Chaplin Collection

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Martha · #1 Post by **Martha** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 7:31 pm

The definitive collection of Chaplin's greatest works.
Includes:
-Modern Times
-The Great Dictator
-The Gold Rush
-Limelight
THE CIRCUS The Little Tramp accidentally becomes a big-top star in the comedy that earned Chaplin a special Academy Award.
CITY LIGHTS The Tramp becomes a working man, saving money for an operation that will restore a blind flower girl's sight.
THE KID The Tramp and his ragamuffin sidekick (6-year-old Jackie Coogan) triumph over life's hard knocks in the landmark film that changed the notion of what a screen comedy could be.
A KING IN NEW YORK/A WOMAN OF PARIS Chaplin jabs at social conventions! U.S. pop culture is the target of his satitric A King in New York. And the whirl of French high society frames director Chaplin's tragic love story A Woman of Paris.
MONSIEUR VERDOUX Chaplin turns his sunny nature inside out to play a roving gent who wins the love and bank accounts of spinsters, then murders the hapless biddies.

Rufus T. Firefly · #2 Post by **Rufus T. Firefly** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 8:59 am

flixyflox wrote:This is one case where I would rather talk about the R4 or R2 PAL releases.
As everone knows by now the R1 was ported as a very ordinary PAL to NTSC transfer with a heap of ghosting. Unlucky Warners - but they should have done their own conversions. Out of curiosity is there a R2 disc of CHAPLIN REVUE? There is of course the R1 but otherwise only the R4 as far as I can tell.

There is a French release from MK2 called Les courts-métrages First National which contains the four films on the second disc of the R1/R4 The Chaplin Revue, but no sign of The Chaplin Revue itself in R2.

Richard · #3 Post by **Richard** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 12:22 pm

The Chaplin Revue was released as a seperate double-disc release here in The Netherlands. I suspect that it received the same treatment in more European countries. As far as I know it was only included in a box-release in the USA.

Ted Todorov · #4 Post by **Ted Todorov** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:46 pm

Richard wrote:The Chaplin Revue was released as a seperate double-disc release here in The Netherlands. I suspect that it received the same treatment in more European countries. As far as I know it was only included in a box-release in the USA.

Is the R1 Chaplin Review PAL to NTSC also?

Ted

P.S. I have the R2 UK box and love it.

Caligula · #5 Post by **Caligula** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 2:13 pm

Richard wrote:The Chaplin Revue was released as a seperate double-disc release here in The Netherlands. I suspect that it received the same treatment in more European countries. As far as I know it was only included in a box-release in the USA.

Is the Dutch release PAL or NTSC? If PAL, how does it compare to the other UK R2 Chaplin releases? Where can one buy this (and have it shipped internationally)?

I have the R2 Box set as well and have derived much joy from its use.

BTW, the R1 Chaplin Revue was released on its own.

hearthesilence · #6 Post by **hearthesilence** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 2:27 am

So if I'm in the States, and I want to see the best DVD's for this, am I just SOL without a PAL monitor and R2-compatible DVD player?

unclehulot · #7 Post by **unclehulot** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 2:52 am

hearthesilence wrote:So if I'm in the States, and I want to see the best DVD's for this, am I just SOL without a PAL monitor and R2-compatible DVD player?

You certainly don't need a PAL monitor to enjoy PAL discs. The player converts it to NTSC for you. Some do it better than others, but it can be done for no more than the going cost of a dvd player that is so inclined.

rlendog · #8 Post by **rlendog** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:07 pm

Do the old R1 Image DVDs of the First Nationals have the same ghosting problems as the Warner Chaplin Revue disk?

unclehulot · #9 Post by **unclehulot** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:37 pm

No, the Image transfers are NTSC originally, produced by David Shepard for LaserDisc, thus the transfers are showing their age a bit. However, the advantage of the Shepard editions is that the footage that Chaplin later cut is integrated into these versions (also in "The Kid"), which is much better than the WB/MK2 versions having them as a supplement only. Also, the framing is better on many of the films, with less cropping. Personally, I'm hanging on to my Image discs, even though I picked up the big R2 box from Amazon.uk when it was (still is??) cheap a few months ago.

Richard · #10 Post by **Richard** » Sun May 22, 2005 11:53 am

Caligula wrote:
Richard wrote:The Chaplin Revue was released as a seperate double-disc release here in The Netherlands. I suspect that it received the same treatment in more European countries. As far as I know it was only included in a box-release in the USA.
Is the Dutch release PAL or NTSC? If PAL, how does it compare to the other UK R2 Chaplin releases? Where can one buy this (and have it shipped internationally)?

The Dutch release is PAL. I can't really compare it to any other release because I don't own any. Rodisc should be able to help you to this release.

manicsounds · #11 Post by **manicsounds** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 2:43 am

So if I buy the UK R2 "Complete Chaplin" Warner box,
will I get everything in the US "Chaplin 1" and "Chaplin 2" combined?

Or will I be missing some things?

