Charlie Chaplin (1951)

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"The Circus" 211 old manner, using his most characteristic tricks and pantomime. Toward the close of the film, he had the daring to turn his personal troubles to advantage before the camera. The last scene was deliberately photographed in the harsh, early morning light to bring out the careworn lines of his face. This adds great poignancy to his representation of the tragic emotions of the eternal frustrated misfit. Merna Kennedy, slightly reminiscent of Mabel Normand, though lacking her talent and personality, is merely competent. Later she appeared in "Broadway," the early Universal talkie, and "Hell's Highway." After an indifferent career, she died of a heart attack, in 1 944, at the age of thirty-five. During Chaplin's two-and-a-half-year absence from the screen, 1925 to 1928, his popularity had again been threatened by Harold Lloyd with "For Heaven's Sake" and "The Kid Brother," and by Buster Keaton with "The General" and "College." Moreover, three clever newcomers emerged: Raymond Griffith, a cross between Chaplin and Adolphe Menjou, but with an individual style of his own; Lupino Lane, an English acrobatic comedian with a wistful personality; and Harry Langdon, a clown rather similar in appeal to Chaplin but not an outright imitator. During 1926 and 1927 Langdon came nearest to stealing Chaplin's crown. His "The Strong Man" and "Long Pants," directed by Frank Capra, were almost up to Chaplin's best. The baby-faced Langdon had an individual, hesitant style, clever pantomimic "routines," and a natural pathos. Many comedy "teams" were formed during this period: Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton, W. C. Fields and Chester Conklin, Karl Dane and George K. Arthur, Edmund Lowe and Victor MacLaglen (in a new type of "comedy" stemming from "What Price Glory," namely, that of a pair of tough soldier "buddies" outwitting each