Very little is known about Chaplin's second trip to Bali.1 Four years before (almost to the day), he had visited the island with his brother, Sydney (here and here) & was taken with their natural way of living. This time, however, he found it "a changed place." It was more "civilized" and more "commercialized." 2 Nevertheless the place still inspired him. Before he returned to the States in June, Chaplin was already thinking about a film with a Balinese setting. It would be a talkie and would star Paulette as a native girl.3 In fact, an unfinished screenplay for the film still exists in the Chaplin Archive.4
After a week in Bali, the group will sail back to Java on April 6th.
Stay tuned for more in Day By Day: 1936.
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1Chaplin evidently made one more trip to Bali in 1961. Even less is known about this visit. His impressions of his first visit can be found in his travel memoir A Comedian Sees The World and My Autobiography.
2Singapore Free Press, April 8, 1936
3Los Angeles Times, June 4, 1936. Chaplin also discussed the Bali film with Jean Cocteau aboard the Tashima Maru in May 1936.
4The film is referred in the Archive as "The Bali Story," but according to Maurice Bessy, the film at one point had a name. In late 1936, Chaplin told him: "I've abandoned The Wild Woman of Bali, but I've still promised Paulette a script, which I'll direct." (Bessy, Charlie Chaplin, 1985). It should also be pointed out that Chaplin began the script following his first visit in 1932. He continued to expand upon it for the next ten years.
She's got the "George Hamilton/Doug Fairbanks" tan going on in these photos. I am sure Charlie was just as tan! 1930's tans.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he is. I wish there were more pictures of him.
DeleteMy Gosh...She looks so adorable as usual.
ReplyDeleteLove the watermark placement in the lower left pic, with Charlie looking at the semi-transparent Tramp scratching in the grass with the chickens. And especially in the upper photo with the Tramp walking on water, Charlie and Paulette looking at the camera with a "do you see that!?" expression on their faces.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't noticed that! I like the Tramp walking on water.
DeleteI'm gobsmacked by that treasury of photos! I missed WHO it was doing the photographing mostly.
ReplyDeleteI saw Second Chorus last night. The girl really deserved richer parts. And she'd a made a 'great' Scarlet O'hara.
I figured the photographer may have been Frank the valet since he doesn't appear in too many of them. But neither does Charlie, at least in the Bali & Java photos, so he may have been taking a lot of them as well.
DeleteI think Charlie was off playing with the native girls IMHO.
ReplyDelete