Charlie Chaplin's City Lights

[John D. Moore]

It went out of print, apparently, and I missed it. Not quite willing to put up $60 to snag a copy and I can't find any around here. Any chance this one will see a reissue?

[Riedenschneider]

Yes, all of his feature films are undergoing major restaurations and will come out next year.

Press release

[Avid]

Last I heard, the new DVDs will be the redone versions with sound, not the original silents. Has anyone recently heard the silent version will also be included?

I have been thinking about tracking down The Circus. Does anyone know if a sound version was done, or if I wait for the Warner disks, will it be the silent version?

[Blade]

Try your local Border's store:

This is a boxed set of four movies (City Lights, Gold Rush, Modern Times, Great Dictator)
http://www.bordersstores.com/search/...srchType=Title

It's $50, which is a good price for the set too. If you don't want the other three, email me and I'll buy them off of you for $40 plus shipping. (I already have City Lights.) The store will likely have it mispriced, so print out that page and bring it in with you. If your local store doesn't have it, they should be able to get one shipped in from another location if any of the other stores, nationwide, have it.

[Riedenschneider]

Originally posted by Avid
Last I heard, the new DVDs will be the redone versions with sound, not the original silents. Has anyone recently heard the silent version will also be included?

Do you mean new atmospherical/foley sounds? That would be horrible. This can't be true...

[Avid]

In the 1940s Chaplin went back and put a sound narration in some (or all -- I don't know how many) of his films. Last I heard, the Warner releases will be the sound re-edited versions. I hope they include the silent versions but have not heard anything to indicate they will.

I really wish I knew if he left some of his films alone or if all of them were redone, so I would know if I need to track them down now or wait.

The only one Image released as the sound version was The Gold Rush. Here is part of the DVDFile review:

"I spent a long time on the fence as I considered whether to recommend this disc. You see, this is not the 1925 version of THE GOLD RUSH. Instead it is the 1942 reissue. This reissue features a Chaplin-voiced narration that was obviously not present when the film was released in 1925. Had the narration been limited to a short introduction and little else, it would not be a big deal. However, the narration does much more than that. Chaplin inexplicably explains much of the action, even though little needs to be explained in its untainted silent state. As if this were not bad enough, Chaplin provides an occasional voice to what the characters are saying. I was hopelessly distracted and frustrated by this narration.

The presence of the narration is not the only difference. The intertitles have been eliminated, which at least makes SOME sense because the narration does the job of the intertitles. Chaplin also reedited the film, and these changes are detailed in The Cut List. Chaplin committed this atrocity because he was trying to appease an audience that supposedly had little interest in silent films.

Adding dialogue would make THE GOLD RUSH mainstream again to an audience accustomed to talkies. It is like what George Lucas did with the Star Wars Trilogy. The special effects were "dated," so he made changes fitting with contemporary expectations for special effects. He also messed around with the editing, just as Chaplin did. These new versions of the films replaced the older versions in the minds of both directors (Lucas has been quoted), at least this is what the Chaplin Estate would have us believe by continuing to release the 1942 version despite the protests of many people.

Ultimately I have concluded that I cannot recommend this release. I cannot stand the narration, and I do not understand why both versions of the film are not being released. They could have easily fit both films on one side of the disc, with room to spare for extras. The 1925 version of THE GOLD RUSH is one of the top 100 films of all time. But the 1942 version would not even make my top 500."

[Riedenschneider]

Thank god for artists like Scorsese and Allen who are unable to watch their films once they are released
("You always want to change things...")

[Welles and Ford Fan]

AFAIK, only The Gold Rush suffered the fate of having narration added. For years, the redone version with narration was the only available version. I saw that one first, and aside from admiring a few gags, I thought it a rather over-rated movie and not in the league of City Lights. Later, I got a good quality tape of the original (from Blackhawk Films) with the piano score, and it is by far my favorite Chaplin movie.
Incidentally, the "narrated" version had to be constructed entirely of outtakes because the originals had all had the titles inserted, and there was no way to remove them without a noticable jump.

Other changes through the years-Chaplin added a song, written and sung by himself at the beginning of The Circus, but it is very unobtrusive. He also added the music scores to all his First National stuff, including The Kid, and his short films of the period. For a long time, the First National shorts were only available in botched versions with extra frames added to "slow the films down to a 'realistic' speed". They were later released on laserdisc at the correct speed.

Also the laserdisc of City Lights has the score re-recorded by Carl Davis, but the original recording is on another track. Dunno how it fared on DVD.

I seriously doubt any others will be issued with any narration.