James Cagney: No Chaplin ally

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into a bookstore post-Joan Collins, now comes a new book entitled CAGNEY by John McCabe (Yes, the L&H John McCabe). In this book, Cagney recalls an afternoon he & his wife spent at the Chaplin home in the years just before THE GREAT DICTATOR (see p. 154). While this wasn't a harrowing tale ala Joan Collins, it does make me feel sad that Cagney couldn't have said more positive things about Chaplin. And in this instance, I don't blame Chaplin at all.

Cagney was surprised one day when Charlie called him up & invited them over for lunch, tennis & a 'business discussion.' Cagney was most intrigued by Chaplin's comment about business & went over.

The 'business discussion' was Chaplin's idea to have Cagney portray Napoleon in a new script that he had just completed. But Cagney was not at all interested; not in the slightest. But the upshot of it all was Cagney's growing annoyance that Chaplin was always 'on,' performing his 'sideshow pantomimes' throughout the day about any and every trivial topic.

Cagney sums up by saying that he found them unfunny & that it became the most 'boring' day he had ever had in his life. (If that's the case, you would have to think Cagney must have led quite an eventful life!)

But can you imagine, Charlie Chaplin presents NAPOLEON starring James Cagney: 'Awright, Josephine, You dirty rat!'

Regarding the Cagney anecdote, I believe there was a difference in philosophy there about acting and show business. Cagney looked at acting as a means to an end, whereas Chaplin was usually 'on,' which would have to have irritated the pragmatic pro Cagney.

He wasn't the only one to find Chaplin boring, though. Oscar Levant found him 'tedious' and 'conversationally, a one-man cadenza.'

Personally, I wish I could have met Chaplin at the peak of his powers, but then I am only a 'civilian' as the show folk say. Most of these anecdotes have to be interpreted in the light of the natural competitiveness of show business figures, particularly of performing artists.

George Shelps

<snip>

That's not an atypical reaction to Chaplin,

Geez, can't a person be a genius *and* a bore?!

I don't think Cagney's anecdote rates him a 'no Chaplin ally' label. I'm speculating here, but if the day described in McCabe's book occurs in the late 1930s, it sounds like the time period when Chaplin was an enigmatic figure in Hollywood and his outspoken politics put a strain on his relationships with the community (which weren't great to begin with). I find it very believable that Chaplin could be quite tiresome during those years in particular even if you agreed with him 100% and/or considered him to be the greatest thing that ever happened to movies. BTW, this speculation of mine has nothing to do with Cagney's opinion of Chaplin or his politics