Word: chaplinitis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...KING IN NEW YORK Directed and Written by CHARLES CHAPLIN...
...King in New York is regarded in some critical quarters as perhaps the worst movie ever made by a distinguished film maker. Its release in the U.S. for the first time provides no reason to dispute that judgment, although one might nominate Chaplin's most recent picture, The Countess from Hong Kong (1967), as an alternate selection. King does have a certain extrinsic interest, however, as a significant act in the larger drama of its creator's celebrity...
...movie was made in England in 1957, some years after Chaplin, a British subject, abruptly exiled himself from the U.S. rather than submit to threatened McCarthyite inquiries about his politics and morals by immigration officials. The onetime monarch of the box office and American moviegoers' affection typecast himself as the deposed King of a mythical country visiting the U.S. to promote an Atoms for Peace program. From the King's point of view, America's movies are shown to be drenched in sex and violence, its jazz too loud (though what is played is a decade...
These muted old man's mutterings are sadly devoid of energy or strong feeling. Surprisingly, so are Chaplin's assaults on witch hunting. His King be comes the protector of a precocious waif (played by Chaplin's son Michael) whose parents refuse to testify before a congressional committee. The King breaks up the deliberations of the com mittee with a fire hose that unfunnily goes out of control...
Allen's relative sanity in Sleeper shifts the emphasis from the traditional part he plays. At the heart of Allen's appeal, of course, is the schlep, the cumsy neurotic from Brooklyn who's always victimized but likeable. The endearment generally doesn't trigger pathos, however, as with Chaplin (although Allen's capable of that). he shuns the universal in favor of something more contemporary, more esoteric, keener. The source of pleasure is the basic I-thought-I-was-messed-up-but-look-at-this-guy response--a comforting thought. But you never feel sorry for him. He understands somehow...