The Chaplin Revue (1959)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Menu Audio Introduction-David Robinson Deleted Scenes-Shoulder Arms Short Film-How to Make Movies Short Film-The Bond Gallery-Photo Gallery-Poster Trailer-The Chaplin Collection Introduction-David Robinson Deleted Scenes-From Sunnyside And Shoulder Arms Featurette-The Visitors Featurette-Harry Lauder Gallery-Photo Gallery-Poster Trailer-The Chaplin Collection
Rating
Year Of Production	1959
Running Time	210:22 (Case: 214)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (81:27) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Charles Chaplin
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Charles Chaplin
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	Charles Chaplin Paul Davies Derek Parsons

    After A King in New York, Chaplin decided to produce a compilation of his short silent films for reissue. What eventually transpired was a film containing footage from films he released under his First National contract. In fact, this two-disc set contains all of his First National films aside from The Kid. The Chaplin Revue comprises How to Make Movies (included in full as an extra on the disc), followed by three comedies: A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms and The Pilgrim. Chaplin included an opening narration, plus voice-over introductions to the films, but thankfully did not narrate the films themselves as he had in the reissue of The Gold Rush.

    In A Dog's Life, the Tramp befriends a dog, with whom he scrounges for food. They go into a music hall, where a shy girl (Edna Purviance) sings on stage. Charlie is smitten, but she is soon given notice without being paid. Meanwhile, two thieves in flight from the cops have buried a wallet near where Charlie sleeps. The dog digs up the wallet, which Charlie takes to Edna with grandiose dreams of a life in the country. But the thieves see the wallet and steal it back. Can the Tramp save the day? Of course.

    Shoulder Arms tells the story of the Tramp in the army in World War One. This film shows his life in training camp, then in the trenches, and finally capturing the Kaiser, played by his brother Syd.

    In The Pilgrim, Charlie is a convict who escapes and then disguises himself as a clergyman. Mistaken in a small town for their new minister, Charlie falls in with the deception, but of course he is changed and manages to redeem his past faults.

    These are quite funny films and represent Chaplin at his best, aside from the shorts he made earlier at the Mutual studios. The films have been slightly re-edited from their original forms. This is a very good release with some excellent extras, plus the remainder of the non-feature films he made for First National. These additional four short films on the second disc were made by Chaplin between 1919 and 1922, and were the last two- and three-reel comedies he made. A Day's Pleasure sees him with his family out on a boating trip, and then having some trouble with policemen and tar on their way home. Sunnyside is a rural comedy in which the lowly farmhand Charlie has to compete with a city slicker for the love of Edna. In The Idle Class, Chaplin plays dual roles, as the Tramp and as Edna's inebriate husband. There is an amusing golf game and then a costume party in which the Tramp is mistaken by Edna for her husband. Pay Day sees Charlie working on a building site and then spending a night on the town before returning to his fearsome wife.

    The prints used for these transfers were the ones made by Chaplin to be shown with his re-released features. They are in excellent condition and feature scores by you know who.

    A major irritation with these films is that while the time coding shows the times for the films combined, there is no option to play them all. When each film is completed, a series of those annoying copyright notices in multiple languages is shown for 3:14. You can't skip them nor fast forward them. The only remedy is to press the stop and menu buttons, which has the same effect as ejecting and reinserting the disc, in that all of the start-up screens are displayed. I could handle this if it happened after one of the films, but not all four. It does not do this on my DVD-ROM drive.

Video

    The compilation film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, close to the original 1.37:1. The others are in the original 1.33:1.

    The transfers are quite sharp. There is a good amount of detail visible throughout. Shadow detail is reasonable considering the age of the original film elements used.

    These are black and white films, and there is a good range of shades of grey. Black levels are satisfactory.

    There is a realistic amount of grain visible. Edge enhancement is quite noticeable throughout, otherwise there are no film to video artefacts present.

    There are variations in the brightness of frames, leading to flickering throughout, typical of films of this age. The eye soon adjusts. Otherwise, there are no film artefacts visible which could be attributed to the condition of the print of The Chaplin Revue. The original films used to make the later film though have all sorts of film artefacts, such as scratches, chips, flecks and slight decomposition, but were still in good condition all things considered.

