BREAKING NEWS: HUFFPOST carries dubious Chaplin film story that falls apart with research
The Huffington Post carried this remarkable story on July 11th:
Essex resident Brian Hann, 40, bought a rare Charlie Chaplin film, "Zepped," in a junk shop for only $5. Hann found the 35mm nitrate film at the "Second Time Around" store in South Shields. The seven minute "Zepped" is a World War I propaganda film Chaplin filmed in 1917 in order to help diffuse the tension of the terrifying idea of Zeppelin bombings.
Last week what was believed to be the only copy of the movie was auctioned off last week for 100,000 pounds. One of Bonham's film experts is examining the footage in order to make sure it's authentic. Hann told the Shields Gazette:
when I read about the auction in London, and saw the footage, I realised it was exactly the same as I had picked up at the charity shop. I couldn't believe it. The only thing missing is the Zeppelin footage at the start. There's Chaplin reading a newspaper while leaning against a tree, then a bathing beauty comes into shot and there's a wartime message about saving food. I'm not greedy, I'm not expecting £100,000 for the film, but it should be worth more than what I paid for it.
According to the Independent, the film contains the following footage:
The unearthed film, called Charlie Chaplin in Zepped, features footage of Zeppelins flying over England during the First World War, as well as some very early stop-motion animation, and unknown outtakes of Chaplin films from three Essanay pictures including The Tramp. These have all been cut together into a six-minute movie that Mr Park describes as "in support of the British First World War effort". It begins with a logo from Keystone studios, which first signed Chaplin, and there follows a certification from the Egyptian censors dating the projection as being in December 1916. There are outtakes, longer shots and new angles from the films The Tramp, His New Profession and A Jitney Elopement.The main, animated sequence of the film starts with Chaplin wishing that he could return to England from America and fight with the boys. He is taken on a flight through clouds before landing on a spire in England. The sequence also features a German sausage, from which pops the Kaiser. During the First World War there was some consternation that the actor did not join the war effort.
At first glance, the story seemed like great news worth re-posting on this site. And I started to pass on the information, but thought something wasn't quite right. One, I had spent a good part of yesterday looking around Bonham's auction site regarding the Hitchcock storyboards and saw no press releases or cataloged items like this "lost" Chaplin film. And, indeed, the Bonham site lists no such cataloged or auctioned item on its international website.
Sometimes auction houses do privately list and sell items but a trunk call to London was not in the budget, so I went back to the HuffPost story which quotes from the Shield's Gazette the story of this remarkable discovery in a thrift shop. The writer at the Post must have researched this--as he/she's quoting from the article.There is no such article in the Shield's Gazette--in fact, rather remarkably, the Gazette did not even indicate any coverage of this story which the London Independent broke in 2009:
Lost Chaplin film discovered in $5 can bought on eBay
Rare footage – and possibly unknown work – found in nitrate film container from 1916, writes Kaleem Aftab
A film reel from Zepped starring Charlie Chaplin
MORE PICTURESWhen Morace Park bought a can of nitrate film on eBay for $5, he was surprised to discover that it contained footage of Charlie Chaplin.
The inventor was utterly astounded when his friend John Dwyer, a former member of the British Board of Film Classification, told him that he had discovered rare footage of the performer, and possibly an unknown Chaplin work. Unlike many nitrate films, the contents of this 1916 can were still intact.
The unearthed film, called Charlie Chaplin in Zepped, features footage of Zeppelins flying over England during the First World War, as well as some very early stop-motion animation, and unknown outtakes of Chaplin films from three Essanay pictures including The Tramp. These have all been cut together into a six-minute movie that Mr Park describes as "in support of the British First World War effort". It begins with a logo from Keystone studios, which first signed Chaplin, and there follows a certification from the Egyptian censors dating the projection as being in December 1916. There are outtakes, longer shots and new angles from the films The Tramp, His New Profession and A Jitney Elopement.
