City Lights 1931

Charles Chaplin was deep into production of his silent City Lights when Hollywood was overwhelmed by the talkie revolution. After months of anguished contemplation, Chaplin decided to finish the film as it began--in silence, save for a musical score and an occasional sound effect. Once again cast as the Little Tramp, Chaplin makes the acquaintance of a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill), who through a series of coincidences has gotten the impression that the shabby tramp is a millionaire. A second storyline begins when the tramp rescues a genuine millionaire (Harry Myers) from committing suicide. When drunk, the millionaire expansively treats the tramp as a friend and equal; when sober, he doesn't even recognize him. The two plots come together when the tramp attempts to raise enough money for the blind girl to have an eye operation. Highlights include an extended boxing sequence pitting scrawny Chaplin against muscle-bound Hank Mann, and the poignant final scene in which the now-sighted flower girl sees her impoverished benefactor for the first time. Chaplin's decision to release the silent City Lights three years into the talkie era was partially vindicated when more than one critic singled out this comedy in pantomime as the best picture of 1931.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Initial release: January 1, 1931 (USA)
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Cinematography: Roland Totheroh
Screenplay: Charlie Chaplin
Music composed by: Arthur Johnston, Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Newman

The Kid 1921

The Kid was Charles Chaplin's first self-produced and directed feature film; 1914's 6-reel Tillie's Punctured Romance was a Mack Sennett production in which Chaplin merely co-starred.The story with a smile and perhaps a tear, begins with unwed mother Edna Purviance leaving the Charity Hospital, babe in arms. Her burden is illustrated with a title card showing Christ bearing the cross. The father of the child is a poor artist who cares little for of his former lover, carelessly knocking her photo into his garret fireplace and cooly returning it there when he sees it is too badly damaged to keep. The mother sorrowfully leaves her baby in the back seat of a millionaire's limousine, with a note imploring whoever finds it to care for and love the child. But thieves steal the limo, and, upon discovering the baby, ditch the tot in an alleyway trash can. Enter Chaplin, out for his morning stroll, carefully selecting a choice cigarette butt from his well used tin. He stumbles upon the squalling infant and, after trying to palm it off on a lady with another baby in a carriage, decides to adopt the kid himself. Meanwhile Purviance has relented, but when she returns to the mansion and is told that the car has been stolen, she collapses in despair. Chaplin outfits his flat for the baby as best he can, using an old coffee pot with a nipple on the spout as a baby bottle and a cane chair with the seat cut out as a potty seat. Chaplin's attic apartment is a representation of the garret he had shared with his mother and brother in London, just as the slum neighborhood is a recreation of the ones he knew as a boy.Five years later, Chaplin has become a glazier, while his adopted son (the remarkable Jackie Coogan) drums up business for his old man by cheerfully breaking windows in the neighborhood. Purviance meanwhile has become a world famous opera singer, still haunted by the memory of her child, who does charity work in the very slums in which he now lives. Ironically, she gives a toy dog to little Coogan. Chaplin and Coogan's close calls with the law and fights with street toughs are easily overcome, but when Coogan falls ill, the attending doctor learns of the illegal adoption and summons the Orphan Asylum social workers who try to separate Chaplin from his foster son. In one of the most moving scenes in all of Chaplin's films, Chaplin and Coogan try to fight the officials, but Chaplin is subdued by the cop they have summoned. Coogan is roughly thrown into the back of the Asylum van, pleading to the welfare official and to God not to be separated from his father. Chaplin, freeing himself from the cop, pursues the orphanage van over the rooftops and, descending into the back of the truck, dispatches the official and tearfully reunites with his son. Returning to check on the sick boy, Purviance encounters the doctor and is shown the note which she had attached to her baby five years earlier. Chaplin and Coogan, not daring to return home, settle in a flophouse for the night. The proprietor sees a newspaper ad offering a reward for Coogan's return and kidnaps the sleeping boy. After hunting fruitlessly, a grieving Chaplin falls asleep on his tenement doorstep and dreams that he has been reunited with the boy in Heaven (that flirtatious angel is Lita Grey, later Chaplin's second wife). Woken from his dream by the cop, he is taken via limousine to Purviance's mansion where he is welcomed by Coogan and Purviance, presumably to stay. Chaplin had difficulties getting The Kid produced. His inspiration, it is suggested was the death of his own first son, Norman Spencer Chaplin a few days after birth in 1919. His determination to make a serio-comic feature was challenged by First National who preferred two reel films, which were more quickly produced and released. Chaplin wisely gained his distributors' approval by inviting them to the studio, where he trotted out the delightful Coogan to entertain them. Chaplin's divorce case from his first wife Mildred Harris also played a part; fearing seizure of the negatives Chaplin and crew escaped to Salt Lake City and later to New York to complete the editing of the film. Chaplin's excellent and moving score for The Kid was composed in 1971 for a theatrical re-release, but used themes that Chaplin had composed in 1921. Chaplin re-edited the film somewhat for the re-release, cutting scenes that he felt were overly sentimental, such as Purviance's observing of a May-December wedding and her portrayal as a saint, outlined by a church's stained glass window.~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide
Initial release: January 21, 1921 (USA)
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Running time: 68 minutes
Screenplay: Charlie Chaplin
Music composed by: Charlie Chaplin

