Buzz
Charlie Chaplin wasn't just the first globally recognized film comedian; he's also one of the few icons from the silent film era who is still widely remembered by audiences today, from the West to Africa and even China. His influence was far-reaching.
While we should acknowledge Chaplin's personal shortcomings, such as his attraction to young women and pressure on lovers to have abortions, this list focuses mainly on the quirky and unexpected aspects of his life and career.
10. Unexpected Crudeness
Chaplin is often remembered for his charming comedic style, but during his rise to fame in the 1910s, he was seen as quite vulgar by middle-class standards. His iconic Tramp character's famous walk was even dubbed 'that nasty little walk' in a 1955 novel discussing Chaplin's reputation around 1915. The use of a cane, despite not needing one, was also seen as a crude gesture, with some speculating he might use it to lift women's skirts. At the time, movies were largely regarded as low-class and morally questionable entertainment.
To be fair, Chaplin did include gags in his films that, even by today's standards, could be seen as somewhat crude, and we're not just talking about slapstick. For instance, in his 1918 movie A Dog's Life, the Tramp's dog Scraps is digging a hole while the Tramp’s head is near her rear. He looks over, is disgusted by the smell, and lowers the dog's tail. Even in 1936, when Chaplin was in his more refined phase, the Tramp had a scene where he’s trying not to fart in front of a prison chaplain's wife, and the gurgling from his stomach disturbs her dog. These kinds of moments were part of what made Chaplin so universally appealing at the time.
9. Setting a Precedent with a Blood Test
In 1942, Chaplin became involved in one of the most scandalous and significant affairs of his life. He briefly had an affair with a woman named Joan Barry as his latest marriage was coming to an end. He ended it swiftly, but in 1943, Barry returned with a claim that Chaplin had fathered a child with her, which led to a paternity suit. Initially, Chaplin won the case in 1944 after a blood test revealed the child was not his.
In 1945, during a retrial, prosecuting attorney Joseph Scott successfully argued that blood tests were inadmissible as evidence. Despite overwhelming scientific proof, Chaplin was forced to pay a significant amount in child support. The public uproar over the case led to the passing of legislation that made blood tests legally acceptable as evidence in future paternity cases.
8. Smuggled Film
Chaplin’s first major success as a director came with the 1921 film *The Kid*. The film is now largely remembered for the child labor laws it helped bring about, due to the fact that Jackie Coogan, Chaplin's young co-star, lost most of the money he earned from the film to his parents. In today's context, certain aspects of the film, such as the Tramp's flirtation with a 12-year-old actress named Lita Grey, may raise eyebrows. Chaplin would later accidentally impregnate and marry Grey, who was cast as a 15-year-old in *The Gold Rush*. Even the film's conclusion, where the Tramp kisses a young girl he rescues from a workhouse, might not be received in the same way today. Nevertheless, it was a huge financial success and propelled Chaplin’s career in feature-length films.
One of the more peculiar events during the production of *The Kid* involved Chaplin’s smuggling efforts. As he was completing the film in California, Chaplin was also in the midst of a divorce from his first wife, Mildred Harris. Fearing that his wife might seize the film, which had cost $500,000 to produce, Chaplin came up with a unique solution: He packed the 122,000 meters (400,000 feet) of film into coffee cans, smuggled it to Salt Lake City—beyond the reach of California's divorce courts—and started editing the film in a hotel. Later, he moved the film to New Jersey for its final editing. Throughout this covert operation, Chaplin traveled under an alias, worried that the courts would eventually catch up with him.
7. Sound: Nemesis And Friend
Even after Al Jolson's 1927 film *The Jazz Singer* demonstrated to the film industry that sound was the future, Chaplin remained committed to making silent films. His disdain for sound was so strong that in the opening of his beloved 1931 film *City Lights*, he mocked the concept of sound-sync dialogue by having the characters communicate with kazoo-like noises. By the time Chaplin made his final mostly silent film, *Modern Times*, in 1936, he had become one of the last major filmmakers to cling to the silent film era.
However, in 1942, Chaplin seemed to develop a newfound appreciation for sound. He revisited one of his earlier masterpieces, *The Gold Rush*, and reworked it to include his own narration. He favored this sound version so much that he neglected to renew the copyright on the silent version, allowing it to enter the public domain. After the release of *The Great Dictator*, all of his films became significantly more dialogue-heavy, with a stronger emphasis on storytelling through words rather than visual elements. The lesson here for artists is clear: sticking to one aesthetic can limit your opportunities, even if you're an iconoclast.
6. His 'Best' Movie
Critics generally agree that Chaplin's silent films are his finest works, many even considering them some of the best films ever made. For instance, the American Film Institute's list of *the 100 best films* of the 20th century ranks *City Lights* at No. 11, *The Gold Rush* at No. 58, and *Modern Times* at No. 79. Given this, you might assume that Chaplin himself would have named one of these as his personal best.
Surprisingly, Chaplin considered his greatest film to be one that most fans are unfamiliar with: *A Countess from Hong Kong* (1967), his only color film. Starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren, the film is a bedroom farce where Loren plays a Russian woman who is about to be forced into prostitution, but escapes by blackmailing Brando’s character to help her flee to America. The film was not well received by either critics or audiences, becoming a commercial failure. However, Petula Clark's performance of 'This is My Song,' written by Chaplin, was a notable success, topping the British charts.
