DVD details

Warner Bros has announced that they'll be releasing the first four (in a series of ten) two-disc Chaplin Collection DVDs on July 1st: The Gold Rush, The Great Dictator, Limelight and Modern Times (SRP $29.95 each). Four more films in the series will follow in the fall (titles TBA). Details on these first titles are as follows:

The Gold Rush will include both the 1942 re-release and the original silent version (with the cut footage reinstated and Chaplin's original score, newly reorchestrated in Dolby Digital 5.1 by Neil Brand). Extras will include the Chaplin Today - The Gold Rush: MK2TV retrospective documentary, an introduction by Chaplin biographer David Robinson, theatrical trailers from around the world, galleries of film posters and photos, an interview with Lita Grey Chaplin (his wife at the time of the film) and the original 'scenario' written by Chaplin prior to filming (The Lucky Strike - A Play in Two Scenes).

Special features on The Great Dictator will include The Tramp and the Dictator: Acclaimed Turner Classic Movies documentary, rare color home movies shot on the set by Chaplin's half brother Sydney, a deleted scene from Chaplin's short film Sunnyside (1918 - which inspired his creation of the Jewish barber character), a Hitler/Mussolini excerpt from Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux, Chaplin's original story notes, drafts of scripts and production records documenting his creation of the film's impassioned final sequence, the soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1, a poster gallery and a 1933 Fox Movietone newsreel about Adolf Hitler.

Limelight will feature the Chaplin Today - Limelight: MK2TV documentary, a featurette on the seven other Chaplin family members in Limelight, 1952 and 1959 home movies of Chaplin's children and Chaplin in London, deleted scenes cut after the premiere (including 'One-armed Man' scene), an introduction to the film by Chaplin biographer David Robinson, theatrical trailers from around the world, galleries of posters and photos, the soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1, and audio-only track of the film's score, sections of Chaplin's working text for the novel on which the film is based, a six-minute excerpt of the unfinished 1919 film, The Professor (which mirrors the Limelight fleas and flophouse scenes) and a production summary.

And finally, Modern Times will include the Chaplin Today - Modern Times: Insightful documentary, an introduction to the film by Chaplin biographer David Robinson, alternate scene (including the complete version of the nonsense song Chaplin sings in the cafe scene), the soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1, never-before-available original story notes, shooting log and production reports for the 'feeding machine' sequence, a 'video reminiscence' by musical arranger/composer David Raksin, theatrical trailers from around the world, galleries of film posters and photos and extensive production notes.

Each of the above sets will feature the film in full frame (1.37:1) aspect ratio, with English and French audio (dubbed in Québécois) and subtitles in English, French and Spanish.

Before I allow myself to get overly excited, does anyone know for sure if the original GR will have Georgia's note to Jack or the later note as written to CC? We've all seen 'original' versions that are not really the original.

This is great news!!

Rick Deerfield

I haven't heard anything for sure, but I'd imagine the silent GOLD RUSH is the Kevin Brownlow-David Gill restoration of a few years ago. Next to taking a time machine back to 1925, this is as close to the original as we're ever likely to see.

Richard Carnahan

RFC

I too am looking forward to the release of these DVDs. But after already having an argument with a friend I have question. I've heard that as good as these discs are, they might still be inferior to prior releases (Image?) and may not be the full and true versions that are being advertised. Any comments?

prior releases (Image?) and may not be the full and true versions that are being advertised.<

and where have you heard this?

That depends on how you interpret the words 'full and true.' These editions will be the standard 35mm versions as seen in theaters since the early 1970s. Additional scenes discovered by David Shepard and included on the laserdisc and Image DVDs (extra lyrics for CC's song in MODERN TIMES, scenes cut by CC from LIMELIGHT and A KING IN NEW YORK, scenes cut from First National films for later reissue) will be included as supplements, as I understand it.

Richard Carnahan

I was referring to 'full and true' in the same sense as 'director's cut.' Or in this case, I want to basically know how close the new dvd's will be to what Chaplin's version was upon original release.

I had thought the term 'director's cut' was first used to identify a version that's DIFFERENT from what was the original release. Wasn't it first used by Ridley Scott to distinguish a version of Blade Runner that was different from the originally released studio version? From Ephraim Katz' Film Encyclopedia: 'Since the development of VCRs in the 1980s, directors who are displeased with studio editing of their movie sometimes release on video a 'director's cut,' which usually includes additional or re-edited footage.'

Wouldn't that mean the '42 Gold Rush, and the re-edited sound versions of A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms, The Pilgrim, The Circus, A Woman of Paris, The Kid and The Idle Class (all differing to various degrees from 'what Chaplin's version was upon original release' qualify as director's cut versions?

My sense of 'director's cut' as generally used is that it refers to the cut that most closely reflects the director's intentions. Usually, it is represented as a correction of a cut done by someone else over the objections of the filmmaker.

In Chaplin's case, all of the cuts in the films he controlled are director's cuts, since they all reflect his intentions. But his intentions sometimes varied before and after a premier, or, in _The Gold Rush_, between 1925 and 1942, partly as a result of his assessment of audience response. If he were recutting _Gold Rush_ today, he might or might not revert to the '25 cut.

In 1942, he believed audiences were losing touch with the conventions of silent film, and that influenced his decision to add the narration. Today he'd certainly take into account the value silent film enthusiasts place on the original version, but whether that would determine how he decided to release the film I wouldn't venture to say. He put considerable work into the sound version of _Gold Rush_, and simply scrapping the results might not be to his taste.

Every time he revisited a film, as far as I know, it got shorter. I wonder if he could have reversed that tendency toward 'elimination from accumulation,' and started adding on again.

Connie K.

I thought Chaplin sang a nonsense song in a cafe scene in LIMELIGHT ('Love, love, love, love, love...'. Besides, MODERN TIMES was silent, so how could he sing a song there unless it was all done with titles?