Charlie Chaplin (1951)

"City Lights" 221 divorce suit in Chicago from Irving Adler. She submitted herself, with bewilderment, to Chaplin's coaching. At this point Chaplin suffered a bereavement. His mother, whom it had been necessary to move from her seaside home to a Glendale sanitarium, died there. The finest care had failed to arrest the clouding of her mind. After visits to her Chaplin would sink into melancholy for days and he had a long fit of depression after her death. He had her buried near the "little mouse." At the funeral, Lita Grey and her mother appeared in elaborate mourning down to the black-bordered handkerchiefs. Only the tact of Carl Robinson, who kept Chaplin from seeing them, prevented a violent scene. Lita probably wanted to figure in the press reports and pictures; or may even have hoped to star in a big "reconciliation scene at grave of mother." Work resumed on "City Lights." Chaplin shot thousands of feet, in his usual fashion, improvising and retaking with no thought of time, and began, too, to indulge in his familiar inexplicable whims. First he fired Harry Crocker, who had been with him for three years. The next victim was Henry Clive, playing the millionaire. Clive had done his scenes well but refused to do the drowning scene in the river (Chaplin's studio pool) until the water had been warmed a while in the sun — claiming that he had a cold. Chaplin had been working all night; the rest of the crew were exhausted; but he insisted thaj they go on with the scene. On Clive's continued refusal, Chaplin left the set in a rage and ordered Robinson to fire him. After a break of several days, Chaplin hired Harry Myers, fondly remembered for his lead in the 1921 version of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." Myers was more robust and inured to cold water. He made an excellent foil for