Following last week’s UK release of our new Charlie Chaplin: The Collection DVD box set, we’ve been scouring the web to see what the Little Tramp’s fans have had to say about it.
As part of our latest blogathon, Martyn Conterio at Cinemart composed an article entitled Charles Chaplin & The Greatest Cocaine Gag In Cinema History, in which he challenged the myth that silent era comedies aren’t funny.
Martyn chose a scene from 1936’s Modern Times, in which Charlie mistakes a batch of cocaine for salt, explaining that “the set up and execution are perfect”. We have to agree:
Meanwhile, over on the Kitty Packard Pictorial, Carly Johnson looked at Charlie’s love/hate relationship with sound in the fascinating Charlie Chaplin and the Sound of Silence.
Carly explained that the silent star couldn’t read or write music, even though it had been a major part of his early life in London. Quite how Charlie managed to become so well-known for his film scores is something you’ll discover over on the blog.
DVD reviewers have been discovering (and rediscovering) Charlie’s work through the box set, superlatives such as “stone-cold classics” and “cult masterpiece” used to describe his films.
Mike Chapman on Front Row Reviews describes Charlie’s influence on filmmakers such as Woody Allen and Jackie Chan in Charlie Chaplin: A Retrospective, going on to nominate The Great Dictator as his favourite of the collection.
CineVue’s John Nugent focuses on A King in New York and Monsieur Verdoux in his five-star review, describing the 12-disc set as “an ideal place to start” for newcomers to the star’s work.
Finally, what better way to celebrate Charlie Chaplin’s career than with a clip of him in action? We uploaded the following excerpt from A King in New York to our YouTube channel and we’ll let Charlie play us out…
Charlie Chaplin: The Collection is out now on DVD from Amazon.co.uk
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