197. Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

Running Time: 124 minutes
Directed By: Charles Chaplin
Written By: Charles Chaplin
Main Cast: Charles Chaplin, Mady Correll, Audrey Betz, Martha Raye, Isobel Elsom
Click here to view the trailer

GOODBYE CHARLIE

I must admit that the prospect of a nearly two hour Chaplin comedy didn't really appeal to me, prior to watching "Monsieur Verdoux" last night. However, once again, I am completely wrong in judging this book by it's cover, as this was possibly the best Chaplin film I watched for THE BOOK.

Henri Verdoux (Chaplin) lives in France and up until three years ago, made his living as a bank clerk. It was then that he lost his position at the bank and was forced to find other means for supporting himself and his family. Verdoux lives in the South of France with his wife and young son and in order to support them, spends his time traveling around France, marrying widows and either conning them out of their money or murdering them to collect insurance and their assets. In addition to the wife that he acknowledges, Henri also maintains a second wife through the duration of the film, in the form of Annabella Bonheur (Raye). With her he pretends to be the Captain of a ship and thus has his excuse for being away so often. The film also follows Henri as he works to woo a third woman into being his wife, Ms. Marie Grosnay (Elsom). Add to that the Couvais family, who interact with police in hopes of helping to catch Verdoux, as their certain he's murdered their family member Thelma, another one of Henri's wives.

Perhaps I misspoke above and perhaps this isn't quite AS good as "The Gold Rush" and "Modern Times", but it is damn good and thank God Orson Welles sold the rights to the story to Chaplin (for a generous $5000, a hefty sum at the time) so that this film could be made by Charlie, into the black comedy that he envisioned. Sure, a two hour Chaplin film doesn't sound all that intoxicating, especially since I was used to ninety minutes or less when it came to Charlie's films, but this film uses it's time to perfection and everything makes sense. It's not just another comedy, but also provides a nice dose of suspense, some messages about current world affairs and is just a flat out, really good story. Take this line for example, something so poignant, that I'd never think to hear it in a Chaplin film:

Wars, conflict - it's all business. One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow!

That line was spoken by Chaplin in the film and apparently he fell under heavy scrutiny by the U.S. and ultimately fled the United States completely in 1952, moving to Switzerland. "Monsieur Verdoux" proves that Chaplin didn't hit his peak with movies like "Modern Times" and "City Lights" but that he still had some spunk left in him well into the 1940s. This is a fantastic picture, one that Charlie was rightfully proud of and another reason I'm glad I'm making my journey through this book. It's gems like this that make it all worthwhile. Unfortunately, we're done with Charles Chaplin as it pertains to THE BOOK, but I look forward to seeing more of his films on my own time - "The Kid", "The Circus", "The Great Dictator", just to name a few.

RATING: 10/10 Screw it! I'm going all the way on this one. There wasn't anything bad about it and I this is the kind of movie that makes you glad you're a movie fan. It's one that can really sweep you away, pull you in and tell you a good story, filled with laughs, entertainment, suspense and heart.

MOVIES WATCHED: 422
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 579

April 5, 2012 4:49pm

95. Modern Times (1936)

Running Time: 87 minutes
Directed By: Charles Chaplin
Written By: Charles Chaplin
Main Cast: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard

THE LITTLE TRAMP SAYS FAREWELL

In my previous post, I said that "Modern Times" would be the final Charlie Chaplin film in the "1001" book and I was wrong. There is one more Chaplin film by my count and we'll discuss it when we come to it. Now, we're talking about "Modern Times", my favorite Chaplin film, thus far and one that I feel flowed along brilliantly and was heartwarming and hilarious all at once.

