Coincidence No. 399 – Dictators

14/4/17 Screening of Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Great Dictator’ at The Barbican cinema, London to mark his birthday (16/4/1889):

Herring (based on Hermann Göring):

We’ve just discovered the most wonderful poison gas. It will kill everybody…

Adenoid Hynkel (based on Adolf Hitler, birthday 20/4/1889):

All right. Later.

11/4/17 President Trump’s Press Secretary Sean Spicer at his regular press briefing at the White House compared Adolf Hitler to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad

Sean Spicer (based on Josef Goebbels and/or a buffoon):

We didn’t use chemical weapons in World War Two. You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.

If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.

Adolf Hitler

Chaplin and Hitler were born the same year, same month, same week.

While Hitler celebrated his fiftieth birthday in April 1939, backing and speaking at the largest military parade in history,  Chaplin celebrated his birthday working on the script of ‘The Great Dictator’ which included a huge military parade and an extended sequence of a ranting dictator’s speech.

Both Chaplin’s Tramp and Hitler’s dictatorial scamp wore a toothbrush moustache.

Coincidence No. 393 – Bright

13/3/17

I got up and went to enjoy the early morning sunshine in the garden, reading Jay McInerney’s  ‘Bright, Precious Days’. I noticed for the first time that the word ‘bright’ recurs in his novel titles: Bright Lights, Big City; Brightness Falls; Bright, Precious Days.

I went to a funeral at lunchtime. In the service human life was compared to a passing shadow and the religious leader drew attention to the brightness that created that shadow.

In the evening I saw ‘An American in Paris’ at the Dominion (where Chaplin’s ‘City Lights’ was premiered in 1931). In that show the composer character has a revelation that what his tunes are missing is brightness in the wake of World War Two and the occupation of Paris.

 

 

My Favourite Movies

It’s that end of the year time when lists beckon. I’ll be doing my annual list of the best of the year in the next 36 hours or so but before I embark on that I was out with my youngest nephew the night before last and he showed me his Top 10 Films list on his Christmas-new iPod Touch (he’s got very refined taste for an 11 year old and I liked most of his choice which included great American indies like The Way Way Back) so I took the opportunity to jot down my Top 10 on my phone. Not an easy task once you get thinking (so I’m including my bubbling under list with a view to expanding it to my Top 20).

1 Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard

2 Apocalypse Now

Martin Sheen as Capt. Willard

3 Blazing Saddles

Mel Brooks: “Dey even darker den us!”

4 City Lights

Charlie Chaplin and Virginia Cherrill

5 The Godfather

Al Pacino as the unspoiled Michael Corleone

6 The Big Chill

Watching J. T. Lancer

7 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Twisting & Shouting

8 My Life as a Dog

Mitt Liv som Hund

9 The Big Short

Of these 4 great performances Steve Carell’s is the biggie

10 The Wolf of Wall Street

Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio horsing around in wolf’s clothing

BUBBLING UNDER…

• The 39 Steps
• The Unbelievable Truth
• Blow Up
• La Haine
• Diner
• The Breakfast Club
• I Know Where I’m Going
• Black Narcissus
• The Godfather 2
• Pulp Fiction
• Inglourious Basterds
• Serpico
• Chinatown
• 20,000 Days on Earth
• Romeo & Juliet
• Mississippi Burning
• Casablanca
• West Side Story
• Silver Linings Playbook

 

Charlie Chaplin’s first love

I’ve just written and published a Wikipedia article about Hetty Kelly, Charlie Chaplin’s first love, but just in case the Wikipolice shoot it down I’m going to save it here…

Hetty Kelly

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

photographic portrait of Hetty Kelly

Hetty Kelly (1893 – 4th November 1918) was an Irish-born dancer and music hall performer, and the first love of movie comedian Charlie Chaplin.

