Charlie Chaplin

[SwedeSteve]

I just finishes watching the 1940 The Great Dictator! It's a "talkie" and pretty funny! B&W of course.

[troy2000]

Originally Posted by SwedeSteve

I just finishes watching the 1940 The Great Dictator! It's a "talkie" and pretty funny! B&W of course.

I love Chaplin, and one thing that keeps me from giving up on France is that they loved him, too.

Of course they also love Jerry Lewis, but...

[okmic1]

Originally Posted by troy2000

I love Chaplin, and one thing that keeps me from giving up on France is that they loved him, too.

Of course they also love Jerry Lewis, but...

The Jerry Lewis thing cancels out the Charlie Chaplin part.

I'm more of a Buster Keaton kind of guy.

[Seabeescotty]

I always liked Richard Pryor, because he was an honest comedian. The man could bring tears to your eyes, from laughing too much!

[troy2000]

Originally Posted by okmic1

The Jerry Lewis thing cancels out the Charlie Chaplin part.

I'm more of a Buster Keaton kind of guy.

My first exposure to Buster Keaton was as the stone-faced old Indian with a tomahawk, in the Annette Funicello/Frankie Avalon beach party movies.

I had no idea I was watching an icon, but I knew those cameos were special anyway.

Which reminds me: who could ever forget the surfers' mortal enemy, the motorcycle gang leader, Eric Von Zipper?

[SwedeSteve]

^ +1. Who was that man ???

[okmic1]

Originally Posted by SwedeSteve

^ +1. Who was that man ???

Harvey Lembeck.

[Capt'n Mil Coll]

Buster Keaton in The General has got to be one of the all time great comedys. I just checked and you can get it for only .98 cents used on Amazon.

I love how he runs out of steam on the engine and hops off while its still moving and tossed tree branches and old rr ties and whatever he can find into the tender to use as fuel. Then hops back on and gets up steam to get away from the bad guys.
Really a funny movie.

[okmic1]

I met one of Keaton's grandsons in a film class back around '87. We watched "The General" and then he showed us the Oscar that was presented to Buster for lifetime achievement. I wish I had a camera with me. He even let us pass it around. They're surprisingly heavy.

[SwedeSteve]

I really like the Old Time comedians.

[troy2000]

Originally Posted by SwedeSteve

I really like the Old Time comedians.

I remember WC Fields in a diner, saying to the gal, "I wasn't insulting your food...I just asked what happened to that old horse that used to be tied up out back."

Not an exact quote, but the general idea.

[GDawg]

I love old Buster Keaton and the Keystone Cops... I need to find some DVDs of that great stuff. Chaplin is great too.

[stalebiscuit]

as funny as he might have been....like most privileged hollywood types he was a commie and his small frame was filled with sin and debauchery

the whole lot of hollywood is a riving cess pool of the bottom rung of society if ya ask me and its a blessing im not rich and famous

[Cyrano]

If you want to see Chaplin off-camera, watch the episode of Hollywood entitled, "Comedy: A Serious Business." The business of his first meeting with French comedian Max Linde, where at one point Linde does Chaplin and Chalin does Linde, is delightful. Jackie Coogan reminiscing about how Chaplin got him worked up for one particular scene in The Kid is an excellent example of how dedicated and disciplined Chaplin was. He was perhaps the greatest of the silent film comedians.

Of the early Hollywood comedians, my favorite is Groucho Marx, because I wish I could get away with saying the kind of outrageous things he does. But in terms of pure physical comedy, nobody touches Chaplin.

[Coeloptera]

Originally Posted by stalebiscuit

the whole lot of hollywood is a riving cess pool of the bottom rung of society if ya ask me and its a blessing im not rich and famous

Well not with that attitude you won't be!

But wow, SwedeSteve, you've never seen it before? Guy's movies are always genuinely funny, even by modern standards. I love Modern Times, very neat, with a real message behind the funny. But how dare that dirty commie speak to the plight of workers being taken advantage of! Oh, and all that money he raised for WWI, and the fact that he tried to sign up for active service but was denied due to being too small. And that war bond movie he made with his own money. And how dare he let both of his sons fight on the European front in WWII!

I mean, you'd think he wasn't happy because the FBI was having him followed and J. Edgar Hoover tried to have his re-entry permit revoked after a trip. Oh wait...that and the fact that he was court-ordered to support a kid that blood tests showed unequivocally wasn't his.

Yep, horrible person he was. The government was right to wast-er...spend all that effort on some actor just because his political opinions didn't match up to the mainstream and he wasn't inclined to be quiet about it in the Land of the Free.

Face it, certain elements in our government treated him shamefully and he decided not to take it and went home. Yeah, he definitely had communist leanings, but back before we knew what the USSR would become (totally betraying the promises made before and even the concept of the October Revolution, by the way) it wasn't as uncommon as many think.

- Coeloptera

[iflylow74]

I saw an A&E documentary about Chaplin and it was amazing. I had never really given him much thought before. The way he could "speak" to the audience without saying a word was amazing.

I also learned he was quite the ladies man too!!

[troy2000]

Originally Posted by stalebiscuit

as funny as he might have been....like most privileged hollywood types he was a commie and his small frame was filled with sin and debauchery

the whole lot of hollywood is a riving cess pool of the bottom rung of society if ya ask me and its a blessing im not rich and famous

You seriously need to lighten up, son. I don't know who you've been listening to, but they're filling your mind with garbage. It honestly isn't necessary, or useful in the slightest, for you to hate thousands of people you've never even met.

I built sets in Hollywood for several years, and I don't think that my coworkers and friends were part of any 'riving cesspool' (whatever the hell that is...).

[stalebiscuit]

Originally Posted by troy2000

You seriously need to lighten up, son. I don't know who you've been listening to, but they're filling your mind with garbage. It honestly isn't necessary, or useful in the slightest, for you to hate thousands of people you've never even met.

I built sets in Hollywood for several years, and I don't think that my coworkers and friends were part of any 'riving cesspool' (whatever the hell that is...).

i dont hate them, they are not worthy of my contempt

kinda my point, i dislike the general idea of celebrity, i dont see why people get so caught up with their antics to be honest......i got some favorite actors yes, but if they arent in a movie i dont want to hear or see them really

[Coeloptera]

Originally Posted by iflylow74

I also learned he was quite the ladies man too!!

Chaplin was pimpin'. I have no idea what he had going on, but yeah, he could draw women, and surprisingly young women all the time.

But man, stalebiscut, awfully dour for such a young guy.

I will say, Seabeescotty, you're right on about Pryor. He co-wrote what is, to me, one of the funniest movies of all time, Blazing Saddles. I think it's sad no one makes or even could make a movie like that nowadays.

The current state of "comedy" films is rather depressing, actually. I don't think I've gone to the theatre to see a comedy in years now. Seriously, the "Blank Movie" people need to just stop. So does that guy in Knocked Up. The chubby guy with the alarmingly bad hair.

Well...hopefully Tropic Thunder might be good, cast is good and the concept is deranged enough to work. That and Downey Jr., well...for those who don't know, here he is in the film:



Incredibly wrong.

- Coeloptera

[Seabeescotty]

Mr. Pryor is in the same class as Carlin, and was one the best comedians I ever watched. And a lot of people don't know it, but he was also a veteran of the Army. I loved the originality of his work. A lot of current comedians are nothing more than pale copies of the originals,and I don't pay much attention, anymore. Rude and crude is only funny, the first few times, and then gets incredibly boring.
There's a few in the country genre, like Jeff Foxworthy, who are pretty damn funny, but they aren't in the same class as Pryor!