Chaplin: The Tramp's OdysseyAn Everyman who expressed the defiant spirit of freedom, Charlie Chaplin was first lauded and later reviled in the America that made him Hollywood’s richest man. He was a figure of multiple paradoxes, and many studies have sought to unveil ‘the man behind the mask’. But Simon Louvish’s new book – following on from his five major biographies of comedy’s classic stars, from W. C. Fields to Laurel and Hardy, and Mae West – looks afresh at the ‘mask behind the man’.Louvish charts the tale of the Tramp himself through his films – from the early Mack Sennett shorts through the major features (The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times and The Great Dictator among others). He weighs the relationship between the Tramp, his creator, and his worldwide fans, and in doing so retrieves Chaplin as the iconic London street-kid who carried the ‘surreal’ antics of early British Music Hall triumphantly on to the Hollywood screen. Louvish also looks anew at Chaplin’s and the Tramp’s social and political ideas – the challenge to fascism, defiance of the McCarthyite witch-hunts, eventual ‘exile’, and last mature disguises as the serial-killer Monsieur Verdoux and the dying English clown Calvero in Limelight.This book is an epic journey, summing up the roots of Comedy and its appeal to audiences everywhere, who revelled in the clown’s raw energy, his ceaseless struggle against adversity, and his capacity to represent our own fears, foibles, dreams, inner demons and hopes. |
Contents
Caught in a Cabaret | 5 |
The Kid | 13 |
The Face on the Barroom Floor | 24 |
Copyright | |
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actor Albert Austin American Angeles appeared artist audience brother Bud Jamison Calvero camera cane Chaplin took character Charlie Chaplin Charlie's Chester Conklin child cinema Circus City Lights clown comedian comedy comic Communist crowd dance David Robinson Dictator director door dream drunk early Edna Purviance Eric Campbell Essanay famous father film Fred funny gags girl Gold Rush Hannah Harry Henry Bergman Hollywood ibid Immigrant John Rand Karno Keystone King later laugh Leo White Limelight Lita live London look Mabel Normand Mack Sennett Mack Swain millionaire Minta Durfee Monsieur Verdoux mother Motion Picture movie music hall never night NYPL NYPL-RL pantomime Paulette play scene screen script Shahdov shooting shot stage star story street studio Sydney takes tale theatre told Tramp vaudeville W. C. Fields walk wife Woman of Paris wonder wrote York