I had Chaplin all wrong, I was too influenced by his personal life and the commercialization of his image. In fact, my conception was more of people imitating “The Tramp” with the weird duck-walk and twitchy mustache, than of him in films. It’s in some of his early comedies that you see the self-sacrificing noble qualities that are less often considered.
Example A: The tenderness he shared with Jackie Coogan in “The Kid” (1921):
Shortly before filming Chaplin and his wife had a child who died a few days after birth. Chaplin then poured himself into the production. There is a scene where he is reunited with “The Kid” that includes a full-mouth kiss that is unlike anything I’ve seen in movies.
Comments are closed.