from Dylan

Charlie Chaplin can be considered one of the most influential people in the film industry of the 20th century. His works in silent films have become legend. Chaplin’s career in Hollywood spanned a remarkable sixty-five years. He was not only a skilled and accomplished actor, but also a director, screenwriter, producer, and composer. This made him one of the only men, if not the only man, of his time to control every aspect of a single film.

Chaplin has entertained and touched many audiences, even in this modern day of special effects and other innovations in technology in films. This is because his characters have a root in the human psyche. People can become attached with the mere facial and body expressions of Chaplin. To the average audience, acting without words would seem to be confusing and unidentifiable. But, for a supremely skilled talent as Chaplin was, mere words would only muddle the precision and genuine portrayal of his characters. He truly knew the extent and impact that every action he performed had upon his audience and cast mates. Only a true genius like Chaplin could play with an audience’s emotions, making them laugh, cry, and sometimes both at the same time. To be a successful comedian, is to be a truthful and realistic actor, and Chaplin was that, and much, much more.

Chaplin’s most distinct and well-known character, “The Tramp,” is the main reason for his timeless fame. “Chaplin’s Tramp is universal. He could be jaunty, malicious, soppy, wistful, cunning, crass, observant, beautiful, painstaking, annoying, mean, innocent…”(Shipman 100). Chaplin was a film actor ahead of his time in many ways. He seems to have employed techniques of the so-called “Method Acting” system decades earlier than its induction. In an excerpt from his autobiography, he describes his process for becoming the Tramp character: "I had no idea what makeup to put on. I did not like my get-up as the press reporter [in Making a Living]. However on the way to the wardrobe I thought I would dress in baggy pants, big shoes, a cane and a derby hat. I wanted everything to be a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large. I was undecided whether to look old or young, but remembering Sennett had expected me to be a much older man, I added a small moustache, which I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression. I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage he was fully born." (Chaplin 154). Such specifically chosen objects and wardrobes only further the knowledge that Chaplin was supremely adept at his craft. Each aspect of the Tramp was so meticulously designed and then modified to suit the need of a particular audience reaction. With such a versatile character, Chaplin assumed his rightful place as a “film legend” and “one of the greatest actors who ever lived.”

Charlie Chaplin has not only inspired the general population, but also countless actors who aspired to be just as revolutionary and influential. Buster Keaton, Academy Award winner and a long-standing competing actor in the silent films, looked up to Chaplin and his sentimental characters, “At his best, and Chaplin remained at his best for a long time, he was the greatest comedian who ever lived.” Tony award winning stage and screen actor, Zero Mostel, said, “The best comics are also good actors. Chaplin is a wonderful actor.” Agnes de Millie, Tony award winning choreographer and dancer, said, “When Chaplin talked about pictures we all sat still and listened hard. We knew very well what we had among us. The greatest actor of our time, unique, irreplaceable. He stood quite outside the jurisdictions or embroiling of Hollywood. He was beyond jealousy. He was absolute.”

Chaplin’s life however wasn’t always all about the glitz and glamour of stardom. It is an interesting journey to know the past behind man who created the Tramp, who was instilled with such depth and history. Chaplin was born on April 16, 1889 in London, England. His parents were both entertainers and musicians and separated when he was still a toddler. When he was younger, he transferred frequently from one school to the next and eventual into a workhouse, all the while becoming increasingly impoverished due to his mother’s mental illness and the absence of a father. Chaplin first started to perform in 1898 with a young group of dancers named The Eight Lancashire Lads. For the next decade or so, he toured with several different groups performing is such shows as Sherlock Holmes, Wal Pink’s Repairs, Casey Court’s Circus Company, and Fred Karno’s company. By 1913, he signed his first film contract, which was with the Keystone Film Company at one hundred and fifty dollars per week. A year later he signed with Essanay at twelve hundred and fifty dollars per week. In 1915 he signed with Mutual Film Corporation at ten thousand dollars per week with a signing bonus of an astounding amount at that time of one-hundred-and-fifty thousand dollars. This salary made him, undoubtedly, the highest paid actor in the world at that time.

Chaplin has performed in over eighty films, and has directed almost as many. However, one of the things that Chaplin did that probably changed the film industry the most came in 1919. With the help of Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith, he formed the film studio United Artists. At the time, already established producers and distributors had much control over the aspects of an actor’s income and creative freedom. The four founders decided to find a way out of such a time, when their career’s futures were at stake. So, the solution was to create a production company to call their own. A change from other production companies, United Artists never owned other studios or had total control over an actor under such strict contracts. United Artists thrives even today, and has since been collaborated and affiliated with Disney, Twentieth Century Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Universal Pictures, and many other film studios.

From 1928 until 1931, Chaplin worked on a film entitled City Lights. City Lights stared the Tramp character falling in love with helping care for a blind flower girl. He eventually raises the money, after much trouble, to pay for a surgery, which cures her blindness. When he finally meets with her again she doesn’t know who he is, just thinking him to be some poor man. In the end, the girl finally recognizes him after touching his hand after giving him a coin in pity. The final scene is especially remarkable for Chaplin. He said of his performance, “in ‘City Lights’ just the last scene … I’m not acting …. Almost apologetic, standing outside myself and looking … It’s a beautiful scene, beautiful, and because it isn’t over-acted.”
At the time, sound had already been incorporated into motion pictures, but Chaplin decided to keep on the tradition. Although, he decided to compose the film’s score to be the only sound track used for the film. At first, United Artists predicted the film to be a failure. During the premiers of the film, both Bernard Shaw and Albert Einstein attended. Their reactions instantly told Chaplin that his film would be a hit. City Lights became one of the highest grossing films of 1931, and one of Chaplin’s most financially and critically successful films. Throughout the twentieth century, City Lights has maintained popularity. It is preserved in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. The American Film Institute has ranked the film as the eleventh greatest American film in history.
From 1938 until 1940, Chaplin worked on his first “talkie.” The film, The Great Dictator did not just mark the beginnings of his works with sound films, but also his use of political satire. Chaplin has been said to have started making the film after the Nazis mistakenly identified him as Jewish, spreading leaflets about this “disgusting Jewish acrobat.” The Great Dictator was the first of many propaganda films against Hitler and the Nazi party, and helped start to stir a strong condemnation towards them. The film became Chaplin’s highest grossing film, breaking box-office records. The Great Dictator was also nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and earned one for Best Original Screenplay, which of course was written by Chaplin. It was also another of his films to be preserved in the National Film Registry
Charlie Chaplin is certainly an artist who carries on a long legacy in the film business. Between being an actor, director, writer, composer, and producer, he is an influential figure towards every aspect of the industry. Chaplin’s films will survive for many, many, years to come and will most definitely influence the future generations of entertainers.