The main, animated sequence of the film starts with Chaplin wishing that he could return to England from America and fight with the boys. He is taken on a flight through clouds before landing on a spire in England. The sequence also features a German sausage, from which pops the Kaiser. During the First World War there was some consternation that the actor did not join the war effort.
Mr Dwyer persuaded Mr Park, from Henham, Essex, that they should make a documentary about the discovery and their attempt to unearth the story behind the movie. The filmmakers enlisted the British director Hammad Khan – whose first feature Slakistan, about slackers living in Islamabad, is in post-production.
Mr Park and Mr Dwyer raised £120,000 from friends and family to finance the shooting. The project, currently known only as The Lost Film Project, follows the duo as they visit locations associated with Chaplin. Their journey began in Henham then they visited several locations in London frequented by Chaplin, as well as Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, the site of one of the big Zeppelin crashes.
In the past week the men have been in San Francisco, riding the world's largest Zeppelin over the city, and Niles, Fremont, home of Chaplin's Essanay studios. They are currently in Los Angeles, where they met and showed the footage to Ric Robertson, the executive administrator of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The filmmakers are staying at Montecito Inn, the hotel that Chaplin built for his friends to stay in. They have also been in contact with the Chaplin family.
The filmmakers organised a transfer of the nitrate film on to a DVD, which they have been using to show footage of the film to Chaplin experts.
Mr Park said that most of the questions being raised are about the astonishing animation sequence and whether Chaplin himself was involved in the creation of the film.
(my italics) Film historian Simon Louvish, author of Chaplin: The Tramp's Odyssey, cast doubts on whether Chaplin would have been involved in its creation.
"There are a number of these compilation films around, and in Senegal there were a number of films that had been cut together by other people using Chaplin footage," said Mr Louvish. "Keystone Pictures was going bust at the time and footage from these Chaplin films was freely available.
"This is less so of the Essanay films. Chaplin by 1916 was signing multimillion-dollar contracts and was very aware of the copyright on his films.
"It would be no surprise though if someone in Egypt, which was under British occupation at the time, decided to use one of the world's most famous figures to support the war."
Independent readers will be pleased to know that all of the facts do check out in this article. Which is unfortunate for HuffPost readers--as nothing has been posted since early 2010 Lost Film Project, and this extraordinary film has never been made available (along with, I'm sure the less than extraordinary documentary on the still lost film). From the official site, in Feb. 2010:
When the HuffPost announces the discovery of the only known print of The Mountain Eagle, I will make myself available (for free) for the same 10 min internet research project. No use in beating a dead horse about something we used to call facts, but it seems that the power that the internet provides raises the bar for balanced reporting, and should not lower it.
The reporter (sic) in fairness, probably slapped some Post bits on a press release passed to him from the project. But this is not reporting--it's letting the advertiser write the story. I'm sure the BP Press release on last summer's big story began something like: Still more water than oil/Company structures deal with Bounty (the quicker picker upper).
At the minimum, a news story posted on the 'net should be hyper-linked to all relevant supporting articles (as has been done here, and on most blog postings that contain supportable facts, etc. that I write here). This gives the average reader the opportunity to read first hand what the reporter has allegedly read himself and has summarized or quoted directly in the news story you are reading. This is standard operating practice at the NY Times online and it is simple to do.
It will require using journalists who do more than pass on press releases. For example, as a reporter I know that the story I'm writing here is not really over. There may be something to what the HuffPost printed, but the at the very least the two different stories as to the lost film's discovery should have given the writer pause--and after that pause, the reporter should have typed any key word from the story into Google's omnipresent search box.
This has been made all the more confusing by the HuffPost suggesting that the original Zepped had sold at auction. It didn't. The "less than extraordinary documentary" is still looking for an outlet and Zepped remains with its finder, Morace Park. There's a related twitter feed (@lostfilmproject) and a YouTube Channel that helps flesh out some of the details here: www.youtube.com/ClearChampion
ReplyDeleteAs for the more recent find, it remains to be seen whether this is another copy of Zepped. It's highly unlikely.
Thanks for the update--wish that the Hpost had served you better.
ReplyDelete