“Forgotten Hollywood”- Lost Chaplin Film at Cinecon!
Manny P. here…
CINECON 46 is fast approaching. The Film Festival is in Hollywood over the Labor Day weekend. One of the highlights to this fine event will be the rare screening of a “lost” Charlie Chaplin silent picture. It’s called A Thief Catcher, and it debuted in 1914.
Of course, I’ll be there on Friday, September 3rd on the 3rd floor of the Rennaissance Hotel (on the corner of Highland Ave. and Hollywood Blvd.) between 11:30a – 2:00p signing copies of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History.
Here is a link for more info about their Memorabilia Show and the Film Book Fair:
http://www.cinecon.org/cinecon_memorabilia.html
According to the Cinecon site:
A Thief Catcher (Keystone, 1914), featuring a previously unknown performance by silent comedy star Charlie Chaplin, will have its West Coast re-premiere during the 46th annual Cinecon Classic Film Festival at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood California over Labor Day Weekend, September 2-6, 2010
Chaplin is officially credited with appearing in thirty-five films during his year at Keystone in 1914, but he claimed in various interviews that he had also played bit roles as a cop and a barber while at the studio–but he did not name the films, and although there has been some speculation about the possibility of additional Chaplin-Keystone appearances, none has turned up until now.
Film collector Paul Gierucki found a 16mm film print in a trunk at a Taylor, Michigan, antique store last year. “I could tell it was a Keystone comedy, so I haggled and got it for $100,” says Gierucki, but he didn’t get around to looking at the print for several months. When he did put it on a projector this past March, he was astonished when Chaplin appeared as a cop about six minutes into the film for an extended two-minute cameo. “My heart stopped,” Gierucki recalls. “I recognized him immediately.”
Starring Keystone’s famed comic villains Ford Sterling and Mack Swain, with support from Edgar Kennedy, A Thief Catcher was in production between January 5-26, 1914, soon after Chaplin arrived at the Keystone studio, and it represents the second or third screen role for the soon-to-be world famous comedy star.
A Thief Catcher is one of nearly forty rare and unusual films to be screened during the five-day Cinecon film festival, and will be shown on Saturday afternoon during a themed film preservation segment of the program.
CINECON 46 is sponsored in part by:
Until next time> “never forget”
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