The film starts out in a factory and the Tramp is one of the many assembly line workers. He's pushed to work hard, with short breaks and he's even forced to be a guinea pig for a new device, that feeds the workers, while they work and it results in him being assaulted by an ear of corn and a lot of hilarity. After all of the abuse from the factory gets to him, he has a nervous breakdown and is put into a hospital. Upon being released from the hospital, he finds that the factory, where he previously worked, has been shut down as a result of the Depression and through a simple misunderstanding and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the Tramp is arrested. While in jail, the Tramp mistakes a salt shaker full of cocaine, for what else...salt and winds up in a delirious state, stumbling into the midst of a jail riot and knocking out the would be rioters and saving the guards.

After the Tramp saves the guards, he's treated like a king in jail and then he's eventually pardoned by the warden. He pleads with the warden to let him stay, but to no avail. After he's released he stumbles across an orphan girl (referred to here as a "gamin"), who steals a loaf of bread and is subsequently caught by the police. The Tramp, seeing an opportunity to get put back in jail, takes the rap for her, but it doesn't work and they both end up under arrest. However, they both end up escaping together and becoming friends, determined to get jobs, get a home and never go hungry again. The Tramp tries out several jobs, including a night watchmen at a department store and going back to his old re-opened factory, but they both fall through and they always end up at square one. Eventually they both get on, working at a cafe and it is here that we hear the Tramp's first words, in the form of a song, sung in gibberish.

While this isn't Chaplin's final film, it is the final film of his beloved character, "The Little Tramp", and the final scene makes you almost want to cry, as the Tramp, arm in arm with his gamin, take a final walk down a long road. "Modern Times" seemed to flow along much better than his two previous films in the book, "The Gold Rush" and "City Lights" and therefore was my favorite of the three. There was just something about this one, that had me glued to the screen for the entire time, as there was always either something hilarious or something appealing on the screen. Not to mention, the gorgeous Paulette Goddard who plays the orphan child (not really a child, she was 26 when the year the film was released) who mesmerized me as she trotted around barefoot and beautiful. What you have here is scene after scene, of either great comedy or something bewildering, from the opening factory scene, to the accidental ingestion of cocaine, to the Tramp roller skating around the empty department store, to the final heartbreaking scene. It's all great and it will go down as my favorite of the three most well known Chaplin flicks.

RATING: 10/10 Had to go the full monty on this one, as there was no downtime and everything was great, in my opinion. Now I really want to buy the Chaplin collection on DVD.

NEXT UP: Swing Time...More Astaire and Rogers! Cannot wait to see Ginger gracefully dancing and being twirled by Fred. Review will come tomorrow.

February 7, 2010 3:36pm

57. City Lights (1931)

Running Time: 87 minutes
Directed By: Charles Chaplin
Written By: Charles Chaplin
Main Cast: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers

CHARLIE CHAPLIN STICKS TO HIS SILENT GUNS

With the emergence of talking pictures, it is said that Charlie Chaplin agonized over the production of "City Lights", a film that could've have been his first talking film, but one that ultimately stayed in line with other Chaplin works and remained silent and still fantastic!

Charlie returns to the big screen as the Little Tramp, and doesn't waste too much time running into a beautiful, blind flower-seller on the street corner. The Tramp is captivated by her beauty and stunned when he realizes that she's blind. He buys a flower and moves on, not quite sure if he'll ever see her again.

A little later in the film The Tramp runs into a man on the verge of suicide because his wife has just left him. While he is intoxicated, the man tries to tether himself to a boulder and hurl himself into the river, only to be stopped by The Tramp. With a new zest for life, thanks to the little fellow, he declares the Tramp his new best friend and immediately takes him out for a night on the town, where the Tramp soon finds out he's a millionaire. The next morning when the man awakes, and the Tramp comes calling at his door, the millionaire cannot remember the previous night and therefore cannot remember the Tramp. This is a running plot point throughout the picture, as everytime the man is drunk he knows and loves the Tramp, but as soon as he sobers up, the kind little fellow is a stranger to him.

After numerous further meetings with the blind girl, the Tramp learns that she is very poor and on the cusp of being kicked from her home by her landlord. The Tramp tells her not to worry and promises to return with the funds to save her home. The Tramp takes on a few jobs, including that of a boxer, which provided me with my favorite moment of the entire film, as Chaplin participates in a very well choreographed and hilarious boxing match, with a much bigger and much stronger fellow. As always I certainly won't spoil the ending, but this flick is certainly worth a rent to check out the fantastic open ending and all the rest for that matter.

