in the 1930s Chaplin chose

to make the Great Dictator as his next

project and his first full sound film it

was his most overtly political project

and a satirical attack on fascism the

lead characters strongly resembled and

Lampoon

Hitler but to remain great we must

sacrifice

[Music]

well the Great Dictator was probably an

incredibly famous film which was

regarded very highly at one point but

will you look at it now it's not

terribly wonderful he was really trying

to actually parody Adolf Hitler you have

to remember with Chaplin that he did

want to say a lot he first of all he he

became one of the greatest comedians had

ever been but he wanted to be more than

that he wanted to actually say something

[Music]

as his films for breasts he tried to

save more and more and the more he said

the more he tried to say the list the

public really took hold of him so there

was a point in his career after and that

film where he was less successful

[Music]

continuing on from the success of the

Great Dictator a film which received

five Academy Awards the years that

followed saw Charlie Chaplin involved in

legal troubles which generated a large

amount of negative press in 1941

aspiring actress Joan beery

claims she had an affair with Chaplin

and was pregnant with his child the

story exploded the controversy

surrounding Chaplin heightened when two

weeks after the paternity suit was filed

it came to light that he had married his

newest protege 18-year old owner O'Neal

Chaplin was 54 they would go on to have

eight children together the great thing

about his his own life was meeting Oona

Chaplin the daughter of Eugene O'Neill

the playwright and lovely lady very

young at the time

another of his young women but he stayed

with her for the rest of his life

in April 1946 Chaplin started production

on his next project Monsieur Verdoux a

very very black comedy about a man who

decides to basically marry rich old

ladies and kill them for their money so

he's a kind of it's one of the early

serial killer comedies if you like an

extraordinary film no Tramp Chaplin was

right at the center of a teammate he did

the music for it it wasn't at all

sentimental like a lot of his other

films it was a very sharp a film which

the public really didn't understand at

all and nor did the critics at the time

it was anti-capitalist and they were

already all these talks of him being a

communist so this really stirred up some

some bad talk in the States it wasn't

received as well as some of his other

pictures there was talks of banning it

he was called to testify in front of the

house on American Activities Commission

but he never actually had to do that the

reaction to Monsieur Verdoux stemmed

from the negative changes to Chaplin's

public image he opposed the trials of

Communist Party members although he was

not a communist himself he felt it

imposed on civil liberties in 1947 the

FBI opened an investigation into Chaplin

as a potential threat to national

security

because Charlie had by this stage also

being quite bosepheus in his political

ideas and leanings and he was considered

to be a threat he was considered to be a

red Jade hated him the FBI suspected him

being a communist which never had been

they didn't like his politics they hated

his morality I think J Edgar Hoover had

it in for Hollywood in general he went

after a lot of people in Hollywood

Chaplin really caught his eye and I

think Chaplin had gotten himself into

trouble by addressing a Hollywood room

by saying hello comrads he was kind of

joking but that sort of got Jake Jake

Hoover's backup Chaplin his next film

was intended to be his last before

retirement limelight was heavily

autobiographical filming started in

November 1951 with a cast including

members of his family

[Music]

you made a line like very sentimental

film after Misha Villa which wasn't

sentimental at all

and I think he was trying to actually

make films like he used to for the

public and he had in it the other great

comedian of the time Buster Keaton

[Music]

I think limelight is a very poignant

film when we look at Chaplin's life he

is about an ex music all-star and very

personal work for him you know as a man

gets on in years he wants to live deeply

feeling it said dignity comes upon him

and that's fatal for a comic but he

decided because it was set in the UK

who's gonna have the premiere in London

and he got on a boat with his family and

basically the government said well you

can't come back

the scandal around Chaplin attracted

vast attention and limelight was largely

boycotted the film received a warmer

reception in Europe Chaplin did not

attempt to return to the USA the couple

settled in Switzerland in January 1953

with their children

Chaplin abandoned plans for his

retirement and started work on his first

European film a king in New York the

subject matter drew on Chaplin's own

recent experiences and it has been

described as his most personal and

bitter film Chaplin decided not to

release the film in the United States

which severely affected its revenue

living in Europe he made a king in New

York which was very personal and it did

talk about somebody going through

similar experiences of being branded a

communist and I think for that reason it

was a very personal special film for him

in the last two decades of his career

Chaplin concentrated on re-editing and

scoring his old films for re-release as

well as securing their ownership and

distribution rights in the early 60s her

a new depreciation of Chaplin's work

began to be expressed throughout Europe

and the USA and in 1964 he released his

autobiography shortly after his

publication Chaplin started work on his

last completed film a countess from Hong

Kong

I suppose his first modern film it

wasn't good and I don't think we should

remember him with his last film with a

countess from Hong Kong he's working

with Marlon Brando Sophia Loren it is a

more modern film he's making it in

Technicolor and the widescreen format

but it got a bit of her lukewarm

response people maybe weren't ready to

see that kind of film from Chaplin

everything technically very proficient

but he was a remarkable filmmaker but

somehow what he was trying to say in the

film didn't really work in Brando and

Loren didn't really know what what

Charlie was getting at maybe Charlie

didn't either

Chaplin broke his ankle at the end of

1966 and a series of minor strokes

marked a decline in his health Chaplin

had begun work on a new script entitled

the Freak but his ill health prevented

the project from going to production in

1972 Chaplin returned to America for the

first time in 20 years to accept an

honorary Academy Award I think it was

great that the Academy did welcome him

back in 1972 he hadn't even been in the

US for 20-plus years and all of a sudden

he's getting this honorary Oscar he took

the stage and I think Jack Lemmon

presented him the award and he got 12

minute standing ovation which is the

longest ovation in the history of

Academy Awards so finally he sort of

came back and finally they acknowledged

just what it was he had achieved and the

significance of his achievements in 1975

with failing health Chaplin received a

knighthood by October 1977 Chaplin's

health had declined to the point that he

needed constant care in the early

morning of the 25th of December 1977

Chaplin died at home after suffering a

stroke in his sleep he was 88 years old

the funeral was a small and private

Anglican ceremony according to his

wishes Chaplin was buried in the Vevey

Cemetery in Switzerland

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he's no doubt that as a comedian nobody

could possibly have been better on the

screen he understood how an audience

worked and was reacted its kind of

pretty about five or six people to the

history of cinema who had the underlying

instinct for how noise will respond to

every second of what you're attempting

to do and still today if you sat down a

four-year-old to watch the Tramp

they would laugh this is a guy who was

probably the greatest cinematic pioneer

in movie history from the film industry

to what we see on screen he made so much

possible he really inspired so many

future generations and everybody took a

lot from him there's no doubt about it

he was the Charles Dickens of cinema

today when I hear the words Charlie

Chaplin it puts a smile in my face and

what greater legacy is there for anyone

working in film

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