Customer Reviews

Chaplin Collection [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As you can probably read below, there is an endless line-up of silent classics, featuring some of the Tramp's finest masterpieces and some of his worst ten-minute French films. But there all seldom-seen and well worth the price and wait. Don't miss this peerless collection.

This is a huge Chaplin collection featuring thirty-two of his short films from the 1910s and 1920s. Be warned that while some of the films have obviously been well preserved, some others have not been as carefully looked after. There are definitely some signs of aging in this collection, but that is only to be expected. The poorer quality shorts seem to be randomly distributed throughout the videos, presumably based solely on who was in charge of taking care of each individual film. A few of the films are of quite poor quality, however, there is nothing that is actually unwatchable. This does not mean that the collection should be ignored by the silent movie fan. There is quite a lot of excellent material included in this collection that will leave you literally falling off of your chair in laughter.

Chaplin did a lot of things very well in his films and with thirty-two shorts to view here, you gets to see quite a bit of his filmmaking range. Some are hilarious, others are touching and sentimental, and a few others are early-film experiments that just do not quite work. Chaplin obviously enjoyed the sentimental themes that run though his film, however, more than any other filmmaker, he consistently got them right. The sentiment is not gratuitous and is rarely over the top. And the beauty of the short format is that if you don't care for the one you are currently viewing, you will not have long to wait until the next one starts (just like Sex Pistols songs).

My personal favourites from this are as follows:

THE ADVENTURER -- the story of Charlie as he escapes from jail and wrecks havoc on some upper-class people at a hotel. The chase sequences in this are priceless as Charlie jumps off of balconies and dives over banisters with the grace of a ballerina.

THE IMMIGRANT -- Charlie comes to America. This is an excellent story that manages to be both hilarious and thoughtfully sentimental at the same time. The downtrodden tramp adds a waiter and an immigration officer to the long list of people he has kicked in the backside.

ONE A.M. -- a drunken Charlie comes home late from a party and does battle with his house.

This collection is highly recommended viewing for any silent movie fan.

Please Note: This review only refers to "Chaplin Collection by Madacy" It sometimes appears under other titles that have the same films but it is not intended to describe those transfers.

This set is boxed up very nicely. I thought that it would make a great gift. The quality of the transfer is disappointing but the worst pain is the sound! There is no attempt whatsoever to match any music to the action. If that isn't bad enough the recordings they are using have talking on them! You hear the musicians do some ... little skits about police and firemen. Obviously the individuals who created this collection didn't give the slightest effort to making it even a functionally entertaining experience. Every time the voices start it is like a train wreck to the story you are watching. They must have put this together on their coffee break. You will pay a bit more for other collections but it will be worth it!!

If anyone wants to know why Chaplin was such a huge star and remains a legend to this day they just need to watch him at work in this series. A graceful, athletic, and uniquely artistic performer he had many imitators but none of them came close to his ability. Many of the films in this series are not available anywhere else. It's also a great historical record that reflects the early 1920's; the autos, clothing, apartment interiors and furniture; the way things were 80 years ago; the way our great grandparents lived.

First of all, this review refers to ONLY the Madacy collection of Chaplin films. It appears on some pages for Image DVDs that were restored by David Shepherd. I like the Image dvds, and this is not about those. This is about the crummy Madacy videos.

Madacy video has some nerve. They provide transfers from the lowest quality materials known, record their tapes in the worst possible (i.e. cheapest) mode, use canned music from jazz records that are irrelevant to the movies being shown, show films at odd speeds, leave out many of the cue cards, and copy films restored by other companies (legal, but rather unethical).

And yet - this is the ONLY place on video to find many of these films easily, other than from Grapevine Video. This is certainly the only collection you will find in the stores that has some of these films.

That's why this collection gets more than one star. If anybody else had this material in better quality, then it would get no stars at all. But, since nobody seems to feel that the earliest Chaplin material is worth restoring and presenting to the public, it will remain available only in crummy dupes on crummy tape, such as this set.

This set, therefore, functions only as a stop-gap.