Word: chaplinitis
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...Southern California. Most of the men who built the studios were Jewish immigrants from Germany and Eastern Europe. Writers, directors, designers, cinematographers would make their names in Europe, then stow away to the States. And co-opting like crazy from the start, Hollywood made foreigners its greatest stars: Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, Cary Grant and Greta Garbo. So it is only fitting that the torchbearer, the sword wielder, the giant of American movies, should be an overgrown Austrian with a face and body out of a superhero comic...
Hollywood spending is likely to rise until some box-office disaster forces studios to retrench once again. When film legends Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith formed United Artists in 1919, a Hollywood wag famously quipped, "The lunatics have taken charge of the asylum." Today's top stars are seizing power by demanding -- and getting -- salaries and revenue-sharing deals that may be pushing the cost of movies to reckless heights...
...qualified to be President; 49% thought Bush should pick a new running mate for '92. "My skills," Quayle said recently, "have always been in negotiating and conciliating." That sounds like wishful thinking from a man so long under assault, including the deadly assault of laughter. Like Charlie Chaplin in the ring, what can he do but crouch behind the referee and wave his gloves in vague call-it-off gestures? Yet he practiced conciliation even before he stood so badly in need...
...prints and drawings of Charlie Chaplin, jazz musicians and dancers, because of their lack of message or commentary, fall flat when contrasted to the powerful images and criticism that make the rest of the exhibit interesting. The "Popular Culture" pieces only detract from the otherwise cohesive display...
...finds a neighbor artlessly attempting an abortion, she helps out. Word gets around, and soon she is a successful businesswoman. And the perfect homebody: she performs abortions in the kitchen, rents her spare room to a prostitute and takes her collaborator lover (Nils Tavernier) to the bedroom. Like Charles Chaplin's murderous Monsieur Verdoux, she is a microcosm of her amoral country...