Poor Chap

An interesting book on Chaplin, by Stephen Weissman, MD. It's called A Life, but that's misleading, since it concentrates almost entirely on his early years, essentially ending in his Keystone days.

It fills in a lot of gaps about how Chaplin rose from his Dickensian existence to international superstar, and how his youthful experiences informed his art. But truthfully, there's no knowing Chaplin. He's hardly the only urchin who went through desperate straits. The guy simply had an amazing, inborn talent. Almost from the start, when he was given the right situation, he scored--first onstage, than onscreen. He was nervy, but he had the stuff to back it up.

By the way, Weissman being a doctor is significant. He's the first person to go deeply into how and why Chaplin's mother went crazy due to syphilis.