The Great Dictator 1940

The Great Dictator is a 1940 American comedy-drama and anti-Nazi film starring, written, produced, scored, and directed by Charlie Chaplin, following the tradition of many of his other films. Wikipedia
Initial release: October 15, 1940 (New York City)
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Screenplay: Charlie Chaplin
Characters: Hynkel, A Jewish Barber
Awards: New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Plot:During a battle in the last months of World War I, the protagonist, an unnamed soldier (known only in the credits as A Jewish Barber, played by Charlie Chaplin), is fighting for the Central Powers in the army of the fictional nation of Tomainia,[7] comically blundering through the trenches in combat scenes. Upon hearing a fatigued pilot pleading for help, the Barber attempts to rescue the exhausted officer, Commander Schultz. The two board Schultz's nearby airplane and fly off, barely escaping enemy ground fire. Schultz reveals that he is carrying important dispatches that could win the war. However, the plane loses fuel and crashes in a marsh. They both survive, but the Barber suffers from memory loss. As medics arrive, Commander Schultz gives them the dispatches, but is told that the war has just ended and Tomainia lost.

Modern Times 1936

Modern Times is a 1936 comedy film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin in which his iconic Little Tramp character struggles to survive in the modern, industrialized world. The film is a comment on the desperate employment and fiscal conditions many people faced during the Great Depression, conditions created, in Chaplin's view, by the efficiencies of modern industrialization. The movie stars Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Stanley Sandford and Chester Conklin.

        Modern Times was deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress in 1989, and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Fourteen years later, it was screened "out of competition" at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
Initial release: January 1, 1936 (USA)
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Running time: 87 minutes
Characters: Ellen Peterson, A Factory Worker, Prison Cellmate, more
Cinematography: Ira H. Morgan, Roland Totheroh

The Artist 2011

The Artist is a 2011 French romantic comedy-drama film in the style of a black-and-white silent film. It was written, directed, and co-edited by Michel Hazanavicius, produced by Thomas Langmann and starred Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo. The story takes place in Hollywood, between 1927 and 1932, and focuses on the relationship of an older silent film star and a rising young actress as silent cinema falls out of fashion and is replaced by the "talkies".
Initial release: October 12, 2011 (Belgium, France)
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Featured song: Pennies from Heaven
Screenplay: Michel Hazanavicius
Awards: Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award for Best Actor, Academy Award for Best Director, Academy Award for Best Original Music Score, Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, BAFTA Award for Best Film, César Award for Best Film, Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, Cesar Award for Best Original Score, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, César Award for Best Director, César Award for Best Actress, Cannes Best Actor Award, BFCA Critics' Choice Award for Best Composer, European Film Award for Best Composer, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, BAFTA Award for Best Direction, Independent Spirit Award for Best Director, César Award for Best Cinematography, Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture, César Award for Best Production Design, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director, AACTA International Award for Best Actor, Satellite Award for Best Art Direction and Production Design, Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead, Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography, Australian Film Institute International Award for Best Actor, AACTA International Award for Best Film, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Director, AACTA International Award for Best Direction, BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography, Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature, BFCA Critics' Choice Award for Best Costume Design, Goya Award for Best European Film, BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design, DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Film

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