BECAUSE EVERYONE NEEDS A LAUGH THANKS TO THE LITTLE TRAMP. 5/8: Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided by Scott Eyman (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2024
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Scott-Eyman/dp/1982176350
Bestselling Hollywood biographer and film historian Scott Eyman tells the story of Charlie Chaplin’s fall from grace. In the aftermath of World War II, Chaplin was criticized for being politically liberal and internationalist in outlook. He had never become a US citizen, something that would be held against him as xenophobia set in when the postwar Red Scare took hold.
Politics aside, Chaplin had another problem: his sexual interest in young women. He had been married three times and had had numerous affairs. In the 1940s, he was the subject of a paternity suit, which he lost, despite blood tests that proved he was not the father. His sexuality became a convenient way for those who opposed his politics to condemn him. Refused permission to return to the US after a trip abroad, he settled in Switzerland and made his last two films in London.
In Charlie Chaplin vs. America, Scott Eyman explores the life and times of the movie genius who brought us such masterpieces as City Lights and Modern Times. “One of the finest surveys of the man and the artist ever written” (Leonard Maltin) this book is “a sobering account of cancel culture in action.” (The Economist)
1930 CITY LIGHTS
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Have you ever felt like escaping to your own desert island? |
| 0:04.0 | Jane Gaskin did exactly that, trading in the family home to begin a new life in the |
| 0:09.1 | tropics. |
| 0:10.1 | But she soon discovers that Paradise has its secrets. |
| 0:13.4 | I'm Alice Levine, and this is the price of Paradise, |
| 0:18.0 | the island dream that ends in kidnap, corruption, and murder. Wish you were here. Follow the price of Paradise Now wherever |
| 0:26.7 | you listen to podcasts. This is CBS I on the world I'm John Batcheuk, continuing with the author Scott Eamon. |
| 0:35.8 | The book is Charlie Chaplin versus America when arts, sex and politics collided. |
| 0:41.0 | The second war is over, the catastrophe has happened. |
| 0:44.0 | There are tens of millions of dead. |
| 0:46.0 | There are war crimes tribunals in Europe and then war crimes tribunals in Japan. |
| 0:51.0 | And Hollywood, like everywhere else in America, institutions, trying to go back to work with the returning |
| 0:57.1 | soldiers. |
| 0:58.5 | Charlie Chaplin's going back to work. |
| 1:00.6 | He's world famous and he wants to make movies. He's got his own studio and he has plenty of money, lots of money, although he's still haunted by the poverty of his childhood. He can no longer be the tramp, he needs to deal with speaking |
| 1:18.0 | pictures, and in this instance he comes across a plot, a story idea given to him or suggested to him by Orson Wells. |
| 1:28.0 | It will eventually be called Monsieur Verdo, a French name, but it was in Orson Wells mind as a serial killer, a blue beard |
| 1:39.3 | called Lady Killer. |
| 1:40.9 | Scott, this is a wonderful story to introduce Orson Welles. |
| 1:45.0 | Orson Welles's idea. What was it based on and how did they see it as comedy? |
| 1:50.0 | Good evening to you. |
| 1:52.0 | Thanks, John. |
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