Unknown Chaplin

My Happiest Years
Chaplin's earliest films relied heavily on props and sets. Footage cut from The Cure reveals how he started with only the idea for a comedy set in a spa, and then worked painstakingly through a multitude of sight gags in search of the most hilarious story that would string them all together. Another simple idea--Charlie meets a pretty girl eating in a cafe--became the springboard for The Immigrant, but only after days of footage had been shot, roles had been recast, and dozens of "bits" had been improvised, perfected, and, often as not, cut from the finished product. With these early comedies, Chaplin mastered the art of storytelling through film, leaving no stone unturned--or tripped over--in his search for comic perfection. Ultimately he would demand--and receive--total control over the movies he made.

The Great Director
By 1918, Chaplin was the most successful director working in the movies. With complete control over his films, he managed to produce his greatest work on a simple backlot and two stages. Interviews with Jackie Coogan, Lita Grey, Virginia Cherrill, and others, along with rare footage of Chaplin at work, reveal how he expanded from simple sight gags toward stories with complex plots and characterizations, ultimately creating such classics as The Kid and The God Rush. In 1930, Chaplin triumphed with City Lights, considered by many to be one of his greatest films. But recently uncovered production footage shows the slow, often-agonizing process of making this film, revealing City Lights as possibly the biggest gamble of Chaplin's career.

Hidden Treasures
Chaplin often worked on an idea for weeks, filming take after take before abandoning it entirely. Yet, as one associate said, he had a mind like an attic, and discarded ideas were never really gone, just tucked away for future reference. Clips reveal how a Chaplin gag in a home movie found its way into The Great Dictator years later. Another sequence cut from an early film was used in Limelight almost 30 years later. But the most sensational of these hidden treasures is the rescued original opening sequence that Chaplin shot, then cut, from City Lights, presented here for the first time with a new musical score, in which Charlie brings a city to a halt by trying to free a piece of wood from a sidewalk grating.