"Director: Charlie Chaplin"

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

  The Great Dictator was Charles Chaplin's first fully talking picture, a scathing comic assault on Adolf Hitler, which these days will mostly play like brilliant slapstick. But in 1940, with America still neutral, it was the boldest anti-Nazi statement Hollywood had then put on screen. The thin plot doesn't matter, being just a peg for writer-director Chaplin's almost consistently inventive and hilarious set-pieces featuring himself in the duel roles of Adenoid Hynkel, the ludicrous anti-Semitic Dictator of Tomania, and an innocent Jewish barber who happens to be a Tomanian hero of the Great War. In the latter role he affectionately spins a variation on his beloved Tramp character while briefly romancing a lacklustre Paulette Goddard, costar of his equally satirical Modern Times (1936). Yet it's as Hynkel/Hitler that Chaplin really shines, from a side-splitting opening speech to some Duck Soup-style madness with rival leader Napaloni, played with flamboyant swagger by Jack Oakie. While the finale, a clarion call for a brave new world united by science and technological progress that seems to emanate straight from 1936's Things to Come, may jar, the comedic approach to a deadly serious subject has proved lastingly influential, from Dr Strangelove (1964) to Life is Beautiful (1997). On the DVD The Great Dictator is presented in the original 4:3 black and white with strong, clear mono sound and a picture so sharp and detailed that, bar a few very minor instances of damage, the film could have been shot yesterday. Also included are French and Italian dubbed versions and an English Dolby Digital 5.1 version of the soundtrack, which is best avoided. The disc features multiple subtitle options, including English for hard of hearing. Disc Two begins with a superb 55-minute documentary, directed by film historian Kevin Brownlow and Michael Kloft, narrated by Kenneth Branagh and coproduced by the BBC. The Tramp and the Dictator goes seriously in-depth to explore the parallels between the world's most loved and hated men, drawing on many interviews and remarkable rare footage, including colour sequences of the making of The Great Dictator shot by Chaplin's brother, Sydney. Next comes the complete 25 minutes of that home-movie footage, including coverage of the original abandoned ending, and a seven-minute deleted scene from Sunnyside (1918), which inspired the barber scene. Finally there is a poster gallery and a scene from Monsieur Verdoux (1947) concerning the rise of Hitler and fascism. Marvellous stuff, though a commentary could have added considerably to the already remarkable silent colour material. --Gary S Dalkin

• Charlie Chaplin Collection - Vol. 2 | DVD | (08/09/2003) from £4.98   |  Saving you £-2.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  A Jitney Elopement: Edna's father wants her to marry wealthy Count He-Ha whilst he wants to marry Charlie. Charlie impersonates the Count at a dinner but is found out when the real Count turns up and thrown out.Burlesque On Carmen: A parody of both the opera and earlier film version in which Charlie plays Spanish officer Darn Hosiery who is led astray by gypsy girl Carmen (Edna Purvience).A Night In The Show: Mr Pest (Charlie Chaplin) has to try several seats in the

• Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £44.99

  ONCE AGAIN THE WHOLE WORLD LAUGHS... During the last days of the First World War a clumsy soldier saves the life of devoted military pilot Schultz. Unfortunately their flight from the advancing enemy ends in a severe crash with the clumsy soldier losing his memories. After quite some years in the hospital the amnesia patient gets released and reopens his old barber shop in the Jewish ghetto. But times have changed in the country of Tomania: Dictator Adenoid Hynkel who accidentally looks very similar to the barber has laid his merciless grip on the country and the Jewish people are discriminated against. One day the barber gets in trouble and is brought before a commanding officer who turns out to be his old comrade Schultz. So the ghetto enjoys protection from then on. Meanwhile Dictator Hynkel develops big plans he wants to become Dictator of the whole world and needs a scapegoat for the public. Soon Schultz is being arrested for being too Jewish-friendly and all Jews except those who managed to flee are transported into Concentration Camps. Hynkel is planning to march into Osterlich to show off against Napaloni Dictator of Bacteria who already has deployed his troops along the other border of the small country. Meanwhile Schultz and the barber manage to escape guised in military uniforms. As luck would have it Schultz and the barber are picked up by Tomanian forces and the barber is mixed up with Hynkel himself. The small barber now gets the once-in-a-lifetime chance to speak to the people of Osterlich and all of Tomania who listen eagerly on the radio.

