Filmbrain's Screen Capture Quiz: Round 6, Week 10

Before moving on to the quiz, just a brief reminder that those in need of a Filmbrain fix can find his take on King Kong over at Cinemarati. Christopher Walken may have been The King of New York, but Charlie Chaplin was A King in New York, the source of last week's quiz. Filmbrain doesn't know many who share his love of this 1957 comedy, which was Chaplin's response to the McCarthy-led Red Scare. A flawed masterpiece, it's a biting, vicious little satire that contains some wonderful digs at American culture, media, politics, and of course our attitudes towards communism. Easily one of Chaplin's darkest films, it's an absolute must-see. (Makes for a perfect double feature with A Face in the Crowd.) Some of you emailed with claims that the film was in fact not banned, but that Chaplin himself prevented the film from being released in America. An old Chaplin bio (Chaplin: His Life and Art) states that it was banned, yet a web search found support of both claims, so the jury is out on that one. Either way, the film did not see official release in the US until the early 70s. After two difficult quizzes, Filmbrain decided to throw out an easier one -- in what film will you find this incredibly cool JCPenney Solid State television, and what's this guy on channel 10 going on about? Submit your answers to this address. Good luck!

Comments

[Robert Nagle]

What an amazing discovery! It's one of those things that you know is not going to be a masterpiece, but have curiosity value alone.

Case in point: Do you know that Joseph Heller wrote a sequel to Catch 22 called Closing Time ? Written 40 years later, with the same characters transplanted into Wall Street. Same for John Travolta's Staying Alive. Both are probably inferior to the original, but that's not the point. You just want to see what they do with the idea. I recently watched Airplane 2 (which I hadn't heard about since last week). Different cast and director, but a fun concept nonetheless. I have a morbid fascination with sequels, and someday when I am truly bored I will try to watch Jaws - The Revenge (1987).

Are there any sequels that you can't help watching though you know it won't be pretty?

[burritoboy]

I believe the actual history of the film is that the movie chains were going to refuse to distribute the movie (i.e., banned) before Chaplin gave up and pulled the movie. I.E., it was going to be banned before Chaplin bowed to the inevitable. Both claims are more or less correct.

I would also pair A King in New York with Jose Ferrer's largely forgotten tale of 1958 middle-management angst, The High Cost of Loving.