New York Times review of CC DVDs

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Charlie Chaplin, All Dressed Up
By PETER M. NICHOLS
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MOVIE DETAILS
The Gold Rush
Modern Times
The Great Dictator
Limelight

In the beginning (of DVD), some of Charlie Chaplin's feature films were
released by Image Entertainment. Those DVD's were made from masters used for
laser discs. "They were top of the line in 1992, but what was good on laser
disc doesn't translate well onto DVD," said George Feltenstein, senior vice
president for classic catalogs of Warner Home Video.

For that reason mk2, the French film company that leases the rights to the
films from Association Chaplin, which represents the Chaplin family, has
redone them for DVD. On Tuesday the first four - "The Gold Rush" (the 1925
and 1942 versions), "Modern Times" (1936), "The Great Dictator" (1940) and
"Limelight" (1952) - are to be released by Warner. Others, including "The
Kid" (1921), "City Lights" (1931), "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947) and "A King in
New York" (1957), are scheduled for early next year.

Mr. Feltenstein called Warner a "grateful distribution partner" of mk2 and
Association Chaplin. "They did all the restoration, all the mastering, all
of the selection of extra materials and how they've been assembled, even the
look of the packaging," he said.

Sharply produced stills from the films are inside and on the slipcases of
the first four packages, each of which has the movie on one disc and
features on another. The extras vary. The most interesting documentary is
Kevin Brownlow's and Michael Kloft's acclaimed "Tramp and the Dictator,"
which compares the lives of Chaplin and Hitler, who were born the same week
of the same year.

"The Gold Rush" includes the original subtitled film, restored by Mr.
Brownlow and David Gill, and Chaplin's 1942 restoration with his narrative
dialogue, which alters the film in significant respects.

That movie, "Modern Times" and "Limelight" have 26-minute documentaries,
each called "Chaplin Today," with comments by contemporary filmmakers. On
"The Gold Rush," the director Idrissa Ouedraogo, from Burkina Faso, talks
about Chaplin's preoccupation with hunger as reflected in his outsize shoes
and the man-size chicken (Chaplin) that appears in the hallucinations of the
prospector Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain).

In the "Modern Times" documentary, the French filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre
Dardenne also talk about Chaplin's focus on food, then turn to his aversion
to the talkies and his decision to have his character walk off with the
young woman (Paulette Goddard). Claire Bloom was the love interest in
"Limelight." In a documentary she says that Chaplin insisted she bring a
chaperone when he interviewed her for the part because, he said, he had had
enough trouble with young women.

The DVD's are $29.95 each or $89.92 for the set.