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

  Made in 1931 shortly after the introduction of the talkies, Charlie Chaplin's City Lights is nonetheless near-silent. Chaplin was afraid that, should his universally known and beloved Tramp speak onscreen, he would be severely limited and compromised as a character. And so, City Lights is billed as "pantomime", a piece of cinema harking back to the manners and methods of an already defunct era. Chaplin fell out of fashion towards the end of the 20th century as a new wave of comedians (Rowan Atkinson for one) castigated him for what they saw as his excessive, maudlin sentimentality. Certainly, City Lights--which sees Chaplin's Tramp befriended by a blind flower girl who mistakes him for a rich benefactor--is hokum indeed. Accepting this, however, what makes the film so marvellous is the deceptive skill and artistry of Chaplin the filmmaker, the immaculate timing and acrobatic grace of his seemingly slapstick comedy, in particular a justly famous boxing sequence. Chaplin's sparing use of sound is inventive also: the wordless waffle of public speakers in the opening scene and another in which the tramp swallows a whistle. Moreover, the conclusion, in which the dishevelled Tramp encounters again the flower girl, her eyesight restored is--sentimentality notwithstanding--one of the most moving and superbly executed scenes in cinema history, not least for its economy and restraint. On the DVD: City Lights contains a generous package of extras on this two-disc set, including an introduction by David Robinson, in which he relates how poorly Chaplin and his leading lady Virginia Cherrill got on, an extended documentary/interview with Peter Lord (partner in animation to Nick Parks), who sings the praises of Chaplin's screen art, and a deleted scene, an immaculate piece of business involving a grate and a stick. There's a bonus in the form of an excerpt from 1915's The Champion, in which Chaplin prefigures the boxing scene from City Lights. Meanwhile, the "documents" section includes a wealth of behind-the-scenes footage, including a test screening for alternative actress Georgia Hale, rehearsal shots, chaotic scenes of Chaplin being mobbed in Vienna, a meeting with Winston Churchill and 1918 footage of Chaplin horsing around with famous boxers of the day including Benny Leonard. It also contains trailers, photo gallery and subtitles. On the first disc, the film's transfer to DVD is splendid. --David Stubbs

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

  One of Charlie Chaplin's most personal projects was 1952's Limelight for which he composed the unforgettably haunting score and which featured his son Sydney in a major supporting role. The result is a bittersweet masterwork, a May-September romance between an ascendant ballerina (Claire Bloom in only her second film) and a fading clown. Script and performances are superb, and though entirely studio-made, with London recreated in America, Chaplin's great visual sensibility ensures the production never feels stage-bound. The story harks back to the glory years of Music Hall and in fictionalised form draws heavily on Chaplin's experiences as recounted in his superb autobiography. More affectionate and philosophical than the comparable Sunset Boulevard (1950), the story movingly echoes A Star is Born (1937) and The Red Shoes (1948), while one brilliant touch is the inclusion of Chaplin's fellow "silent" era star, Buster Keaton as his stage partner. Comedy is not forgotten, but this is at heart a moving reflection on the passage of time, a deeply autobiographical work in which the never seen background of the Great War is an ironic contrast to Chaplin's celebration of youth, theatre, music, love and life itself. On the DVD: Limelight is presented in the original 4:3 black and white with excellent mono sound and a picture which apart from a little unobtrusive grain is absolutely immaculate. Also included are French and Italian-dubbed versions and an English Dolby Digital 5.1 version of the soundtrack, which simply adds unnecessary spatial processing to the mono original. The disc features multiple subtitle options, including English for hard of hearing. Disc 2 features a very useful six-minute introduction by David Robinson and an excellent 26-minute new documentary featuring contributions from Claire Bloom, Sydney Chaplin and Bernardo Bertolucci. One remarkable extra is Chaplin's entire Oscar-winning 58-minute score available as 36 separate musical cues in excellent mono. There is a four-minute scene that was included in the original release of the film and later cut, an unfinished short from 1919, The Professor (6 min), which introduces the flea circus idea developed in Limelight, as well as English and Italian trailers. Also included is a nine-section photo gallery and selection of posters, as well as two extracts from Chaplin reading Footlights, the unpublished novel upon which he based the film. Finally, 15 minutes of colour home movies show the star with his family in 1950 and more remarkably, revisiting the London of his youth in 1959. --Gary S Dalkin

• Charlie Chaplin - A Dog's Life/The Kid | DVD | (31/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The Kid was director Charlie Chaplin's first full-length film and is considered one of his best. It co-stars five year-old Jackie Coogan whom Chaplin discovered performing with his father on a Los Angeles vaudeville stage. He was a natural for the screen and captivated movie audiences as quickly as he had Chaplin. The story is about a child abandoned by his unwed mother (Edna Purviance) who hopes to offer him a better life by leaving him in a limousine. Unfortunately the limo is stolen and the burglars dump the baby into an alley where he is discovered by The Little Tramp. After trying unsuccessfully to give him to a variety of more suitable parents The Little Tramp is at last obliged to keep him. He teaches The Kid Everything he knows from lessons of the street to polite table manners and fights fiercely to keep him through one Chaplinesque misadventure after another. At the bittersweet end The Little Tramp is welcomed into the home of the Kid's mother who has recently learned the child's identity and taken him home with her. Also Includes A Dog's Life

• Charlie Chaplin - Vol. 10 | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £25.63   |  Saving you £-1.64 (-6.80%)   |  RRP £23.99

  Featuring the Chaplin shorts: The Pawn Shop (1916) / The Floorwalker (1916) / The Rink (1916) / The Count (1916)