Gary Johnson wrote:I felt like I was watching an unknown outtake from SUNNYSIDE, except that Syd's acting seemed to be aping his brothers' more broadly played performing style from his various home movies of the time. I'm curious why reels from this film were in the Chaplin archive. Could it be because portions of its plot turned up in THE GREAT DICTATOR? Along with its barber shop scene?
If there is a reconstruction of this feature going on, wouldn't someone be promoting it?
I have to correct myself on that, the outtakes on KING QUEEN JOKER are at the BFI, but they're actually from the Rohauer Collection, this was more of the stuff Rollie Totheroh backdoored to the infamous RR along with the Mutual outtakes when clearing out the Chaplin vaults in the 50's. I did a bit of checking yesterday to see if there was finally a restoration or recutting of the footage into some sort of coherent narrative in the works, and apparently this is not the case. Apparently this clip and several others were prepared for a presentation of some of this footage at a British Film Festival (I think it was Nottingham) sometime in the mid-zeros.
The clip reminded me of what has always been my opinion of Syd Chaplin, he had his Brother's moves, timing, the same Karno background and training, but he just does not connect with the audience and break through that fourth wall the way Charlie does. It always seemed to me Syd had too much to hide to look the camera and the audience in the eye.
And as far as this footage turning up in the Chaplin vaults, it was basically an independent Chaplin family production, released by Paramount. I was always convinced that Syd Chaplin basically travelled around the European continent using profits from Brother Charlie's films frozen in various countries to shoot this film, it took quite awhile to make, and put together, and finally release, and from all reports it was a mess, and certainly not a success with either audiences or critics. I do remember seeing some elaborate scenes in the footage I saw, including an elaborate airplane stunt sequence that sadly did not come off, causing an accident that apparently killed the pilot, the tragic crash caught on film.
RICHARD M ROBERTS