Charlie Chaplin (1951)

CC 6i versational titles, have an enlarged and illuminated initial boxed in a rectangle with a floral background. Unfortunately, although some of the added music is not bad, R.K.O.-Van Beuren overdid the sound effects, with sliding whistles, ratchets, and other noisemakers borrowed from the modern cartoon technique. They also committed the artistic sin of adding the human voice on occasions. This further compels running the pictures at higher sound speed of twenty-four frames a second, when they were taken at sixteen per second (or less, since Chaplin often undercranked, to get special effects). This sometimes hurries and blurs the action. The Mutuals are now owned by Guaranteed Pictures and are put out in combinations of four or six, as "Chaplin Festivals." Sixteen-millimeter prints are distributed by Brandon Films. With each new handling, the negatives have suffered some further cuts or damages. Nor are Chaplin films alone in meeting this fate. It is unfortunate that the original negatives of these and many other great films have not been preserved. Worn and duped prints give little idea of the quality of the original. The Chaplin-Mutual films cannot be lumped together. Each is a distinctive creation and must be reviewed separately.