Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin's comedy always had a melodramatic element. (Buster Keaton made purer comedy.) He grew up in a London slum and became the most famous man in the world in his twenties, like the Beatles.  He was one of silent cinema's great artists.  He was also a fine composer, writing musical scores for his films.

I saw several Chaplin movies for the first time when I was twelve and the showed them on the CBC on Sunday nights.  The Gold Rush and City Lights and Modern Times are amazing.  His sound movie Limelight isn't as great, but it does have a great moment where the music hall star brings down the house, comes out to take a bow but sees an empty theatre. (A succinct conveying of becoming a has-been.)

I saw one early film where Chaplin's stunts included running up what almost looked like a vertical wall!  He must have kept very fit.

Chaplin directed A Woman of Paris, a silent movie he didn't act in (except for a tiny cameo as a porter).  It isn't well known but I found it compelling.  I want to see it again someday.

Robert Downey Jr. played the title role in the biographical movie Chaplin.  The film itself is rather pedestrian, but Downey's performance is uncanny!