January 29, 2014

Charlie entertains his friend, writer and critic Maurice Bessy, at his home in Beverly Hills, 1947



Chaplin included a couple of “in jokes” regarding Bessy in Monsieur Verdoux (1947):

A real estate sign in front of Mr. Varnay’s house says “M. BESSY”.


 His name also appears in one of the newspapers Charlie’s reading in the film (see the arrow).




Bessy was also one of the founders of Cinémonde magazine which also appears in the film (in the postman's bag).*
Click here to see a picture of Charlie reading a copy of the magazine during production of the film.


*Thanks to Dominique Dugros for pointing this one out to me. 

2 comments:

  1. The film rightfully should a been a bigger financial success. Martha Raye in the fishing boat nearly made me pee my pants. OMG.....she had a figure. And Charlie in a TALKIE was a surprise for me. At the first time I saw Limelight I didn't realize the clown was also my fav little tramp in change of costume....so I didn't realize I'd already heard him speak.

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  2. Martha Raye in consistently hysterical in every scene she appears in. Chaplin really did know how to pull the best performances from people, didn't he?

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