A King in New York (1957)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Charles Chaplin

Writer:

Charles Chaplin (writer)

Release Date:

21 December 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A recently-deposed European monarch seeks shelter in New York City, where he becomes an accidental television celebrity and is later wrongly accused of being a Communist.

Plot Keywords:

Communist | King | Television | Hot Tub | Airport

Cast

Charles Chaplin	...	King Shahdov
Maxine Audley	...	Queen Irene
Jerry Desmonde	...	Prime Minister Voudel
Oliver Johnston	...	Ambassador Jaume
Dawn Addams	...	Ann Kay - TV Specialist
Sid James	...	Johnson - TV Advertiser (as Sidney James)
Joan Ingram	...	Mona Cromwell - Hostess
Michael Chaplin	...	Rupert Macabee
John McLaren	...	Macabee Senior
Phil Brown	...	Headmaster
Harry Green	...	Lawyer
Robert Arden	...	Liftboy
Alan Gifford	...	School Superintendent
Robert Cawdron	...	Ulrich - U.S. Marshal
George Woodbridge	...	Member of Atomic Commission

Runtime:

110 min | Argentina:105 min | USA:105 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Spain:T | South Korea:All | Argentina:Atp | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | USA:G (1972) | West Germany:6

Filming Locations:

Leicester Square, Soho, London, England, UK

Company:

Charles Chaplin Productions

Trivia:

Shot for only 12 weeks, the shortest of all Chaplin films.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The TV station repeatedly shown in the movie has the call letters "KPXA." However, being in New York the call letters should begin with a "W" as stations east of the Mississippi River begin the letter "W" and not "K".

Quotes:

[after being called for questioning by the government on suspicions of Communist affiliations]
Rupert Macabee: I'm so sick and tired of people asking me if I'm this, if I'm that!

Movie Connections:

References One Week (1920)

Soundtrack:

The Sadness Goes On

Delightful Surprise

When I was a child, Charlie Chaplin's name was anathema. Here was the

personification of the "Red Peril," made worse still by the fact that we

had loved and trusted him through a lifetime of film. When A KING IN NEW

YORK came out it couldn't even get a distributor in the U.S. so virulent

was the hatred for "turncoat" Charlie.

Now, forty seven years later, and thanks tp the amazing TCM, I have

finally seen A KING IN NEW YORK and though it is somewhat uneven and

episodic, I believe it to be one of the best of Chaplin's films.

A mixture of broad slapstick and wry and subtle satire, the film is

often hilarious while at the same time touching and thought provoking.

Satire has to be the hardest form of art to translate to the screen and

there are few films that even try to tackle it, (Frank Tashlin's

hilarious WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? one delightful example), so A

KING IN NEW YORK is welcome as an attempt to satirize a rather

unsettling time in US history.

There are many brilliant scenes in A KING IN NEW YORK; the ones in the

movie theater, at the "Montesori" type school and shooting the Scotch

commercial among the best. Above all, the warmth, humanity and total

befuddlement of the King, as performed by Chaplin, is the glue that

holds the enterprise together.

In every frame, Chaplin is mesmerizing and Dawn Addams, playing it way

over the top as the epitome of the "woman in the grey flannel suit"

(one, by the way,that is covered by a floor length mink!), is a constant

delight. Excellent too is Michael Chaplin, the director's son, as a

young genius who spouts the joys of Communism at the drop of a hat.

Joe McCarthy is gone (so far!), Chaplin is dead and we are left in yet

another unsure world. Comedy, as always, will help get us through. A

KING IN NEW YORK gives us that comedic respite, while proving, so many

years later, that governments are, after all, transitory things while

art last forever.

A comedic gem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!