Page 65 - All About History - Issue 33-15

The fall of Charlie Chaplin

spheres of his work. That’s rare air that the south- Modern Times (1936), which had criticised modern
London visionary breathed. work life in an increasingly, rapidly mechanising
The story of Charlie Chaplin’s life has often been world. Indeed, with that film, Chaplin took
framed as an ever-appealing rags-to-riches story, the idea of being a cog in the machine of work
and suffice to say at this point that Chaplin’s life and pretty much makes it literal. Tellingly, his
became something of a lens through which to character’s name in the film is simply A Factory
view poverty in early 20th-century south London. Worker.
It’s certainly the case that, in Chaplin, we have, Rightly concerned by the rise of fascism in
what film scholar Richard Dyer might identify as a Europe and the particular event of the Spanish
powerful example of the film star’s fascination to Civil War, Chaplin was committed to deploying his
audiences as the embodiment of behaviour, and work as a filmmaker to a very pertinent, timely
perhaps appearance, that appeals and complex subject. In this way,
to many. he made good on something he
From very early in his had reflected on in essays that
professional life as an he had written early in his
entertainer, Chaplin was very career. In his essay We Have
much considered a wunderkind: Come To Stay (1922), Chaplin
someone whose creative reflected on how cinema
invention, energy and popularity could function as a form
was tangible in one way and capable of exploring serious
unfathomable in another. As themes. Making the broadest
of 1913, Chaplin had become a of statements here, the vast
global movie star, constructing richness of Chaplin’s career, and
an image of The Tramp as an diverse reflections on it, finds
innocent making his way in the a home in the BFI’s extensive
perilous modern world. It was a online Chaplin archive: a must-
As well as starring in role that, in part, owed a creative visit online resource.
them, Chaplin wrote and debt to the Dickens novel Oliver Charlie’s The premise of The Great
directed most of his films
Twist that Chaplin read many Dictator turnsonahumble
times over. Inevitably, though, troubled barber, from the country of
Chaplin in The Kid, to invoke the words of the poet Tomania, who is injured during
his first full-length Robert Frost: “Nothing gold can childhood World War I. Experiencing
film as a director
stay.”Inthelatterhalfofhis Raised in south London, memoryloss,heiskeptina
life, Charlie Chaplin became Chaplin encountered hospitalfor20years.Whenhe
increasingly beset by comment, much that would inspire isreleased,hefindsthataman
reaction and endeavours his movie magic named Adenoid Hynkel has
to diminish him either become dictator of Tomania, and
Born on 16 April 1889 on East Street,
professionally or personally. Walworth, Charlie Chaplin was the son hehassetaboutpersecuting
of Hannah and Charles, professional theJews.Thefilmdramatises
The Great Dictator singers. Charlie’s dad would quite andsatirisesanumberofkey
(1940) often be away from home in touring reference points that relate
vaudeville shows. Eventually, Hannah
In an edition of Sight And Sound and Charles’s marriage came to an eerily to what Hitler would go
magazine, published in October end. Charles died at just 37 years of on to do through World War II.
2003,apieceaboutChaplin age. Hannah battled with delicate Viaaseriesofconfusionsand
mental health and was placed in a
observed that: “He made movies mental institution. Charlie and his mistaken identities, the humble
that danced to the rhythms of step-brother Sydney knew starvation barber is mistaken for Hynkel
modernityandcapturedthe on the south London streets. Charlie and uses it to humanitarian
was taken into care at the Central
anxieties of changing political advantage,givingaspeechthat
District Poor Laws School at Hanwell
times.”Thedescriptioncould in Middlesex. The school had first runs counter to all that Hynkel
notbemoretrueof The Great been sited at Norwood in south has been espousing. Where
London and Charles Dickens had
Dictator,thefilmthatmarkeda Hynkel’s vision was based on
written about it in his periodical,
watershedofsortsinChaplin’s Household Words. These vivid hate and distrust and racial
professional life. experiences from Chaplin’s childhood prejudice, the barber’s vision
Movies are political; not party would eventually inform films such as embraces shared humanity. Even
his Hollywood movie The Kid.
political, but ideological and, as in this brief précis, we can see
such,theywillalwaysexpressa how this comedy touches on
particular view of the world. You may or may not theverytensionsthathavealwayscharacterised
agreewiththeperspectiveonoffer,butthere’s somuchhumanconflict.Assuch,thisisafilm
alwaysonelurkingatvaryingdepthsbelowthe thatworkssowelltoday;it’sa‘classic’,which,
surface. With The Great Dictator, Chaplin wrote to borrow an idea from the Italian writer Italo
anddirectedperhapshismostovertlypolitical Calvino,meansthatit’sastorythathasn’tfinished
filmusingittomakeasharplyhumorousand with what it has to say.
unforgiving critique of the rise of fascism. The film In The Great Dictator, Chaplin focuses on a vivid
sits well right alongside another of Chaplin’s films, parody of Hitler and the film concludes with a
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