WE MUST VIEW this film, an episode of a French television program as a sort of mixed bag. It certainly has a lot to recommend it to any film historian, comedy buff or Chaplin-phile. There are many a rarely or never seen film clips and interviews with folks who were there.
JUST TO VIEW the unused colour film footage that was shot and never used in THE GREAT DICTATOR was worthwhile. Plesee, don't miss it.
BUT WE FOUND that there was a sort of sophomoric attitude that permeates the film. It certainly fails to bring us the story of Chaplin's propensity for generating bad publicity in the press with his sexual escapades. This was set against a time, where unlike on the contemporary scene, "anything goes" and truly is.
WE ARE SHOWN how the gathering storm clouds of World War II foretold of what was to come. Chaplin is branded as a Jew and his name appears on a list slated for death by those in the not yet ruling Nazi Party. A comparison of Chaplin and Hitler finds a remarkable resemblance as well as a similarity in their places in the Zodiac.
WHAT WE FIND to be lacking in this French TV production, as well (and even especially) with the bulk of the Hollywood In Crowd, is the lack of presenting a true view of conditions in the post WWII political climate in the USA, Europe and the World. The writers, producers and the director conveniently overlook the fact that we, the Allied nations had just defeated the forces of the Nazi Germans, the Fascists in Italy and Imperial Japan. We now were contending with the threat of International Communism.
THEY FURTHER FOLLOW the popular accepted practice of vilifying F.B.I. Director, J. Edgar Hoover. One would surmise that he was the greater threat to mankind than any other enemy, be they either foreign or domestic.
JUST TO VIEW the unused colour film footage that was shot and never used in THE GREAT DICTATOR was worthwhile. Plesee, don't miss it.
BUT WE FOUND that there was a sort of sophomoric attitude that permeates the film. It certainly fails to bring us the story of Chaplin's propensity for generating bad publicity in the press with his sexual escapades. This was set against a time, where unlike on the contemporary scene, "anything goes" and truly is.
WE ARE SHOWN how the gathering storm clouds of World War II foretold of what was to come. Chaplin is branded as a Jew and his name appears on a list slated for death by those in the not yet ruling Nazi Party. A comparison of Chaplin and Hitler finds a remarkable resemblance as well as a similarity in their places in the Zodiac.
WHAT WE FIND to be lacking in this French TV production, as well (and even especially) with the bulk of the Hollywood In Crowd, is the lack of presenting a true view of conditions in the post WWII political climate in the USA, Europe and the World. The writers, producers and the director conveniently overlook the fact that we, the Allied nations had just defeated the forces of the Nazi Germans, the Fascists in Italy and Imperial Japan. We now were contending with the threat of International Communism.
THEY FURTHER FOLLOW the popular accepted practice of vilifying F.B.I. Director, J. Edgar Hoover. One would surmise that he was the greater threat to mankind than any other enemy, be they either foreign or domestic.
