A King in New York -- Charlie Chaplin

Thanks to the best channel in the world (Turner Classic Movies) I was recently able to watch Charlie Chaplin's second to last movie, A King in New York. Made in 1957, five years after he was refused re-entry to the United States, Chaplin launched an attack at American culture. My guess is that most Americans in 1957 wouldn't be very interested in his observations, but they didn't have a chance to find out. Due to its controversial material, A King in New York wasn't released in the United States until 1973.

The film is split into two parts: the first satirizes American commercialism (obviously just as relevant now as ever), and the second attacks McCarthyism (also pretty relevant now, though in a different form). Charlie Chaplin's movies began to take on more social commentary as his career progressed, and they lost a lot of the pure anarchic humor of his earlier work. Of course, some of the changes in style came from his need to adapt to the invention of sound, where viewers rely more on jokes than sight gags. His movies always had feeling (watch the end of City Lights, and see if there is a dry eye in the house), but his later films put more emphasis on the meaning of the story (his pre-American involvement take on Hitler in The Great Dictator and his beautifully melancholy metaphor for his own career, Limelight).

So you may be saying to yourself, "I've never seen a Chaplin picture. Should I start with this random King in New York movie I read about in a blog?" The answer is no. Start with Modern Times (my favorite) or The Gold Rush. You'll see a lot of bits that were ripped off by Warner Brothers' cartoons. Looking back, Modern Times was a way for Chaplin to test the water of social commentary, and he pulls it off well. The funniest Chaplin movies star his Little Tramp character, with his iconic bowler hat, oversized shoes, cane, and mustache.

I guess I should include a brief synopsis of A King in New York. A deposed king from Europe takes up residence in the Ritz. He has good intentions, but no money. American advertisers take advantage of him as he tries to cobble together enough money for his atomic energy plan. Next he gets mixed up with a communist orphan. The House Un-American Activities Committee assumes he must also be a communist, and hilarity ensues.

Chaplin was once the most famous person in the world. It's unfortunate how many people today have never seen a single one of his films.