5. The ‘Communist’ Kick
In 1946, Chaplin came under intense investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for suspected communist ties. The probe was so thorough that the FBI enlisted MI5, the British intelligence service, to gather any proof of communist leanings or, failing that, any grounds to deport Chaplin. Despite MI5 finding no such evidence and the FBI itself uncovering nothing that indicated Chaplin was involved in espionage or posed a threat to U.S. interests, Chaplin was still denied reentry into the United States in 1952.
In their desperate search for a reason to block Chaplin's reentry into the U.S., the authorities unearthed something unexpectedly trivial—even by the paranoid standards of the Red Scare. In Chaplin's 1917 short film *The Immigrant*, the Tramp is part of a group of mistreated immigrants pressed against a wall. When an immigration officer passes by, the Tramp nonchalantly kicks him while facing away. This seemingly insignificant act caught the attention of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who considered it enough to deem Chaplin unfit to live in America more than three decades later.
4. Israel Thornstein: Frenchman
Amid the investigation, a strange rumor about the legendary comedian emerged. Since the 1910s, there had been speculation that Chaplin’s real name was Israel Thornstein and that he had been born in France, across the English Channel. Naturally, there was no evidence to support this. Interestingly, there was also no concrete proof of Chaplin's birth in Britain. Although Chaplin had immigrated to the United States in 1910, no immigration records were found for him before 1920. This was likely more an issue with the record-keeping practices of the time than evidence of any deceit on Chaplin’s part.
So, why Israel Thornstein? The name, which doesn’t sound at all French, stemmed from the long-standing myth that Chaplin was Jewish. In response to the rumor, Chaplin humorously cast himself as a Jewish barber in *The Great Dictator* (as pictured above). When he did play a Frenchman, it was as the cold-blooded criminal Monsieur Verdoux in the 1947 film of the same name. This might suggest which identity Chaplin would prefer to be associated with.
3. Disney’s Savior
Chaplin’s influence is still felt today, particularly for his role in the success of the 1937 film *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*. This film played a major part in establishing the Walt Disney Company as a global powerhouse. Not only did it achieve a record-breaking gross, but it was also the first successful feature-length animated film. At the time, there were serious doubts about Disney's ability to create a feature-length film. Would audiences connect with the drawn figure of Snow White? Would eerie illustrations of trees be too frightening? It was a risky venture for the company.
By this point, Chaplin and Walt Disney had forged a friendship and a business partnership, with Chaplin wholeheartedly encouraging Walt to continue with the film. Once it was finished, Chaplin offered his own financial records from *Modern Times* to assist Disney’s accountants in determining the right pricing for the film as it was distributed by RKO. Disney later expressed his gratitude, claiming that without Chaplin's help, they would have been 'sheep in a den of wolves.'
However, Chaplin might have had second thoughts about supporting Disney had he known what lay ahead. Within a decade of helping Disney’s rise, Walt Disney would testify before Congress about his belief that communism had infiltrated Hollywood. By 1947, Disney would be backing the very kind of blacklist that led to Chaplin’s exile from America. That's the nature of showbiz friendships.
2. Fake Chaplins
In the late 1910s, a peculiar subgenre of film emerged featuring 'people pretending to be Charlie Chaplin.' It wasn't simply actors imitating his iconic style for self-promotion. These performers were dressed and made to resemble Chaplin as closely as possible, with film distributors explicitly marketing them as Chaplin himself. Notable figures in this trend included Billie Ritchie, Stan Jefferson, and most prominently, Billy West, who took on this role for years.
Critics have pointed out that while West managed to replicate many of Chaplin's signature mannerisms, the flaw in his performances was the lack of any attempt to make his imitation of the Tramp sympathetic through emotion. Instead, West's portrayal focused solely on mimicking Chaplin's famous gags and walks. Interestingly, West's recurring antagonist in many of these knockoff films was none other than Oliver Hardy (from Laurel and Hardy), who essentially mirrored the role of the villain typically played by Eric Campbell in Chaplin's actual films.
1. Deleted Scenes: The Movie
In 1918, Chaplin made the decision to part ways with Essanay Studios and pursue a career as an independent filmmaker. At the height of his fame, there was an overwhelming demand for more Chaplin films, even though he had already produced numerous works with Essanay. However, Essanay came up with a misguided solution that was ahead of its time: they took discarded footage and even segments of an incomplete Chaplin film titled *Life*, along with actors impersonating the famous 'Keystone Cops,' to create a mishmash film. The final product was called *Triple Trouble*.
Chaplin was outraged that scenes he considered so poor and embarrassing that he wanted them destroyed were now being shown to the public. He publicly denounced the film, and critics largely agreed, leading to its failure. However, historians noted that Chaplin listed *Triple Trouble* in his 1964 autobiography, interpreting it as evidence that he had moved past his initial anger. It’s also possible that by then, Chaplin had simply forgotten what *Triple Trouble* even was.
