Artist in His Prime

Rating:
Summary: Bargain Introduction to a Comic Genius
Review: As one would expect at this price, this set is a mixed bag--some of Chaplin's best early work along with some pretty mediocre stuff. However, Chaplin was a comedy genius, and even his worst is worth a look. It's interesting to see him experiment with comedy, even when the experiment doesn't quite work (for example, the scenes on board the excursion boat in "A Day's Pleasure"). And each DVD has at least one gem. My favorites were "Pay Day," which I had never seen, and "The Cure," which has long been one of my favorites.

The picture quality is, for the most part, very good. The insipid piano soundtrack is pretty awful, but you can always turn down the sound and put on a CD (I suggest Erik Satie).

The biggest disappointment is that the version of "The Gold Rush" used for this collection is the 1940's re-release, with all of the titles removed! The original soundtrack had Chaplin narrating, but that has been replaced with that awful piano (for copyright reasons, I'm sure), making it almost impossible to follow the story at times.

However, I would have to say that this is a pretty good introduction to Chaplin's work--especially at the price.