Cinema Quarterly (1934 - 1935)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

giant whose hobby consists incongruously in composing delicate needlework). Chaplin acts out the movement of each character, plays his own part and then the parts of those who come in contact with him. Over and over for hours the action is rehearsed. There is talk, but the sense is clear in the pantomime. Chaplin himself speaks only occasional monosyllables. Quietly, patiently, he moulds the scene into a rhythmical whole. Cues, pauses, steps, gestures are exactly learned. "Wait until he's crossed over to there. Then you come here. No, stall until the cue. That's it. Now we'll try it again," he says with a soft mellow good-humoured voice. Again, and again, and again. Chaplin worries over a movement, considers, paces out steps. Gags are improvised. Chaplin hands the giant his embroidery as the latter is led off by the guards. The material at hand is made use of. Chaplin starts to lean against the bars, only his hand passes through, and he stumbles. The prison door is used to knock out a few of the prisoners. While Chaplin plans out the action, he senses the place and time for the close-ups. He shoots a long key-shot, and breaks it up into close-ups for emphasis. His script is completely worked out, keyshot by key-shot. Finally he is ready to see the effect he has worked out. His assistant director acts as his stand-in, and takes his place in the action. Chaplin watches through the camera. An amusing contrast, his assistant is plump middle-aged, with glasses. Chaplin laughs at one of the gags. "That's good! " he says about a comical chorus of hands reaching through the bars at his assistant who holds a revolver. Corrections are made. He is satisfied. He asked for a glass of water and a cigarette. Pause after the long strenuous rehearsal. The huge prisoner is dripping with sweat. Some one leans over and offers advice. Chaplin thinks the suggestion good, and incorporates it. "Now, boys, we're going to take it," Chaplin says. You can hear the camera motor, as you can't of course in sound movies. A revolver, which must be thrown to a certain spot, does not reach it. Cut. The revolver fails again. Once more. The whole action is run through. Chaplin is not satisfied. Five times. Finally it is done. Chaplin shoots from five to twenty-five takes for every one used. In City Lights three hundred thousand feet of film were shot for the seventyfive hundred on the screen. Chaplin does his own cutting. Literally, he cuts it piece by piece in the cutting room. Last Sunday he was cutting and splicing all day. He composes his own musical score. In fact, he does everything. Most of his co-workers have been with him since he began making independent pictures. There is only one Chaplin in Hollywood. 91