Word: chaplinitis
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Having voyaged for a month through Hawaii, Japan, China, Cinemactor Charles Spencer Chaplin and his leading lady. Paulette Goddard, departed for Singapore. In Singapore reports circulated that Chaplin had wired his agent: "Do utmost to arrange marriage." Archdeacon Graham White sniffed, flatly announced that his Anglican Cathedral would under no circumstances be used to marry the junketing pair...
...Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times" has descended from the flashy banners and is now doing a routine week's term at the Paramount and Fenway. If you missed him the first time, by all means go now. But be a little cautious about indulging that vague inclination toward a second seeing. It isn't quite no funny the second time to see Mr. Chaplin dive into four inches of water mistaken for a lake, or to watch him lead a Communist parade through the accident of having picked up a red flag fallen from the hind end of a truck...
This is all very uproarious the first time, however, and if you turn down this chance you may have to wait another five years for the next picture, for Chaplin vehicles are not street cars. Chaplin is an anachronism; having learned the art of pantomime for the silents, he isn't going to give it up because some fool invented a way to make the flickers squawk. And being old-fashioned, he restores slapstick to its lusty youth. It dazzles by the force of its mad pollmell succession. The tempo is definitely stepped up way above normal; the old trick...
...producers and remind Hollywood that U. S. history, no less than that of France, Mexico and Britain, contains rich veins of screen material which deserve to be mined by able writers. The Milky Way (Paramount). No. 2 comedian of silent pictures, almost as rich and famed as Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd reacted differently when talkies arrived. While Chaplin, with the egoism permissible to genius, defied the new medium, Lloyd conscientiously set out to adapt himself to it. His method was cautious: while retaining the outlines of the comic character with which his admirers had been pleased in silent pictures...
...Charlie, and it runs amuck. It rasps an ear of corn against his teeth, it shoves bolts into his mouth, and it bashes in his face with its automatic wiper. But this choice is just a matter of opinion, and besides, clumsy word accounts fall hopelessly short of Chaplin's elusive mirth. Drop whatever you're doing, and go see for yourself...