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him away, attempts in a dignified manner to convince you that he is quite sober. He is much funnier than the man who, wildly hilarious, is frankly drunk and doesn't care a whoop who knows it. . . . For that reason, all my pictures are built around the idea of getting me into trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman. That is why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat, and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head."
Chaplin's direction of others was also individual. Most of his actors had been his collaborators for years and knew his methods. He usually had them rehearse their parts separately. He himself played every character in every one of his pictures, to show the actors, men and women, exactly how he wanted them to do a character or a scene. And he accompanied each actor's miming with a running commentary of suggestions, criticism, or encouragement.
He was always on guard against overemphasis, always calling for restraint. Parenthetically, standards for "restraint" have varied through the years. Our upper lips seem to have become stiffer and our faces to reveal progressively less inner emotion. This is one reason why the heavy emoting in some old motion pictures often seems strange. From the beginning Chaplin, realizing the intimacy of the screen close-up, sought to avoid the stage style. "Don't act!" was one of his favorite admonitions. "I don't want any of the conventional business of the usual cinema traitor. Just get yourself used to the idea that you're a rascal who isn't an out-and-out bad one, but simply hasn't got any moral sense. Don't put on that savage look. And above all, don't act!"
In later years his favorite expression was, "Don't sell it. Remember they're peeking at you." According to