"Actor: Mack Swain"

• Charlie Chaplin Complete Box Set | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £139.99

  This Chaplin Collection DVD box set contains the following films, also available separately: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Limelight (1952). Full details can be found in our Chaplin Collection feature. There are also two films exclusive to this box set: A Woman of Paris (1923) and A King in New York (1957), plus the documentary Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin--see DVD Description below.

• The Keystone Comedies | DVD | (12/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  One of the early classic movie studios Keystone Pictures Studios was founded in 1912 by Mack Sennett and would find lasting fame with their brand of slapstick comedy especially the Keystone Cops. These four films which include The Bangville Police the first popular Keystone Cops film showcase their brand of slapstick to perfection. The Bangville Police: A young farmer's daughter spots some strangers hanging around in the barn and rushes off to call the police. But the police have a haphazard rush across country to get there in time. Her Painted Hero: An heiress decides to use her new found wealth financing her favourite star's new vaudeville show but on the understanding that a part is found for her. Love Speed And Thrills: An injured Walrus who has been shot is carried home by Ambrose but Walrus recovers enough to start flirting with Ambrose' wife! Wife And Auto Trouble: Bossed about at home by his wife and his mother-inlaw a meek husband finds comfort in the arms of his secretary. In gratitude he has bought her a car but unfortunately the wife spots it first.

• Chaplin Classics Vol 1 | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £71.99

  Modern Times: In this delightfully madcap comedy Chaplin plays a hapless factory worker who cracks under the strain of his job and runs amok. Unemployed on the streets of Depression America he joins forces with a young woman fleeing the childcare authorities and they embark on a misadventure-filled search for happiness. The Great Dictator: Tomanian dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a double a poor Jewish barber who one day is mistaken for Hynkel and comic catastrophes ensue! Gold Rush: The Tramp goes to the Klondike in search of gold and finds a whole lot more! Limelight: Fading comedian Calvero (Chaplin) and suicidally despondent ballet dancer Thereza (Bloom) look to each other to find meaning and hope in their lives... Charlie: The Life And Art Of Charles Chaplin: Richard Schickel's new documentary Charlie chronicles Charles Chaplin's brilliant career as an actor writer director producer and composer as well as his controversial and much publicised private life - his love affairs and four marriages his paternity suit scandal and persecution by the FBI culminating in a self-imposed exile from the United States. With its brilliant observations rare footage interwoven with scenes from Chaplin's greatest films and a remarkable series of newly recorded interviews Charlie is the definitive documentary overview of Chaplin and his Little Tramp.

• Charlie Chaplin Marathon - The Rink, The Immigrant, Tillie's Punctured Romance, The Vagabond | DVD | (01/11/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  “The Rink”: Chaplin plays a waiter who spends his time at the skating rink where his skill and grace lead to possible romance and unfortunate mishaps. “The Immigrant”: En-route by boat immigrant Chaplin tries to make the best of the rough seas. He befriends a woman and appoints himself her protector. “Tillie’s Punctured Romance”: This is the first feature-length comedy ever made and features Chaplin as a con artist who talks Marie Dressler an innocent lass into taking her dad’s savings and running off to the city with him. “The Vagabond”: This is the story of The Little Tramp a pathetic fiddler that makes a scanty living and rescues damsels in distress. One of the first films directed by Charlie Chaplin.

• The Gold Rush - Dual Format Edition | Blu Ray | (23/08/2010) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-4.29 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A lone prospector ventures into Alaska looking for gold. He gets mixed up with some burly characters falls in love with the beautiful Georgia and tries to win her heart with his singular charm. This Dual Format Edition (Blu-ray and DVD) includes both versions of The Gold Rush - the 1925 silent original restored by Kevin Brownlow and the digitally restored 1942 film (in 1942 Charles Chaplin took the 1925 original composed and recorded a musical score for the film added narration and re-edited)

• Charlie Chaplin - Gold Rush | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Chaplin's personal favourite among his own films, The Gold Rush embodies all the trademarks of his mix of slapstick, satire, social commentary and sentiment--a perfect showcase for his ever-popular Little Tramp. Set during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898, the film features a comic reworking of the gruesome Donner Party story, where a group of snowbound immigrants resorted to eating their clothes and then each other to stay alive. It opens with a grand shot of gold prospectors snaking up the side of a mountain. We then see the Tramp, typically estranged from the rest of the group, making his own way across the snow. Seeking shelter in a blizzard, he finds the cabin of the dangerous criminal Black Larson (Tom Murray) and when another prospector, Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain), comes along, the two of them take charge of the cabin and eventually drive him out. Starving on Thanksgiving, the pair decide to dine in style when the Tramp cooks one of his shoes, famously acting as if he's cooking a fine piece of meat; twirling the laces up like spaghetti and savouring every last nibble. When he finally escapes, the Tramp ends up in a local town and falls in love, only to be rebuffed on New Year's Eve. When a chance meeting reunites him with Big Jim, the two go back in search of gold hidden near the cabin. Despite its unlikely origins, the story is shaped into a classic comedy containing many famous set-pieces, including the cabin teetering on the edge of a cliff and the Tramp morphing into a chicken before the starving Big Jim. Ultimately it's Chaplin's endearing and amusing persona that makes this material genuinely enduring. On the DVD The Gold Rush comes to DVD in a decent transfer with good mono sound and the option of Dolby Digital 5.1. The second disc of bonus features opens with an introduction by David Robinson, who chronicles Chaplin's work on the film, which was interrupted when his clandestine affair with his 15-year-old leading lady meant that, due to her becoming pregnant, the filming had to close for a few months while a new female lead was found. The original 1925 version of the film, before Chaplin updated it with the addition of sound in 1942, appears in full. The Chaplin Today documentary illustrates the influence of the film on director Idrissa Ouedraogo from Burkina Faso, whose own work follows similar themes, as well as going behind the scenes on the original production. Trailers, posters and stills round off this worthy addition to the Chaplin Collection. --Laura Bushell