1952-11-29 — Page 11

Charlie Chaplin and his wife, Ooun, arriving at the Royal Festival Hall, London, for a concert by the Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. (Reuterphoto)

;

THE UNWRITTEN CONSTITUTION

By David Temple Roberts

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1952.

Concluding · The Fabulous Story Of Charlle Chaplin

"LIMELIGHT" AND In all things..

AFTER..

By

M

COLIN FRAME

an

ISS GERALDINE

CHAPLIN, important eight- year-old who has her mother's long dark hair

When as a schoolgirl she re- turned to England

from Amerles where she spent war years she made a startling the miccere as Ophella at Stratford- on-Avon. And since her return from making "Limelight" sho

But this, although, the story "Limelight", is his last gim, took a long time to compile, those who saw him at work on was shot in:50 Haya, a record it will be very surprised.

time since he started moking films on his own,

At 03 the old genlus la surer of his touch.

#19

Miss Bloom has spoken of his Inastery

D director, his amazing and unliring entrgy and-despite occasional. tan trutne with himself when some- thing goes wrong-his personal kindness to his cast and

his ability to charm the best out of thent. directorial manner which

There is a story of Chaplin's

OC

"I shall make · Alme until I dié, he is fond of

saying, "and the next will always be the perfect one,

He is till brintful of ideas. There is one which he kas had at 'the back of his mind for many years, and which may yet bring his old faithful, techni- elans back on the studio door.

and wondering brown eyes, has held audiences spellbound curted in an earlier film.. His to bo

the

has a amali part in latest Chaplin film "Lime- light."

You will see her with her small sister Josephine and brother Michael standing on

Juliet,

Recently author Erle Link- Later, talking about the Edin burgh Festival, pul the

Old and Jullet" among the Vic performance of "Romeo most memorable of its occasions and

cast and a crowd of extras bc=

carte relive at his constant

His Swansong?

1.

refugee who finds sanctuary in The story is of a European

America, There he turns out

Nine-Day Wonder. But he cannot stand the use, the glamour, the rush and the ballyhoo and the story ends with the refugee returning to Europe waving a littic wearily at the Statue of Liberty. on everything is autobiographi- .and what a Chaplin that would shake.

wonder boy

rehearsal of one scene which he could not get perfect."

Song & Dance

the kerbside gazing at. u said that In Claire Bloom au- it since carly morning. It was won

barrel organ and its monkey much as their father must have gazed in the streets of Lambeth half a century ago.

The Old Magic

It is fair, that 1lttic Miss Chaplin should have her place in the film for It seems that "Limelight" will contain much of the old magic which made Chaplin the world's favourite clown.

Had it not been for her he might have made instead

another Verdoux in which the sermon drowneti the laughter.

The story of Geraldine's in- fluence on her Illustrious father Is this. One day when she was and announced that her class wanted to raise some money with a concert for charity.

Please, what could she do to heip?

HE British Government of Pakistan and of Cey-six she came back from school

not encouraging the lon. idea, which has been widely discussed, that Queen Eliza-

She is Queen of each beth It should make the Nation, and she is also "capital of her Common Queen holding the alle wealth in any one

of her glance of each subject in seven Dominions.

seven nations.

The Winston Churchill's Gov-

"

Indian,

Evergreen Chaplin, who though,

conditions his

has always

old films

fire

ilences

saw **One of the

great dullets of the stage."

In "Limelight" she is a bal- lerinn who feary she will never dance again and Chaplin is an old music hall comedian who fears he has lost the art of making people laugh.

Their tender relationship in apires, each to try again, and each coine-buck is successful.

"Everything is Gutobiogra- phical" is Chaplin's comment on his stories, and these arti- cles have shown how in some respects that is true of all his dims.

Fitting Return

un-

about "Limelight will

The autoblographical touch doubtedly be its setting the old music halls of London which Chapun has conjured from his memories of 40 yearu ngo.

and It seems nostalgically

that triumphantly atting

his return to London after such a unique career should be mark- ed by a film which recalls the boy-

sights and sounds of his body dreaming of fame. hood days when he was a no-

ernment has published Owes no allegiance to the taken extreme care untier what little leaflet called "The Queen; but India as a ruchown, indulgently let her have Monarchy and the Common- tion has a relationship to the film of "City Lights to

It Is a dromatic stroke in a wealth," which for the first the Crown and recognises show at the concert. time puts on paper, in off- the, Queen as Head of the Then he went along in some life story full of drama.

Collins Music Hall at Isling- trepidation for lie has alwayz - k cial form, the unwritten" Commonwealth.

be been, sensitive about

the, people's lon Green is sald reactions to his work,

place where Chaplin last per- formed on the London stago Ho was astonished and de and it is a hall like this, redo lighted to find American youngsters sitting on tor

sophisticated tent with grease paint and his the edge of their seats yelling tory and haunted by the ghosts

of

entertainers of with laughter at the

great

the year-old film.

past, that Chaplin has recalled in his film.

customs of our Common- wealth Constitution. published by the Central Office of Information.

It is

*

The Queen has direct communication with all her Ministers in seven

coun-

twenty-

of this school agreed to

A prominent phrase o tries. They can send mes- the first page of the six- sages to her through their show was that he

One result page pamphlet declares: High Commissioners "The seat of the Monarchy London,,

in release "City Lights" ugain. who have the Another result was that in the

Same Recipe

in the United Kingdom." "right of access," without film he had written and which ty to compare his memory with He will have an opportuni- That geems to dispose passing the

making he decided the real thing, for Collins stili he proposed message to give brusquely of the theory that through the British Govern for the old slapstick touch at bee

grenter opportunities

goes strong and Chaplin has the "sent of the Monarchy" ment..

been invited to perform спе evening the traditional weekly to members of the audience; a cer ceremony of presenting wine

century old. All the old ingredients of u Chaplin film appear to

have been res

resurrected in "Limelight.""

is wherever the Sovereign happens to be within__her_

The Queen's seven Kingdons

which he is such an artist.

