Chaplin, Charlie: Chaplin Revue

The first film in this extraordinary collection is:
A DOG'S LIFE (1918). This is a beautiful film made in the same style as Chaplin's earlier masterpiece EASY STREET (1917). Chaplin, Edna Purviance and Syd Chaplin are just marvelous in this wonderful yet very emotional comedy.

SHOULDER ARMS (1918) is definitely one of my favourite movies of all time. It's funny and witty and just plain out superb and it has all my favourite Chaplin stock company players-Syd Chaplin, Edna Purviance, ALbert Austin, Henry Bergman, Loyal Underwood, Park Jones, interestingly Chaplin's cameraman Jack Wilson playing the German Crown Prince and Tom Wilson. A Marvelous film though I loved the original version better with all the emotional scenes with the 'Poor France' segment and other wonderful scenes of sentiment, however, for the 1959 reissue, Chaplin discarded it all so I reccomend the uncut version but this version is still very good.

Next we have:

SUNNYSIDE (1919)
A very funny comedy with a lot of nice Chaplinesque sequences but as a whole the film is not at all one of Chaplin's best.

A DAY'S PLEASURE (1919)
Can be funny at times but this movie is pretty crappy because it was just an excuse for Chaplin to give his distributor a new product whilst planning his masterpiece THE KID (1921).

THE IDLE CLASS (1921)
A brilliant and terrific short comedy and definitely one of CHaplin's finest shorts.

PAY DAY (1922)
This was one of Chaplin's favourites of his shorts and it's very clear why. This is an excellent short film and features better lighting and direction than in any other Chaplin shot, perhaps because it was his last of this sort. ALso features a wonderful score by Chaplin composed in 1972!

And last but not least we have THE PILGRIM from 1922 and released in 1923. This is one of Chaplin's forgotten masterworks but it is one of his finest comedies. The ending in particular is beautiful for its construction of camera shot and jokes.

Plus there are two bonus films on the DVD: THE BOND a WW1 Propaganda film Chaplin made to help the war effort by selling bonds and his unreleased project HOW MOVING PICTURES ARE MADE which he planned to release but his distributor did not allow plus other reasons. However it was reedited and retitled in the 1980s and restored by David Gill and KEvin Brownlow and it's a insightful look at the Chaplin Studios and some of the footage is shown in THe Chaplin Revue feature.

All in all, an excellent DVD and all films have been digitally remastered and they look like they were filmed today!
You'll love it all!

A Dogs Life
Shoulder Arms
Sunnyside
A Days Pleasure
The Idle Class
Pay Day
The Pilgrim

'A Dogs Life', 'Shoulder Arms' and 'The Pilgrim' are all placed into one to make 'The Chaplin Revue' while you get the other four shorts to go seperately.

These all have very good musical scores to go with the films and the picture quality is brilliant. Great restorations.

Recommended for those fans of Charles Chaplin.

The two flagships for me are "Shoulder Arms" and "A Dog's Life". "A Dog's Life" was the first complete Chaplin film I saw, and it continues to delight me with its lightning pacing, masterful gags, and fascinating use of music -- the high-comedy bits still feature the merry scores of usual Chaplin films, but the main theme is a weepy, dramatic orchestral piece which, when juxtaposed against the famous Chaplin sight gags, are remarkably funny, almost perverse. Chaplin's physical skills are unparalleled in this film, with the "human puppet" sequence, the employment centre, the fight with the wild dogs, and the opening "roll with the cops" sequence being the highlights. "Shoulder Arms" was a brave stab at making the First World War funny and Chaplin succeeded grandly. Luckily, he also had the good sense to cut out an entire first act, seen here on the DVD bonus materials, which had little to no bearing on the story and isn't all that funny anyway. The trench gags in this film are fast and hilarious; though the "enemy territory" section drags a little, the film remains great.

The remaining films range from hilarious to just okay: I like "Sunnyside", which takes the Tramp's frequent dashes of unrequited love to a new level; but "The Pilgrim" wears out its central gag long before it's over, and "The Idle Class" and "A Day's Pleasure" are excruciatingly slow.

There are more films on these two discs than on the other Chaplin DVDs in this series, so there is slightly less bonus material to peruse. But there's still quite a bit, such as a propaganda film with Chaplin and Edna Purviance, and deleted scenes from "Shoulder Arms". It's always great to actually see deleted scenes from such old films. This DVD set is still a worthy addition to this impressive series of Chaplin reissues.