CHARLIE CHAPLIN VS. AMERICA: When Art, Sex and Politics Collided by Scott Eyman (Simon & Schuster)
At first look this new ebook by premier movie historian and biographer Eyman would appear to restrict its protection to the interval of the Forties—when Chaplin was burdened by a bogus paternity swimsuit and accused of being a Communist—till his loss of life on Christmas Day, 1977. But Eyman incorporates eye-opening particulars about Chaplin’s total life and profession all through the narrative, making this one of many best surveys of the person and the artist ever written.
Like the writer, I first fell in love with Chaplin as a boy after seeing him in Robert Youngson’s comedy compilations. I saved as much as purchase 8mm prints of his Mutual quick topics from Blackhawk Films and browse all the pieces I might about Chaplin. I additionally vividly recall the frustration I felt after I devoured his long-awaited autobiography in 1966. It was stuffy and uninteresting to me as a younger film buff. I didn’t care that he frolicked with the Royal household or different members of the social elite. I wished to know extra in regards to the making of his movies. Eyman casts a transparent eye on all of this and posits that transferring to Switzerland eliminated Chaplin from on a regular basis life and smothered his artistry.
There are so many takeaways from this quantity I don’t know the place to start. I’ve by no means absolutely appreciated Charlie’s kinship together with his half-brother Sydney till now. His relationship together with his onetime main girl, Edna Purviance, is evoked by way of correspondence that she maintained till her loss of life. And, because of granular analysis by Marx Brothers skilled Robert Bader, it’s now potential to substantiate with out query that Charlie and the Marxes (or Groucho, on the very least) visited the identical brothel in Salt Lake City in September of 1913. Groucho recalled that Charlie was too shy to take a woman upstairs for intercourse and spent the night taking part in within the parlor with the Madame’s canine.
Charlie Chaplin had so many sides that it wouldn’t be potential for one writer to discover all of them intimately, however by casting a narrower internet—and permitting for digressions—Eyman has produced a gem of a ebook.