Limelight as does her big Thus Miss Chaplin goes into

Dominions a theory that They are united

are all constitutionally equal, stepbrother" Sydney and her

in

by common father, so that It will almost opens the door to the pros- allegiance td the Crown-and be a family affair. pect of Queen Elizabeth II the "Crown" is Interpreted inaking her home for long this case, to mean Her Majesty and not "Her Majesty's Govern- periods overseas.

ment," as it does in many legal contexts.

own

•

ceremony

There is the half-comle, half-

SUC-

His New Star

sad story of failure, and Almost, but not quite. in cess, the tender never-come- March 1051, a strange adver- true love theme and, to the Her representatives in the tisement. appeared

the velight of the unsophisticated, a Commonwealths arc the American Press:

little Mr Patrick Gordon Governor-Generals.

"Wanted, fooling,

ng, jumbling, miming They do young girl to play leading lady anan in

and with Walker, the former no represent, bor are they to comedian generally recoge a swagger stick in hand, (Labour) Secretary for responsible to, the British nised as the world's greatest It is

is a modern film, but I Commonwealth

Government in the United

reports about it are true past Relations, om. They are not put out this fruitful idea.

Thousands applied but by the British Govern- who do Pras Miss Claire, cently to make

present mingle magnifi- one and

the sort of But this official document ment. Each Commonwealth

Bloom, a twenty-year-old Los-

entertainment worthy of the ON the Monarchy ignores Government appoints its

dan actress then busy in "Ring mugle of Chaplin's name and the possibility.

Governor-General, who is not Round the Moon," at the Globe fame. always a citizen of the country

Theatre. Chaplin heard about

That old

comedian. Buster concerned.

her through

an agent. He Keaton, does a double-act with The secret strength of the phoned her. She flew to New Chaplin, one a pianist and the Queen's seven Kingdoms was York. And she

olher an the got the job..

eccentric violinist, revealed by Winston Churchill However successful she is in which had cameramen and cast

after the death of "Limelight

har rolling as it She is the only person King George VI last February

Chaplin

was rehearsed, ary continued to rhapsodice about who can contract interna- when he said: "Peoples who her ability from the moment A ́Sure Touch

tolerate

thehe niet her-Miss Bloom, dark, written con- slender and demure, сал She is Queen of the stitution which implied any ready claim to have escaped in film since be was last in

be stars who.. nway from his seen with what tormenting de- da, of Australia, of New proud of their loyally to the direction, never fulfil their loys and in what artistic travell Zealand, of South Africa, Crawn."

Here

are some official facts about the Queen and her seven realms:-

tional obligations.

speaking

would would

never assertions of a

7.

This is only the fourth Chap-

United Kingdom, of Cana- dence are the foremost to

diminution of their indepen- the fate of most Chaplinsmade England 21 years ago. We have

prombe.

FILM

his three others were made.

Gevarto

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limo.

Only*

They had been at work

now past lunch Chaplin appeared full of high who has stayed. in Arterien 40 years. has often talked wistful- spirits and ready to go on.

Suddenly he schsed the ly of returning crowd's mood. He ran to the cottage in De Permanently to af

microphone

from which he But no one associated with directed them and, striking a him in "Limelight" can, picture mock heroic pose, he began to filmland's Arst genius happy for sing "Rocked in the Cradle of any length of time away from the Deep."

the camera, and Chaplin's own never-ending search for perfec- be tion suggests thaf ho will unable to rest until he makes just one more alm....and just one more.

Then in a piece of foolery he ran through the crowd like a cireus horse prancing and kick- Ing, rielghing and tossing hts head.

Amid laughing and cheerldg. the cast's mood changed.

"Now we'll do it once more and it will be perfect we'll.cat," shouted Chaplin.

And I was so.

then

a

In "Limelight" he refused double while he somersaulted and did the splits in an eccm tric dance which was rehearsed time and time again.

What A Man

as so many

So this story may well end of his pictures have done the little well-loved Bigure which encases the mind and body of a great mun walk- along ing out of the picture walking nimbly for all his years; walking with his back

to the world which has buffet- ed him but which he has con- quered with laughter; walking with the sun on his taco 10- wards that new adventure which always lles just over the hill.

Active As Ever

Then, with his white hair on end and spectacles on his nose, he would dash about the studio like a shaft of limelight

goes Charles Spencer himself, showing others what to Chaplin, creator and clown, the do,

testing camera angles, 20th century Dickens who uses climbing to the galleries to get a camera to focus all the fun A bird's eye view of a scene, and folly of the world and to dancing in demonstration the tell a story the world's ballet he has designed for the children; the 20th century tat- as tered knight, tilting absurdly flim and enjoying himself anuch as a small boy at a ple- at the bombastic

of windmills nic..

our time, courteous, gallant, This is Chaplin at work at courageous, laughable but 03. And it, AS it is said, what a man.

River incident⭑

DOLEX OWNERS cạn be found in ali

R

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1 fell twenty-seven "feet, and dis appeared with a twinkle 106 twenty- three feet of water.

The Baggage divers volunteered to searth; i took them twn hours of rooting about in thick mud before they brought to the surface the little mud-encrusted" object that was the missing Oyster.

Was it damaged? No. Stopped? No. Washed and dried, that Rolex was found to be completely intact and still going.

It demonstrates the incredibly line workmanship of the men who made those pin-head parts and set them in place. And it monstrates, too, the Rolex extmordinary efficiency of the Oyster case-the cate that was designed and developed by Rolex, the first, and still the foremost, waterproof case in the world;

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