Chaplin UK TV-Movie

Just remembered. It was 'WonderWorks'.

It ran on a Saturday morning kid's program in the States. 'WonderTales' or something. It was quite good, though the effort to incorporate *all* of Chaplin's later schtick into his childhood experiences ran rather thin, i.e. the running skid pops up when young CC is chased.

Rob Farr

Yes, Hannah! I've got a copy of it. It was shown on Swedish television some years ago as a TV series, three episodes of 50 minutes each, and I taped it. Leslie Hornsby, Twiggy, played Charlie's and Sidney's mother and did it quite good! The episodes contained some reworked sketches from Charlie's movies to suggest that he brought his own childhood experiences into his films. But it looked more like bad copies of the real thing. The young actor who played Charlie was a bit too young in the last episode when he's leaving for USA with the Fred Karno Troop. It looked like Chaplin was only 14 years of age at that time.

I saw that in the height of my initial obsession (seventh or eighth grade? I can't remember, and it doesn't matter). It was not awful, as I recall. In fact, didn't it sort of hint at the theory that Chaplin was more or less illiterate for most of his childhood? I could ramble for hours (well, minutes, more like) on the whole literacy thing, but I won't. It was a good little show, and in some ways, better than the childhood as portrayed in the Attenborough film. Now, personally, I kind of enjoyed the Attenborough film simply because, being the 'expert' I am, I was able to point out the truth and the fallacies within the movie and impress my friends. I don't get out much, though.

Allison Breyer