Charlie Chaplin Speaks - must see video

[Sydnie]

In the film that they didn't want him to make. His words apply as much today as they did the day he wrote and performed them. Let's hope we are listening this time around. Thank you Charlie. Thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZcJE7ExhtY

edited to add to the title

[Heidi]

1. One of my favorite films ever.

Kicked and recommended.

:kick:

[Charlie Brown]

2. ironically, Charlie was "red baited" partly because of this segment

which kind of proves the points he was making.

[MADem]

3. Well, there was a bit more to it than that

He might have escaped scrutiny, but he certainly didn't help himself with that Lita Grey business (child bride number two) to say nothing of the rest of his wives. Lita was barely (if she wasn't lying about her age) sixteen and pregnant when he married her, and he'd been messing with the child for a year or more. He kind of had that "Woody Allen stink" about him because of his fondness for teen agers. Add that to the Puritanical phase America was going through, and he was as good a target as any.

[rman]

5. That would not have been the issue that is was if Chaplin would

not have done this segment.

[MADem]

11. Sure, it was a perfect storm...if he'd married a Daughter of the American

Revolution AND done this, he might have gotten away with it.

But his personal behavior and his politics served to make him a juicy target. It was easier to stir up the outrage since it had already been on the back of the stove, simmering.

On edit, to clarify--his marriage to the teenager, with whom he'd been fooling around, took place in 1924. well before the film was made. It WAS quite the scandal of the era. By the time he did this movie (1940) he'd already done marriage number three (Paulette Goddard) and was on his way to marrying Oona O'Neill in 1943.

He was regarded as something of a rake at this point in time, you see.

[BuelahWitch]

17. Charlie was embroiled in a paternity suit

the same time he married Oona. The woman's name was Joan Barry and she did have an affair with Chaplin, but the child was not his (proven by a blood test). She was also having an affair with one of the Getty sons, and maybe others. But a judge still made Charlie pay child support until the little girl was 18 (I forget how they came to that decision. I just know that there was alot of animosity toward him in both Washington and Hollywood).

Here's the thing about Charlie: he didn't pursue young women, they (or their mamas) pursued HIM. There's no getting around the fact that he did get 16 year old Lita Grey pregnant, but it was more or less with her mother's blessing. And if I may say so, Charlie was a very sexy man, even into his late 60s. He's still quite handsome in A King in New York and he was 68 then.

[MADem]

18. Well, I realize that the mores were different back then, but there's

no denying that it was Charlie's dick that got Lita up the pole. And if you read her book, she says she was fourteen or so when they first got rolling.

I agree that the child's mother was dispicable, but Charlie could have walked away, and should have (though his kids by Lita might have disagreed). It takes two to tango, and he displayed either poor judgment or had a worriesome predeliction for teenagers, or both. If anything, Charlie may have benefitted slightly from the prevailing attitude back then that if a woman was "compromised" she somehow "brought it upon herself."

It's an issue unrelated to his talents in films, but he's never been a candidate to cast the first stone!

[Sydnie]

4. kick for the weekend crowd n/t

[Pharaoh]

6. Wow

Way to go charlie! :patriot:

[NNN0LHI]

7. Mark to view later n/t

[C_U_L8R]

8. Just in time !

We've seen the likes of Cheney and Bush before...
and if history is any guide... they are doomed to fail

[Bjorn Against]

9. God I wish Charlie Chaplin was still with us today

I would just love to see him take on the current regime.

[libnnc]

10. I think he would be heart broken

Our world today would bring him to tears.

[me b zola]

12. I'm @ home today and can't watch the video...

I assume that this is a clip of the speech he gave @ the end of his movie, The Great Dictator. If so, then I recommend--hell, it doesn't matter, I'm a big Chaplin fan and I would recommend any of his work :)

[whirlygigspin]

15. you can find the audio or video with text here

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechthegreatdictator.html

[bleever]

13. That was fabulous.

Thanks, Sydnie!


:hi:

[whirlygigspin]

14. thanks

I always like that speech.

[NNN0LHI]

16. Thank you for posting this. Everyone should watch it n/t