Along with the boxing sequence, this film provides countless other hilarious and memorable moments: Charlie getting a piece of streamer caught up in his plate of spaghetti and not realizing it as he slurps up his noodles, Charlie swallowing a whistle right as an important party goer is about to give a speech and Charlie final encounter with the blind girl, which provides us, not with a funny moment, but a very romantic and heartwarming one. I liked this movie more than I liked "The Gold Rush" and while I would call them both great films, I still felt myself missing Buster Keaton, as I watched "City Lights". Although, Charlie Chaplin was his own man and did his own things, which were much different than Keaton.

RATING: 8/10 First instinct of a rating was to go with an '8', and as always that's what I went with.

NEXT UP: The Public Enemy...James Cagney enters the stage!! Not expecting anymore films from Netflix until Wednesday, so I'll see 'ya then.

December 27, 2009 10:49pm

28. The Gold Rush (1925)

Running Time: 82 minutes

Directed By: Charles Chaplin

Written By: Charles Chaplin

Main Cast: Charles Chaplin, Georgia Hale, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, Malcolm Waite

ON MY JOURNEY I MET A MAN NAMED 'CHARLIE'

Well I've been waiting for old Charlie Chaplin to make his debut into my list of movies, and finally Chuck swings in and hits the nail right on the head with The Gold Rush.

Chaplin plays The Little Tramp in the Gold Rush, a lone prospector who heads north to Alaska, to take part in the Alaskan Gold Rush. It is here where he meets two men, Black Larsen and Big Jim. Black Larsen, a convicted fugitive and Big Jim, a morally bound older gent who wants nothing more than to find gold and retire a millionaire.

Early in the picture, we find out trio of gold miners starving, as they send out Black Larsen in search of food. While he's away The Tramp cooks up the most unappetizing looking meal...his boot. Charlie was great with physical comedy, moving his arms and putting on facial expressions, that really made the boot look quite tasty.

Later, The Tramp finds himself in a small town, at a dance hall where he first sees Georgia (Hale) and falls head over heels for the vivacious looking dancer. To make her suitor jealous, she requests a dance with the Tramp and in another great comedic scene, where the little fellow can't seem to keep his pants around his waist, they dance the night away.

The Tramp eventually is split from Georgia, only to take a job watching over another prospector's cabin, while he's away. While staying at this cabin, Georgia happens upon him, along with some of her friends and the Little Tramp is ecstatic with joy. Georgia promises to return on New Year's Eve and have dinner with the Tramp. When that day arrives, Georgia is nowhere to be found, leaving the little fellow to envision what dinner would've been like, had his guests shown up. He imagines a grand time with Georgia and her friends, putting on a show for them, with two forks pushed into two dinner rolls and doing a little dance with them on the table...a classic scene.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I would be remiss if I didn't, at least make mention of the climax, where Big Jim and Charlie are in their cabin, which is dangling on the edge of a cliff, a true exercise in comic suspense.

The Gold Rush is a great comedy that shows the talent and comic genius that Charlie Chaplin possessed. While I can't go as far to say that I enjoyed this more than any of the Buster Keaton silent comedies that I watched, I will say that Keaton and Chaplin were different in many, subtle ways, such as their mannerisms or the type of comedy they did. The Gold Rush sets up some great scenes and sequences that must be seen to be truly admired. The cabin dangling on the cliff, the dining of the boot, The Tramp shoveling snow for business owners and the dance hall scene are all classics.

RATING: 7/10 Good movie and can't wait to see more, but I don't get anymore until sometime in the 30's.

NEXT UP: The Big Parade...Couldn't find this one for quite sometime, but finally happened upon it on YouTube, so it should be ready for review either tonight or tomorrow.

October 10, 2009 10:16pm