City Lights 1930 1931 1932 next previous
City Lights Clippings 305/387
New York Times, New York, March 27, 1931
„Will be a Knight of the Legion before he quits the soil of France“
Editorial content. „CHUCKLES FOLLOW
CHAPLIN IN FRANCE
Comedian Is Unable to Avoid Humor, No Matter How
Serious He Is.
BRIAND LINKED WITH HIM
Nationalist Press Seizes Upon the Opportunity
to Ridicule Foreign Minister.
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
PARIS, March 26. – Humor follows Charles Chaplin wherever
he goes, no matter how much he tries to be serious.
Mr. Chaplin, arrayed for the hunt as he was the other day
with the Duke of Westminster at Envermeux, in a bright
scarlet coat, white breeches, shining boots and hunting cap,
presented as self-contained a portrait of a fashionable
huntsman as one could wish, and Mr. Chaplin, in a civilian blue
suit and well-tailored overcoat calling on Foreign Minister
Briand in his palace on the Quai d‘Orsay was a figure of dignity
set off by distinguished silver hair which would have
graced any diplomatic salon. But the impression he made on the
public and in the French press was purely comic.
The trouble was that one could not help linking all the
time of what that boar hunt, where the boar charged
the actor and was shot down by one of the other hunters,
would have been in a Chaplin film.“ (...)
„Grand Rough and Tumble.
Then one sees lackeys and halberdiers, countesses,
society matrons, diplomats in their fantastic uniforms
and police all tumbling about, bowling one another over
in frantic pursuit and a last scene of the actor leaping
to a parapet of the Seine embankments and scratching his
head in bewilderment as he lifts his derby before
diving into the river.
Visitors like these, no doubt, arise in the minds of French
statesmen when, petition after petition is received,
as they have been since Mr. Chaplin‘s European tour began,
proclaiming ,Charlot‘ a great histrionic artist, a friend
of France and a worthy wearer of Napoleon‘s crimson merit
ribbon of the Legion of Honor. The French press,
particularly the Nationalist section, has seized upon the incident
to attempt to make M. Briand appear ridiculous.
Briand-Chaplin Talkie Urged.
One Nationalistic writer suggested that since Mr. Chaplin
had shunned the talking films there was now a unique
opportunity to combine M. Briand‘s speaking with Mr. Chaplin‘s
pantomime and make the world‘s funniest talkie.
A cartoonist pictures M. Briand sitting under a bust of ,Charlot,‘
presiding at the wedding of Germany with Austria.
In La Liberté an editorial writer, Charles Omessa, facetiously
reports a luncheon conversation in which Mr. Chaplin
says to M. Briand: ,All the world laughs at me.‘
M. Briand replies:
,There are some who don‘t take me so seriously, either.‘
This, of course, generally detected for what it is –
anti-Briand propaganda – and it has done nothing to impair
the esteem of the general public for either Mr. Chaplin
or M. Briand.“ (...)
„But Frenchmen, above all things, like to laugh. They
have not stopped honoring Rabelais and they have
not forgotten Molière. And it is whispered that some French
officials are dismayed by the thought of capering
Charlot with Napoleon‘s decoration on his breast, at least
-
M.Briand has a sense of humor, and Mr. Chaplin
will be a Knight of the Legion before he quits the soil of
France.“
–––
„Cancels Plan to See Races.
PARIS, March 26 (AP). – Stiff and sore from a boar
hunt on horseback, Charlie Chaplin said yesterday
he had canceled his trip to Aintree to watch the running
of the Grand National.“ (...)
–––
„BERLIN AUDIENCE COOL
TO NEW CHAPLIN FILM
Moderate Applause Greets ,City Lights‘ – Expected
to See Comedian in Person.
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
BERLIN, March 26. – A cool reception was given Charlie
Chaplin‘s picture, City Lights, tonight by a capacity
house of spectators whose enthusiasm was greatly dampened
by the failure of Charlie Chaplin to appear in person.“ (...)
City Lights – Lichter der Großstadt – opens in Germany
March 26, 1931 at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin.
Ufa-Palast am Zoo, Budapester Strasse, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
The French premiere of City Lights –
Les Lumières de la Ville – is at the Théâtre Marigny
in Paris April 8, 1931.
Thèâtre Marigny, Champs Elysées & Ave. Marigny, Paris.
Redaktioneller Inhalt.
Die deutsche Premiere von City Lights – Lichter der Großstadt –
findet am 26. März 1931 im Ufa-Palast am Zoo statt.
Ufa-Palast am Zoo, Budapester Strasse, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
Die französische Premiere von City Lights –
Les Lumières de la Ville – findet im Théâtre Marigny
in Paris am 8. April 1931 statt.
Thèâtre Marigny, Champs Elysées & Ave. Marigny, Paris.
City Lights 1930 1931 1932 next previous
