Post by Kev Mulrenan on Nov 6, 2009 10:26:20 GMT
Lost Charlie Chaplin film bought on eBay for $5
A lost Charlie Chaplin film has been discovered in a can of nitrate film bought on eBay for £3.20 ($5).
Published: 8:46AM GMT 06 Nov 2009
Morale Park from Henham, Essex has discovered a previously unknown seven-minute Chaplin film called Zepped Photo: PA Morale Park from Henham, Essex, purchased the tin simply because he liked the look of it.
He was amazed to discover its fragile contents: a previously unknown seven-minute film Chaplin film called Zepped.
Related Articles
MPs' expenses: Sir George Young claimed YouTube broadcasts
Philip Mould: why I love being a sleuth on art's treasure trail
Boy drowns in garden pond at GP grandfather's home
Halle Berry plans to act on maternal instincts
Audrey Hepburn smoking stamp family ordered destroyed sells for £47,000 in auctionHis interest was piqued, he said, when he could not find any mention of it on the internet.
The film features footage of Zeppelin airships flying over England during the First World War, and out-takes from three pictures that Chaplin shot with the film company Essanay, with whom the entertainer had a contract in 1914, before falling out.
An animated scene shows Chaplin wishing he could leave America to join his British countrymen in the war, before being taken on a cloud and deposited on an English church spire.
It also shows him sending up the Zeppelin, and an animated sequence of Kaiser Wilhelm popping out of a German sausage. There is a certification from Egypt, dating the film to December 1916.
Mr Park got his neighbour John Dyer, former head of education at the British Board of Film Classification, to look at it, and they concluded the film had been put together as a piece of war propaganda.
It is not known whether Chaplin was involved in the project or whether various out-takes were spliced together without his knowledge or consent.
David Robinson, author of Chaplin: His Life and Art, believed the film could be worth anything from £3,000 to £40,000.
Mr Park and Mr Dyer are currently in California making a documentary about the find.
A lost Charlie Chaplin film has been discovered in a can of nitrate film bought on eBay for £3.20 ($5).
Published: 8:46AM GMT 06 Nov 2009
Morale Park from Henham, Essex has discovered a previously unknown seven-minute Chaplin film called Zepped Photo: PA Morale Park from Henham, Essex, purchased the tin simply because he liked the look of it.
He was amazed to discover its fragile contents: a previously unknown seven-minute film Chaplin film called Zepped.
Related Articles
MPs' expenses: Sir George Young claimed YouTube broadcasts
Philip Mould: why I love being a sleuth on art's treasure trail
Boy drowns in garden pond at GP grandfather's home
Halle Berry plans to act on maternal instincts
Audrey Hepburn smoking stamp family ordered destroyed sells for £47,000 in auctionHis interest was piqued, he said, when he could not find any mention of it on the internet.
The film features footage of Zeppelin airships flying over England during the First World War, and out-takes from three pictures that Chaplin shot with the film company Essanay, with whom the entertainer had a contract in 1914, before falling out.
An animated scene shows Chaplin wishing he could leave America to join his British countrymen in the war, before being taken on a cloud and deposited on an English church spire.
It also shows him sending up the Zeppelin, and an animated sequence of Kaiser Wilhelm popping out of a German sausage. There is a certification from Egypt, dating the film to December 1916.
Mr Park got his neighbour John Dyer, former head of education at the British Board of Film Classification, to look at it, and they concluded the film had been put together as a piece of war propaganda.
It is not known whether Chaplin was involved in the project or whether various out-takes were spliced together without his knowledge or consent.
David Robinson, author of Chaplin: His Life and Art, believed the film could be worth anything from £3,000 to £40,000.
Mr Park and Mr Dyer are currently in California making a documentary about the find.
