In 1989, when David Gill and I celebrated the Chaplin centenary with a week-long run of City Lights at the Dominion Theatre, several critics declared than no one under 40 found Chaplin funny. That ruined our advance box office and not even the presence of Princess Diana on the opening night revived it. Yet those that came were thrilled. We had a live orchestra conducted by Carl Davis, and there were times when you couldn’t hear the music above the laughter. We recorded all those people under 40 not finding Chaplin funny and sent the tapes to the critics. That was as satisfying as the ‘House Full’ notices that went up halfway through the week.
So I was delighted to discover that Paul Merton, one of our top comedians, is an unrepentant Chaplin supporter. That doesn’t mean that he rejects the work of everyone else. He regards the Chaplin v. Keaton debate as ‘tiresomely idiotic’ and adds, ‘The good news is that they are both fantastic.’ And that goes for Harold Lloyd (a superb boxed set of his films has just been released.) Merton emphasises how the leading comedians influenced each other. ‘This rivalry and desire to make better and better comedies ensured a stream of high-quality pictures.’
Alas, the technology that can preserve these pictures can also ruin them. We all remember those wretched prints of Chaplin films shown on TV. The Chaplin features are now available in excellent transfers on DVD, thank heaven, but some DVDs are put out by idiots. Merton owns one of an early Chaplin with a jazz vocalist on the soundtrack proclaiming, ‘Hi there everybody and welcome to the club. Tonight the band wants to play for you the hottest numbers. Let’s go!’
Television is not the ideal way to watch silent comedy because it separates the audience.
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