March 21, 2014

Never-before-seen Chaplin film

My friend Dominique Dugros sent me these wonderful screen shots from a previously unknown (at least to me, and probably to most of you) short film that might possibly be a precursor to the 1918 never-released film How To Make Movies (or perhaps a remake or rehearsal of some sort). The film was part of a French documentary called La Naissance de Charlot by Serge Bromberg that came out in 2013. I don't recognize the man playing the butler and the film was shot on a set which doesn't look familiar to me either, so perhaps it was built specifically for this film. I also wonder if this could have been made during the Mutual period. Perhaps Charlie had the idea for it then and went back to it later. But my biggest question is: Why have we not seen this before?


4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 21, 2014 at 7:02 PM

    Very cool! Looks earlier than 1918 to me too.

    Phil

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  2. UnknownMarch 21, 2014 at 9:13 PM

    This is exactly the same scene from the released version with his real personal assistant, even down to him sniffing the envelope and kissing him on the head. This must have been a rehearsal since the real clip was made at his studio in his real office.

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  3. JordanMarch 23, 2014 at 8:57 PM

    I agree with Stephen. It seems like a rehearsal or something he did on a whim that he later used for "How to Make Movies". Its cool though and he looks really, really good. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownMarch 29, 2014 at 11:31 AM

    Here's the vid comparison between the two. I think it was either a practice or a deleted scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oKGSUiY7IE

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