Review for

"THE CHAPLIN COLLECTION": The Gold Rush, Modern Times, The Great Dictator and Limelight (Warner Home Entertainment)

"THE CHAPLIN COLLECTION" (Warner Home Entertainment): He was the first international movie star. At one time his Little Tramp character was the most recognized figure on the planet.

He was Charlie Chaplin. And now Warner Home Video has released "The Chaplin Collection," a gift set comprising four of Chaplin's films: The Gold Rush, Modern Times, The Great Dictator and Limelight.

Each film in the set consists of two discs. The films are newly restored from the Chaplin vaults,. Other features include a variety of supplemental elements ranging from documentaries to home movies to musical scores.

The collection can be purchased as a set or individually.

These discs are a film buff's nirvana. The quality of these wonderfully restored features - the picture and sound are amazing - are so fine you'd think Chaplin had just released them yesterday.

Each package features an introduction by author David Robinson, who wrote the definitive biography of Chaplin, giving some background on the filming of the particular feature as well as insight into Chaplin's turbulent personal life at the time.

Also included are short documentaries entitled "Chaplin Today," in which contemporary filmmakers from other countries describe how Chaplin's works have influenced their own, as well as their personal reflections about the feature on that disc. For example, Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci discusses Limelight, while African filmmaker Idrissa Ouedraogo talks about the impact of The Gold Rush on his career.

A little about each film and what is included in the disc set:

The Gold Rush was originally released in 1925. Chaplin's inspiration for the film was a picture he saw of prospectors climbing a rugged path to enter the Klondike gold fields as well as book he had read on the ill-fated Donner party.

Among the famous scenes are Chaplin's Lone Prospector and his partner's elegant Thanksgiving dinner, consisting of the Prospector's boiled shoe and laces.

The Gold Rush package features two versions of the film; the restored 1925 original, and the 1942 reissue in which Chaplin removed the inner titles, reworked his musical score and scripted a narration, which he delivers.

Modern Times was released in 1936 and is Chaplin's satire on industry and the plight of the working man. The movie takes a jaundiced view at the Depression, big business and the establishment, but with humor.

For those who enjoy kitsch, one of the package's extras is a 1956 broadcast of Liberace performing "Smile," Chaplin's musical theme from the picture.

The Great Dictator is Chaplin's most controversial movie. Released in 1940, this savage lampooning of Adolf Hitler, was Chaplin's first all-talkie feature.

The extras include the insightful Turner Classic Movies' documentary The Tramp and the Dictator, which traces the parallels between Chaplin and Hitler - they were born a week apart in the same year - as well as the problems Chaplin faced in producing the film, including enormous pressure from Hollywood to abandon the project.

Other interesting features include some newly discovered on-the-set, behind-the-scenes home movies, shot in color, by Chaplin's brother, Sydney.

Limelight, released in 1952, is not so much a comedy, as a nostalgic love letter to the English music hall of the early 20th century, where Chaplin started his career.

Chaplin plays an elderly performer whose career is in eclipse. He helps a young dancer regain her spirit and confidence after a failed suicide attempt, while trying for his own comeback.

Among the film's highlights is a routine pairing the two giants of silent comedy - Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

This package features the film's complete score, one of the most haunting of Chaplin's works, as well as snippets from an abandoned 1919 comedy short, entitled The Professor, which was the inspiration for one of the comic routines Chaplin resurrected for Limelight.

For Chaplin fans, this gift set is a treasure. For those who have never seen Chaplin, the discs serve as an entertaining introduction to a comedy colossus.

Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bbloom@journalandcourier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on movies. Bloom's reviews also appear on the Web at the Rottentomatoes Web site, www.rottentomatoes.com and at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom

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