Chaplin met her in 1908 in London when they were both performing for impresario Fred Karno at the Streatham Empire. She was with a song and dance troupe, Bert Coutts’ Yankee-Doodle Girls, and Chaplin was playing a drunk in ‘Mumming Birds’. He was 19 and she was 15. He remembered her as “a slim gazelle, with a shapely oval face, a bewitching full mouth, and beautiful teeth”. She came to be the female ideal in Chaplin’s mind and he recreated her in some of the female leads in his movies. Chaplin wrote in his autobiography, written in 1964: “Although I had met her but five times, and scarcely any of our meetings had lasted longer than twenty minutes, that brief encounter affected me for a long time.”

Hetty married a British politician in 1915, had children and lived in Portman Square, London. She eventually died in the Spanish flu epidemic that ravaged Europe in the wake of the First World War. Chaplin did not learn of her death until three years later in 1921, on a visit to England.

Hetty’s sister was musical comedy actress Edith Kelly, who married US millionaire Frank Jay Gould^[1].

Hetty Kelly was played by actress Moira Kelly in the 1992 movie Chaplin produced and directed by Richard Attenborough. She also played Oona O’Neill in the film.^[2]

References

1. Jump up^ “Frank J. Gould Did Wed Edith Kelly. His Marriage to Musical Comedy Actress in Paris Suburb. His First Wife, Mrs. Helen Kelly Gould, Is Expected to Marry Ralph Hill Thomas To-morrow.”.New York Times. July 10, 1910. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
2. Jump up^ Giles, Jeff (1993-01-03). “Moira Kelly; Playing Two Roles in ‘Chaplin’ While Dreaming of Joan of Arc”. The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-20.

And just to save the code:

[[File:Hetty-Kelly.jpg|thumb|photographic portrait of Hetty Kelly]]

”’Hetty Kelly”’ (1893 – 4th November 1918) was an Irish-born dancer and music hall performer, and the first love of movie comedian [[Charlie Chaplin]].

Chaplin met her in 1908 in London when they were both performing for impresario [[Fred Karno]] at the Streatham Empire. She was with a song and dance troupe, Bert Coutts’ Yankee-Doodle Girls, and Chaplin was playing a drunk in ‘Mumming Birds’. He was 19 and she was 15. He remembered her as “a slim gazelle, with a shapely oval face, a bewitching full mouth, and beautiful teeth”. She came to be the female ideal in Chaplin’s mind and he recreated her in some of the female leads in his movies. Chaplin wrote in his autobiography, written in 1964: “Although I had met her but five times, and scarcely any of our meetings had lasted longer than twenty minutes, that brief encounter affected me for a long time.”

Hetty married a British politician in 1915, had children and lived in Portman Square, London. She eventually died in the Spanish flu epidemic that ravaged Europe in the wake of the First World War. Chaplin did not learn of her death until three years later in 1921, on a visit to England.

Hetty’s sister was musical comedy actress Edith Kelly, who married US millionaire [[Frank Jay Gould]]{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Frank J. Gould Did Wed Edith Kelly. His Marriage to Musical Comedy Actress in Paris Suburb. His First Wife, Mrs. Helen Kelly Gould, Is Expected to Marry Ralph Hill Thomas To-morrow.|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E02EFDD1E39E333A25753C1A9619C946196D6CF |quote= |work=[[New York Times]] |date=July 10, 1910 |accessdate=2008-12-22 }}.

Hetty Kelly was played by actress [[Moira Kelly]] in the 1992 movie [[Chaplin (film)|Chaplin]] produced and directed by Richard Attenborough. She also played [[Oona O’Neill]] in the film.{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/03/movies/up-coming-moira-kelly-playing-two-roles-chaplin-while-dreaming-joan-arc.html?pagewanted=1|title=Moira Kelly; Playing Two Roles in ‘Chaplin’ While Dreaming of Joan of Arc|publisher=[[The New York Times]]|work=|date=1993-01-03|accessdate=2010-05-20|first=Jeff|last=Giles}}

==References==
{{reflist}}