[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by octagon

Speaking of 'nope, still not doing it for me', I watched City Lights last night and I think I can fairly safely say now that I don't particularly like Chaplin.

I've seen The Great Dictator, The Gold Rush, Monsieur Verdoux, Modern Times and now City Lights and they don't really do a whole lot for me. I can certainly appreciate them and they connect with me from time to time (I would have to say I laughed out loud more during City Lights than any other) but I also frequently found my mind wandering.

And Chaplin himself was incredible. Forget writer, director, comedian, innovator...his athletic ability alone was freaking phenomenal. All the Big Three were ridiculously talented in that area but he had a certain graceful quality that made his super-human feats look effortless. That said, something about him just leaves me kind of cold.

I love Chaplin's underdog persona in his films. There's just something endearingly magnetic about watching him in action.

I'll put Harold Lloyd's Safety Last! on the same level, but I like the two actors for different reasons.

I have not seen the Keaton movies yet, but I've got the big box set, The Buster Keaton Collection, in my stack after finding it for insanely cheap last month. I'll probably be plowing through those films in January.