Issue 167

News: The Vaulting of Classic Movies Has Left me In Despair!
(Important Note: I came up with the title long before I lost control of my laptop [Something which has left me in despair], basing it on a series called Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.)
Of all the classes I took at Oakton, my least favorite one was my section of Contemporary Culture and the Arts. Between the obtuse texts and disturbing photographs, it was one of the most depressing classes I'd taken. One of the few rays of light that came in the class was a showing of Chaplin's City Lights to ease our way from photography to the City, but that silver lining had a touch of grey when I realized that A) Despite acquiring the first volume of the Chaplin Collection, I never acquired the second volume which included City Lights, among other films, B) It was out of Print, and C) It was virtually unobtainable. After a failed attempt to order the movie online in November from a retailer that didn't even have it, I eventually resorted to eBay, and with my parents' help, I got it. As it turned out, virtually all of Chaplin's copyrighted films were out of print. The sole exception was 1967's Countess from Hong Kong. The realization of this shocked me. I mean, Chaplin was one of the greatest filmmakers of all time; why put his works out of print? I mean, imagine if all of Alfred Hitchcock's copyrighted films were unobtainable except for Torn Curtain. For that matter, imagine if Torn Curtain was the only Julie Andrews movie that was obtainable. I later managed to get a hold of the Third Man when I learned that it had gone out of print, and managed to buy it before I had to resort to eBay. And this is, in my opinion worse than what Walt Disney has been doing for years with the "Disney Vault." After all, with the Disney Vault, there is a known schedule; you can expect that a few years after the movie gets out of print, there will be a new, improved edition. And for that matter, at least Disney puts the movies in a rotation, as opposed to just taking them all out of print at once.

Film Review of the Day: The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator, and Limelight. - Really, all you need to do is to watch one of these movies to make you reaize that it is practically a crime to put all of these movies out of print.
The Circus- I haven't seen this one yet.
Monsieur Verdoux- Many other directors would kill to make a movie like Monsieur Verdoux. It really says a lot that this movie isn't even in this director's top five.
A Woman of Paris- I haven't seen this one yet, either, but from what I've heard, especially due to its sheer Out-of-place nature in Chaplin's oevure.
A King in New York- It's okay. Certainly not a masterpiece like many other movies Chaplin's made, but it is actually pretty funny. In fact, just because of the fact that it includes a scene in which we see Chaplin go to the movies and watching some previews, and one of these movies is Glen or Glenda. That's right; one of the greatest cinematic minds in history and one of the worst directors of all time meet. I can only imagine what would have happened if he had heard about Coleman Francis.
The Chaplin Revue- Well, it is a compilation of three of his last short movies with his narration and score, but at least those three shorts are among his best.

Quote of the Day: Wars, conflict - it's all business. One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow!
__________Charlie Chaplin, in and as Monsieur Verdoux.

Link of the Day: Have you ever wondered what you really believed about the world? Here you can figure it out, somewhat.