    Subtitles are provided in numerous languages, with the English subtitles clear and readable in large white lettering with thick black outlines, and seem to be close to the brief dialogue between the films.

    Disc Two is an RSDL-formatted disc with the layer change at 81:27. This occurs after an iris-in to a black screen, and is so well placed that I did not notice the layer change on a first viewing. Disc One is dual-layered, and I did not notice any layer changes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on the main feature. The default is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, and there is an alternative 5.1 mix. I listened to the default track and sampled the other, which does not sound significantly different.

    There are short pieces of dialogue at the start of the film and between each segment. The dialogue is clear and distinct.

    The audio is not very good, with some noticeable distortion in the upper ranges on both mixes. Generally it is serviceable and sonically a lot better than some silent film scores that I have heard. Possibly this distortion is inherent in the original materials. I did not detect any audio problems on the four films on Disc One.

    The orchestral scores are by Charlie Chaplin and are quite good, though not up to the calibre of the best silent scores. The Pilgrim has a song sung by the then unknown Matt Monro.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are two discs. Disc Two contains The Chaplin Revue and Disc One contains the other four films. Each has their own set of extras.

    Disc Two contains the following extras:

Featurette - Introduction (4:50)

    The usual introduction to the film by David Robinson, giving some context to what we see on screen. This one seems shorter than usual.

Deleted Scenes from Shoulder Arms (10:24)

    Some funny scenes which Chaplin removed for reasons of length and pacing. No audio.

How to Make Movies (15:55)

    Behind the scenes footage from Chaplin's studio, shot in 1917 but unreleased until 1982. No audio.

The Bond (9:39)

    A 1918 film Chaplin made promoting the sale of war bonds. Syd Chaplin appears as the Kaiser, reprising his role from Shoulder Arms. No audio.

Photo Gallery

    96 stills from the three films included in The Chaplin Revue, plus some miscellaneous shots.

Posters

    13 posters promoting the Revue and the individual films included in it.

Trailer (1:44)

    A French trailer for the film.

    Disc One contains the following:

Featurette - Introduction (5:01)

    A short introduction to the four additional films on disc two by David Robinson.

Deleted Scene From Sunnyside (8:20)

    This is a short scene where Charlie is a barber giving Albert Austin a shave, which was removed from the final version of the short for reasons of balance and length. No audio.

The Visitors (13:00)

    This is a series of short home movies showing visitors to the studio, usually clowning around with Chaplin. Max Linder, the French comedy star who was probably the first movie star and an influence on Chaplin appears first, followed by Maxine Elliott, General Wood, the Bishop of Birmingham, an unnamed woman, Prince Axel of Denmark and humorist Irvin S. Cobb. No audio.

Harry Lauder (8:16)

    Like the above, this is footage of the famed Scottish comedian clowning around with Chaplin. This is not particularly amusing, and there is no audio.

Photo Gallery

    73 production and publicity snaps from the four films on this disc.

Posters

    6 posters for the films on this disc.

The Chaplin Collection (10:43)

    Trailers for the other releases in this collection.

    This material has also been issued in other regions. The material was mastered for PAL release in Europe, and the NTSC versions were made from the PAL masters, not from the original prints, and as a consequence of this the Region 1 release suffers from motion blurring artefacts and cannot be recommended. Two reviews of the Region 1 I have read mention that the contents of the discs are reversed from that stated on the cover, where The Chaplin Revue is said to be on Disc Two when it is in fact on Disc One. My review copies did not come with the slick, but the disc labelled Disc Two has the title feature. I have presumed for the purposes of the review that the labelling is correct.

    A three disc set of Chaplin films I have from Region 1 called Chaplin: The Artist in His Prime contains five of the seven shorts on the new set in their original forms but in poorer condition. The new set is much better.

    A now out-of-print disc from Region 1 called A First National Collection included six of the seven films (excluding A Dog's Life, which was included on the separate disc containing The Kid) but not The Chaplin Revue versions. Apparently the print quality on this set was fine.

    A fine set of films from the late 1910s and early 1920s, this is worth owning.

    The video quality is very good considering the age of these films.

    The audio has some problems on the main feature, but otherwise is good.

    The extras make an excellent package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall