Customer Reviews

My Father, Charlie Chaplin

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

 

 

Fans of Charlie Chaplin will be pleased to acquire a copy of this hard-to-find book. Charles Chaplin Jr. saw his father in a view that the cinema could never capture. The tramp character could not have been farther from the father that he was. While Chaplin originally did not seem to know how to be a father, he proved to be a very nurturing figure in the life of his sons.

In his own right, Charlie Chaplin Jr. lived an eventful life. He dated Marylin Monroe before she become Marylin. He fought in World War II and liberated a concentration camp only to find the major and his wife had hung themselves after learning of the horrors. Charlie Jr. also experienced moderate success in his acting career. However, any aspect of his life always seemed to relate back to his father. Bearing a strong resemblance to his father, his was often asked to perform impressions which cast a shadow over his own talents.

The view of Charlie Chaplin as a father is both enlightening and touching. This book sees the father of the cinema through eyes only a select few could, through the eyes of a son. This book is a treasure!

As my fellow-reviewer made clear before me, Charlie Chaplin Jr.'s MY FATHER CHARLIE CHAPLIN is a book no Chaplin-enthusiast should let pass by. In fact, to my knowledge this book provides the most thorough portrayal of Chaplin as a human being, as it succeeds in doing the one thing right which nearly every other Chaplin-biographer do wrong: to remain understanding without ignoring the fact that the comedian could be very difficult to deal with at times. Being a very complex man equipped with an incomparable comic gift, people who knew Chaplin and historians alike have often found it problematic to reach a balanced comprehension of Chaplin's somewhat contradictory nature. In this book, however, we are offered an account as insightful as we're likely to ever get.

Charlie Jr. has no agenda hidden behind. He is neither looking for opportunities to badmouth nor sugarcoat his father, but is simply recalling his observations, good and less good, from childhood on into early adulthood, while trying to put them into a substanced perspective. From the very beginning, it is put beyond any doubt that Charlie Jr. loved his father deeply, and remained extremely proud of being the son of such a great and respected artist. When in the right mood, Charlie Jr. stresses, Chaplin could be the funniest parent imaginable, playing around with the two sons in the garden doing awful grimaces, and once in a while putting on the Tramp costume to do a little performance. He'd also take them to the movies on weekends, as well as making up bed-time stories (although frankly, these stories were not always what you'd call children's stories!).

At the same time, Charlie Jr. is frank with the fact that Chaplin could be a somewhat clumsy father, probably in large part due to his own unhappy childhood as well as his inexperience with children at that time (Charlie Jr. and his brother Sydney were the children of his second marriage, that to Lita Grey, and were hence raised long before Chaplin's marriage to Oona O'Neill which produced numerous children). He held discipline extremely holy, which resulted in the two boys not being permitted to talk during dinner unless they were being adressed by an adult (a more common practice back then than today, obviously). There were times when he would let months pass by without making a phone call. Here, again, Charlie Jr. impresses by remaining extremely understanding towards his father, never permitting certain disappointments to turn into bitterness. He recognizes that his father tried to do his best, but having been abandoned by his own father while growing up in extreme poverty, it is inevitable that he failed in certain aspects. The fact that he was a constantly creative genius who'd never permit his working discipline to be disturbed by anything also contributed.

Likewise, Charlie Jr. remains loyal to both of his parents while covering the emotional wounds between the two of them. Chaplin's marriage to Lita resulted in one of the most publicized Hollywood-scandals of the 1920's, and their bitterness never vanished. Even in old age, Chaplin remained reluctant to speak of the affair, while Lita penned two autobiographies in which Chaplin comes off in a not too sympathetic light, to put it kindly. Charlie Jr. paints a portrait of the unhappy affair which is open for flaws at both ends, but concludes that the major problem may in the end have been a personality clash.

In addition of prodiving a very touching portrayal of Chaplin, I'd like to add that this book also provided me with plenty of laughs. Certain recollections of Chaplin's occasional odd characteristics and behavior were so side-splitting --without being disrespectful-- that tears were streaming down my face as I roared with laughter. For instance, Charles Jr. recalls an incident that occured during shooting of THE GREAT DICTATOR: Chaplin was dissatisfied with the performance of an actor and ordered numerous re-shootings. Finally, after exhausting attempts, they seemed to have reached the perfect result, but being a perfectionist, Chaplin ordered one more take, just to be certain. Precisely at that moment, a buzzing fly entered before the cameras. Chaplin got furious and yelled that the crew better get rid of that "bloody vulture." For twenty minutes, an incomparable circus-performance took place as five men desperately tried to get the little thing, which Chaplin, as a true and respected genius, paid no attention to at all; in the midst of the madness he walked broodingly around the floor and mumbled to himself, "we must get that scene right...must improve it..."

MY FATHER CHARLIE CHAPLIN is one to track down. In addition to all the aforementioned, where else would you be able to find a thorough description of Chaplin's meal routines? The writing is crisp and engaging, resulting in me having read it through within a day. Get it!

This is a great book that really helps to know how the great Chaplin was in private life.A Chaplin fan must read this book.I really enjoyed reading it and i'm a real die-hard fan.