Trama

An elderly Charlie Chaplin discusses his autobiography with his editor, recounting his amazing journey from his poverty-stricken childhood to world-wide success after the ingenious invention of the Little Tramp.

The biography of Charlie Chaplin, filmmaker extraordinaire. From his formative years in England to his highest successes in America, Chaplin's life, work, and loves are followed. While his screen characters were extremely hilarious, the man behind "The Little Tramp" was constantly haunted by a sense of loss.—Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

Chaplin is the story of Charles Chaplin, the famous director and actor that changed film forever. The film starts out with the narrator (played by Anthony Hopkins) and an old Charles Chaplin (played by Robert Downey Jr.) preparing Chaplin's autobiography. This reveals to the audience that the entire movie is the flashbacks of an old Charles Chaplin.

Chaplin then recalls the first time he ever participated in show business. We see Chaplin's mother, Hannah, a poor, defeated woman performing in front of a full theatre of army cadets. Within a few minutes, these military men boo her off the stage, and a young, 5 year old Charles Chaplin walks out on the stage. He sang the same song, and the men love it, and are bewildered that a young 5 year old boy could have that much courage. After this, Charles and his mother return home, and the audience sees the poor, wretched lifestyle that this child is subjected to. Charles, his mom, and his brother Sydney settle down to a meal of fish heads.

After this, the British police come, and seize young Charlie and Sidney to put them to work in a labor house. The two brothers are separated, and quietly descend into the terrible living conditions of a labor hose. After this, we see a teenage Charles Chaplin out of the labor house being guided by his older brother to a new job in show business. Sydney approaches a wealthy man that he works for, and asks him to hire Charlie as a comedian for a play. The man quickly dismissed the idea, but then Charlie starts performing a wonderful routine of slapstick comedy that wins the man over. Sydney also tells Charlie about the problems regarding their mother, and how the loss of both of her sons drove her to insanity. They discuss which care facility they should place her in and how much it would cost. Chaplin is shown performing numerous times in England, and then he meets a girl named Edna Purviance, an actress that travels with his theatre group. He falls in love with her, and asks her to marry him. She says no, and Chaplin leaves to go to America. While in America, Chaplin receives a job from Mack Sennett, who was known as The King of Comedy. Charlie then spends hours in the dressing room picking out what would be known as his Little Tramp outfit. After Charlie develops this renowned character, he instantly becomes famous.

Next, Charlie meets Mildred Harris, a young underage woman who ran away from her home to become an actress. The two get married even through they are not really in love, and it is hinted that the only reason Charlie married her is because he got her pregnant. The two stay together for a while, but eventually divorce. Charlie breaks away from Mack Sennett because of Sennetts demanding wife/co-director, and he leaves with his brother to meet a new financer for his movies. While at this meeting, Charlie meets Lillita McMurray, an actress sitting down eating dinner with her mother. Charlie becomes involved with this woman, and eventually casts her in many of his movies such as The Kid.

Then, Chaplin goes on to divorce this woman and marry another woman named Paulette Goddard, who eventually divorces him because of his obsession with the composing of his movies. Chaplin then made enemies with J. Edgar Hoover at a dinner party, and Hoover continually harassed him throughout his life. When Chaplin leaves America to visit London, he is exiled from America by Hoover, for his scandal of having a baby with an underage woman. While in London, Chaplin realizes it is not really his home, that he really belongs nowhere. Charlie traveled to Switzerland with his final wife Oona Chaplin, and together they lived in exile.

Chaplin is welcomed back to America in 1972 to accept a special Academy Honorary Award. Though angry of his exile and concerned that no one would remember him, he is moved to tears as the audience laughs at his films and gives him the Academy Awards' longest standing ovation.

The epilogue describes what happened to each of the main characters:

• Charlie Chaplin accepts his Oscar and returns to Switzerland; he is knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1975 and dies two years later at the elder age of 88 on Christmas Day in Vevey, alongside his wife, children, and grandchildren.
• Hannah Chaplin spends the final seven years of her life in the small house Charlie bought for her near the Pacific Ocean.
• Sydney Chaplin retires to South France after WWII, spending part of each summer at his half-brother's residence in Switzerland, before passing away on his half-brother's 76th birthday.
• Fred Karno, the vaudeville impresario who gave Charlie his first job, goes bankrupt in 1926 and dies impoverished fifteen years later.
• Charlie's first love, Hetty Kelly, married a politician and died at the age of 25, but she is never forgotten by Chaplin and served as the inspiration for many of his cinematic heroines.
• With the advent of talkies, Mack Sennett's reign as the "King of Comedy" came to an end. Almost forgotten, he returned to Hollywood to accept a Special Academy Award in 1937.
• Mabel Normand becomes involved in a drug and sex scandal surrounding the murder of a Hollywood director in 1922 and never acts again.
• Edna Purviance, Charlie's leading woman in over 30 comedies, retires after failing to find work as a dramatic actress, and Chaplin keeps her on the studio payroll for the rest of her life.
• Douglas Fairbanks, one of United Artists' three co-founders, divorces Mary Pickford in 1936 and dies of a heart attack in his sleep three years later.
• Mary Pickford, dubbed "America's Sweetheart," became a key figure in the operation of United Artists, contending with Charlie for the highest salary in Hollywood and lived to the age of 86 (sic, actually 87).
• Mildred Harris, Charlie's first wife, has a fading acting career following their divorce, where she becomes confined to performing in sleazy nightclubs and dies an alcoholic at the age of 43.
• J. Edgar Hoover was the FBI's director for nearly five decades, employing sex secrets obtained illegally by his special agents to manipulate powerful people from all walks of life - Charlie's FBI file containing over 1,900 pages.
• Charlie's second wife, Lita Grey, and her younger son, Sydney Jr., remained in California, while his other son, Chaplin Jr., died in 1968.
• Charlie's third wife, Paulette Goddard, retired from acting in 1966 and moved to Switzerland, near Charlie and Oona.
• Joan Barry spent the most of her remaining life in mental institutions, with no indication of where or how she died. Despite not being the father, Charlie was obligated to maintain Joan's daughter, Carol Anne, until she reached the age of 21.
• Joseph Scott's courtroom speech is based on contemporary accounts. Because the State of California did not allow the blood tests to be used in evidence, the paternity suit came to be regarded a major miscarriage or justice.
• Charlie's fourth wife, Oona O'Neill, marries Chaplin at 18 and has eight children with him. She renounces her own American citizenship and spends the rest of her life in Switzerland after Charlie is forbidden from entering the United States. She outlives Charlie by 14 years and never ceased to mourn his loss until her own death in September 1991.