The Chaplin Revue

Most of Chaplin's most famous films are his full-length features. And, I assume most people have at most seen only a few clips of him from his pre-feature days when he starred in dozens and dozens of comedy shorts. This is really a shame, as some wonderful shorts are pretty much waiting to be discovered by the world in the 21st century.

If someone watches this film they have an excellent chance to see some of Chaplin's better shorts because Chaplin himself chose these three shorts and strung them together with a bit of narration to make this 1959 feature film. This is great for several reasons. First, in Chaplin's earliest films from 1914-1915, his character of the Little Tramp is still in its earliest incarnations or is absent altogether. Plus, even when he is there, he was often mean-spirited and self-centered--something very alien from the Little Tramp we have grown to love. Second, because the shorts that were chosen were in great condition, if you watch this film you won't need to worry about watching scratchy film with gaps and lousy musical accompaniment that doesn't fit the action (a common problem).

So, for a great look at Chaplin's shorts at their finest, give this film a chance. It's sure to provide you some excellent laughs.

The "Chaplin Revue" is a re-edited version of three of Chaplin's classic silent comedies, spliced around some brief but interesting comments by Chaplin himself. It is a great opportunity to see three of his classic short features that are otherwise hard to find. They have a slightly different feel from the original versions, in that the pace is a bit slower, and there is new music. But it's still the same Charlie Chaplin slapstick plus worthwhile observations on humanity.

"Shoulder Arms" is the best of the three, ranking among the finest of all of Chaplin's pictures, and is a nearly flawless feature. The other two are very good as well. "A Dog's Life" features a very nice balance between slapstick humor and sympathetic characters, and "The Pilgrim" features some of Chaplin's favorite themes of identity mix-ups and interplay between different social classes.

The "Revue" is well worth seeing, either for Chaplin fans or for anyone looking for an introduction to some of his shorter, less famous works.

THE CHAPLIN REVUE is one of those films that seems like a curse to some and a blessing to others. For people just looking for some classic Chaplin, circa 1918-1923, this is the place. But for hardcore Chaplin fans this film seems somewhat of a let-down. Chaplin took three comedy classics of his-A DOG'S LIFE, SHOULDER ARMS, and THE PILGRIM-and tampered with them to create a new revue film. He stretch-printed them, which was supposed to slow them down to sound speed, but only succeeded in marring the pace, which is the thing that made these slapstick shorts so magical in the first place. Then again, this film offers these three masterpieces to a whole new generation of viewers, who, if they haven't seen the originals, will be just as pleased by this sampling of Chaplin at his comic best.

The three shorts included on this compilation issued in 1959 are timeless Chaplin classics, nothing wrong with them and nothing to criticize either. Chaplin's score for these films and the framework added as bridging sections between the shorts are also well done. The problem with this compilation is a minor one, yet annoying. The shorts have been stretch-printed to fit the 24 frame p.s. speed of contemporary films whereas the shorts themselves where shot at 20 frames p.s. This results is jerky motion that doesn't look very attractive, and yet this was an excusable solution given the limitations of optical printing technology at the time, it's just not excusable that the current DVD version is unrestored, the films look dirty as they did in 1959 and are still stretch printed. There are separate restored versions of these classics available, even on DVD, and it would not be a problem to restore the image, but alas this has not been done.

A minor quibble has taken up a lot of space in my article, but I say again a minor quibble, it should not detract all that much from the experience although it detracted one point from my rating. The shorts are still worth '10'.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

The short films that form 'The Chaplin Revue' ('A Dog's Life', 'The Pilgrim' and 'Shoulder Arms'), made when Chaplin had found his groove and building upon it, showed a noticeable step up in quality though from his Keystone period, where he was still evolving and in the infancy of his long career. The Essanay and Mutual periods were something of Chaplin's adolescence period where his style had been found and starting to settle. Something that can be seen in all three shorts forming 'The Chaplin Revue', hard to decide which is my personal favourite of three of his best short films and three of the best efforts of his relatively early career.

The stories are more discernible than before and are never dull, though sometimes a bit too busy and manic.

On the other hand, 'The Chaplin Revue' looks pretty good, not incredible but it was obvious that Chaplin was taking more time with his work and not churning out countless shorts in the same year of very variable success like he did with Keystone. Appreciate the importance of his Keystone period and there is some good stuff he did there, but the more mature and careful quality seen here and later on is obvious here in 'The Chaplin Revue'.

While not one of his most hilarious or touching, all three, especially 'Shoulder Arms' are still very funny with some clever, entertaining and well-timed slapstick and has substance and pathos in particularly 'A Dog's Life'. 'The Chaplin Revue' moves quickly and there is no dullness in sight.

Chaplin directs more than competently, if not quite cinematic genius standard yet in this period. He also, as usual, gives amusing and expressive performances and at clear ease with the physicality and substance of the roles. The supporting cast acquit themselves well in all three.

Overall, great as a representation of what Chaplin's appeal was. 9/10 Bethany Cox