The UK box I saw on amazon for about 65 pounds. good deal?

unclehulot · #12 Post by **unclehulot** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 3:16 am

manicsounds wrote:So if I buy the UK R2 "Complete Chaplin" Warner box,
will I get everything in the US "Chaplin 1" and "Chaplin 2" combined?

Or will I be missing some things?

The UK box I saw on amazon for about 65 pounds. good deal?

You'll be missing The Chaplin Revue. Just read the above posts for info on getting the PAL edition of that.

The Fanciful Norwegian · Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:28 am

This came up in the Harold Lloyd thread on HTF. Robert Harris stopped by and made an interesting commentrelating to the Chaplin set:

From the information that came my way, WB did not drop any ball with the Chaplin films.

I don't believe that they were given a choice to release proper NTSC versions. It appears to have been a "take it or leave it" situation, with quite a bit of sturm und drang coming from the French side regarding the work and perfection of their "restored" videos.

Pity.

dx23 · #14 Post by **dx23** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:39 pm

I don't believe that they were given a choice to release proper NTSC versions. It appears to have been a "take it or leave it" situation, with quite a bit of sturm und drang coming from the French side regarding the work and perfection of their "restored" videos.

What does proper restoration of the videos have to do with releasing a proper NTCS disc? The "ghosting" is not caused by a bad print of the film; is caused by the sloppy transfering from PAL to NTCS.

unclehulot · #15 Post by **unclehulot** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 6:22 pm

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:This came up in the Harold Lloyd thread on HTF. Robert Harris stopped by and made an interesting commentrelating to the Chaplin set:

From the information that came my way, WB did not drop any ball with the Chaplin films.

I don't believe that they were given a choice to release proper NTSC versions. It appears to have been a "take it or leave it" situation, with quite a bit of sturm und drang coming from the French side regarding the work and perfection of their "restored" videos.

Sounds strange....so they held a gun to WB (US) and said you can't do the PAL to NTSC transfers (correctly?) yourselves, you have to use exactly these (stinking) masters we give you??

Ashirg · #16 Post by **Ashirg** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 7:08 pm

They probably said "we're not doing new masters for you, but you can take the masters we have already done and release them"...

hearthesilence · #17 Post by **hearthesilence** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 12:41 am

Ashirg wrote:They probably said "we're not doing new masters for you, but you can take the masters we have already done and release them"...

I can definitely see that being the case. Nothing against Harris, but he's going on second-hand information.

Joe Buck · #18 Post by **Joe Buck** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 11:20 pm

I understand that the sets are flawed, but I still cherish my Warner Chaplin sets. Timeless entertainment. I am curious to see the other region versions. I haven't picked up on anything that detracts from my viewing pleasure.

videozor · #19 Post by **videozor** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:11 pm

The DVDs from R2 Chaplin Collection started to be marked as unavailable on Amazon.co.uk.
Is there something going on behind this that we should now about?
I personally still have to order Revue (have all the rest, though I'm in R1)...

denti alligator · #20 Post by **denti alligator** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 2:47 pm

Does anyone know if the Korean bootleg (I'm assuming) editions of City Lights that sport the old Image over to be found all over ebay are the same transfer as that Image release: 1.19 AR and all?

#21 Post by **domino harvey** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:58 pm

It looks like the UK Chaplin box is OOP

#22 Post by **domino harvey** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 6:29 pm

Most of the individual titles from the boxed set are on sale at Amazon.co.uk at super-reduced rates (less than £5 each)-- including the Chaplin Review, so if you're like me and missed out on the OOP box (which is OOP on both the UK and French site, so something's up) this is an even cheaper way to cherry-pick your way through the R2 titles.

manicsounds · #23 Post by **manicsounds** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:11 am

But aren't there a few titles not available individually, like the Schickel documentary?

Jonathan S · #24 Post by **Jonathan S** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:49 am

Yes, A WOMAN OF PARIS and A KING IN NEW YORK were also exclusive to the box sets (the latter no great loss!) I say "sets" because - besides the complete box - there were also two half-sets (also containing the exclusive titles) and these may be still available. I bought one of these half-sets very cheaply in a HMV sale about a year ago.

Personally, I much prefer David Shepard's earlier Image DVDs for the films that Warner issued in Chaplin's much later re-edited versions. Warner did include the cut footage as extras but that's not the same as seeing films such as A WOMAN OF PARIS and THE KID in their originally released forms. Shepard had to re-edit Chaplin's scores to take in the restored footage. Of course, the Image DVDs went OOP when MK2/Warner released their versions.

martin · #25 Post by **martin** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:59 am

manicsounds wrote:But aren't there a few titles not available individually, like the Schickel documentary?

Yes, King in New York/A Woman of Paris (2-disc) and Charlie:The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin were not released in UK individually. These titles were however released individually in many other European countries (same editions as in the big MK2 Box, but maybe with different subtitles options and covers in local languages like here and here).

Amazon.uk marketplace-links: Charlie:The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin / A Woman Of Paris / A King In New York

Finding a complete box on eBay or marketplace (or the two smaller sets mentioned by Jonathan S) may still be the cheapest option if one doesn't own any of the films and wants all of them.

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