THE ESSENTIAL CHAPLIN

October 8, 2006

Marc Weingarten, Marc Weingarten is the author of "The Gang That
Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion and the New Journalism
Revolution."


ONE of the first great movie stars, Charlie Chaplin, becomes a cultural
Rorschach test of sorts in "The Essential Chaplin" (Ivan R. Dee: 318
pp., $16.95 paper); the collection's contributors cast their gaze upon
him and then come up with countless interpretations as to what they're
seeing.

Mostly, they bear witness to genius. These essays and reviews fall
roughly into two categories: cultural analysis and literary mash note.
Many prominent writers have weighed in on Chaplin through the decades,
and there's a lot of thoughtful, gushing praise from Graham Greene,
James Agee, Andrew Sarris - heck, even Winston Churchill in a piece
that was written while the great world leader was hacking it out as a
journalist. Overheated theorizing - a favorite pastime of highbrow
Chaplin watchers - is provided by European thinkers Theodor W. Adorno
and Élie Faure.

The best pieces in this collection edited by Richard Schickel, who
reviews books for The Times, are the ones that leaven admiration with
healthy cynicism. Film scholar David Thomson's scathing piece, "The
Demon Tramp," is so contrary to the usual party line that it has the
bracing impact of a slapstick bonk on the head, while the late and
under-read critic Robert Warshow weighs in with an essay that examines
with keen insight Chaplin's fraught and complex relationship with his
audience throughout his 50-year career.



- Marc Weingarten
copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times