Best Charles Chaplin feature-length film?

[elperromagico]

Poll question: Best Charles Chaplin feature-length film?

Turner Classic Movies today is showing a marathon of Charles Chaplin's films. So here's a poll of most of his feature films. Enjoy! :hi:

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

1. Modern Times

[Cooley Hurd]

2. City Lights...

...with the best ending of all of his films. Actually, I'm partial to Monsieur Verdoux - his speech at the end was pure Chaplin, in which he said:

Wars, conflict--it's all business. One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify!

If only Charles could see the world today...:(

[kodi]

31. yeap.

a perfect film. only a very few of them around.

[elperromagico]

3. It's time for you to be Kicked.

:kick:

[Gothic Sponge]

4. I love them all!

I went with City Lights.

[LynneSin]

5. I can never choose between Gold Rush and City Lights

It's like trying to choose between Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On" and "What is and What Should Never Be" All are just wonderful classics that I adore.

BTW, I own several Charlie Chaplin movies on DVD

[elperromagico]

6. I wish sometimes that multiple votes were enabled on these polls.

Not all polls, of course, but just the ones where choosing just one option is nigh on impossible.

[Kahuna]

7. The Circus. Then, Modern Times and City Lights....

I haven't seen the Gold Rush yet or Tillie's Punctured Romance. I'll get to see those today. My DVR is going now so that I can make DVDs later.

[flamingyouth]

17. All of the "Tillie" movies are a lot of fun

:hi:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. Pardon my ignorance

What's a "Tillie" movie? :dunce:

[flamingyouth]

19. LOL - you're hardly ignorant

They are very early silent comedies, a short series that began in 1914.

Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)
aka "Tillie's Big Romance"
aka "Tillie's Nightmare"
Tillie's Tomato Surprise (1915)
Tillie's Terrible Tumbles (1916)

I mean, you haven't heard of these major blockbusters?!?! :D

[elperromagico]

21. Isn't Tillie's Punctured Romance supposed to be the first comedy feature?

n/t

[flamingyouth]

22. It depends on what you call "feature"

It was longer than most comedies of its day, and it had a bigger budget as well.

But there were silly, shorter, poorer quality films going back to 1900 or so. Believe me, ask a room full of silent film geeks this question and you'll never get us to agree on it.

It's pretty amazing to think that Chaplin earned $10,000 a week when we went to Mutual back then - and it was essentially tax-free income! :D

[elperromagico]

23. I consider a feature to be longer than an hour, damn it!

:P

[flamingyouth]

24. That was a looooooong movie back then!

But imagine seeing Von Stroheim's full-length version of Greed back in 1924 - it was freaking eight hours long! For some odd reason, the studio rejected it. :shrug:

;)

[elperromagico]

8. Yea verily, I shall kick thee again.

:kick:

[redqueen]

9. The Great Dictator

But really I haven't seen them all so I'm not qualified to judge.

Am I going to be suspended now?

[elperromagico]

11. Badly mangled reply.

And no, you shan't be suspended. :)

Edit: I must be drunk. I've tried to reply to two posts simultaneously.

[Kahuna]

12. Monsieur Verdoux was the first Chaplin film I remember seeing..

as an adult. I thought it was a hideous joke. I was horrified. I wasn't sure that I would ever forgive Chaplin for that film. I have since forgiven him and become a huge fan.

[WI_DEM]

10. Monsieur Verdoux

great combination of comedy and drama. Chaplin's scenes with Martha Raye are priceless.

[flamingyouth]

13. I'm the first vote for "The Kid"! Can't believe it!

Such a great film - Jackie Coogan was superb in it too. :)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. The scene where they take the kid away from Charlie

is THE most powerful tearjerker EVER.

[flamingyouth]

16. Oh, I know!!!

Jackie Coogan was a great child actor. He was in another wonderful silent alongside Joan Crawford in one of her first roles. It was called Old Clothes, but you don't see it much outside of the film festival circuit. I saw it at Cinecon a few years ago.

[elperromagico]

20. That's an extremely powerful scene.

Particularly that shot of Chaplin as he's hearing the Kid cry out for him. Just the look on his face - a combination of horror and grief - is utterly heartbreaking.

I find myself literally rooting for Chaplin as he races across the rooftops to get to the Kid. And of course, when they're reunited, it's a beautiful moment:



The only moment that trumps it for me in the Chaplin oeuvre is the final scene of City Lights - which is why I voted for that film.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

27. Some say he made a bad trip to his own childhood while filming that.

He was separated from his mother, who was commited to a mental asylum.

[flamingyouth]

28. The Chaplins had a horrible childhood

His older brother Sydney suffered from alcoholism and mental illness. It was very sad.

[No2W2004]

30. Yes truly awful

Their father was an alchoholic vaudville performer who once managed a hit song about sneeking in drunk late at night and having the wife hit you over the head. Sidney was Charles half-brother, and they always stuck together as Charles' mother Hanna was in and out of mental wards. By this time, their father was long gone and would later die of alchoholism. Charles would later bring over Sidney to be his manager and Hanna to live by him in California. He would visit, but prefered not to visit too much because it was very painful for him to see her in her condition.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. I wish copyright laws were sane. These movies should be public domain.

Well, maybe not those made in the 50's. But 70 years is more than enough.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

25. Silent Kick (nt)

[sir_captain]

26. City Lights by a mile

it is, in my opinion, the finest film ever made

The Great Dictator, while of great historical importance, is not nearly as good as City Lights, Modern Times, or The Circus

[No2W2004]

29. I voted for City Lights

over the others only because I've read about what Chaplin went through to get it done, and the balls he had to make another silent film when everyone else was doing "talkies". I know most of his films took guts to make, as he never followed conventional wisdom, but "City Lights" was an all or nothing gamble. Also,last 5 minutes are some of the finest ever filmed in my opinion.

Another point, "The Great Dictator" was shot before the 1939, when a lot of the US was looking the other way from Germany. Chaplin refused.