Charlie Chaplin: The Essanay Comedies

These are far from Charlie's best films, but the Tramp is still captivating even in shorts that are subpar. The quality of restoration here is superb, patchy but such is the nature of the subject matter. The music accompaniments are wonderful, and throughout these films you can get a great feel for Chaplin's development as a filmmaker. It goes without saying that this is not the place to start with Chaplin, you should be watching the feature films first (any of the silents except A Woman of Paris) and then his later shorts at Mutual and First National, or perhaps his talkies (Limelight is a stunning film.) Overall though this is a fantastic collection, and as long as you know what to expect then I doubt you will be disappointed.

Thanks for a great product

Best ever Chaplin

Unfortunately not as comprehensive as the mutual box, No commentaries on the films apart from two special ones. No score choice either. But you do get a really good picture quality early chaplin experience and the master doesnt dissapoint.

Here it is Chaplin and his essanay years with his tramp character at its best. The picture quality is so outstanding that the films look like they were made yesterday or though their black and white they have been restored so well that you can't even see one dot or line from the negatives or original reel they just look brand new I would highly recommend this to any Chaplin fan that wants to bring him into the 21st century

The main feature film "Triple Trouble" is an obvious upscale from DVD/SD material (the bonus UK version "Charlie's Triple Trouble" interestingly is a proper HD restored film). Confirmed by BFI. So not all are restored films. The first pressings came with a slipcover that had incorrectly "with music by Carl Davis" printed on it.

This is good!

Can't go wrong. Excellent quality restorations. Brilliant short films. Good value for money.

Die Restauratoren haben sensationelle Arbeit geleistet - durch Verwendung des besten erhaltenen Filmmaterials und dessen digitale Aufbereitung bekommt man die frühen Werke Chaplins erstmals in einer Form zu sehen, die eine Freude ist. Detailreich und angenehm für die Augen, ein Blick durch das Fenster der Geschichte. Da die verwendenen digitalen Algorithmen keinen direkten Einfluss durch temporale logische Bildanalyse genommen haben sind an die Datenrate hohe Ansprüche gestellt, die das verwendete Medium BluRay problemlos meistert. Keine medium-bedingten Artefakte, wie sie auf DVD definitiv auftreten würden (siehe die Keystone-Edition). Ich konnte zum ersten mal erahnen, wie Chaplins Filme damals beim Publikum ankamen - eine wahre Freude. Die bisherigen Editionen mit den unzählig kopierten Versionen, die nur aus starken, ausgewaschenen Kontrasten bestanden, werden, so sieht man jetzt sofort, Chaplins Kunst in keinster Weise gerecht. Wer Chaplin neu entdecken möchte - jetzt ist die Möglichkeit dazu!

This product is an insight into Chaplin's early work. Much of it is ongoing slapstick, probably hardly scripted. But it reveals the film industry in it's infancy. More sophisticated work would be done by Chaplin and others soon after.

Chaplin's Essayée movie period is a must for every Chaplin's admirer as I am.

I am amazed at how well Chaplin's Essanay shorts from 1915 are preserved on this Blu-ray DVD. I think we are starting to get close to seeing these shorts as audiences saw them in theaters more than 100 years age. These shorts are very dated and the story lines are highly repetitive, but anyone who is looking to purchase Chaplin's Essanay films is already a very intense fan and understands the nature of the content on these discs.

These Chaplin short films from his time with the Essanay company have been restored and look fantastic. Watching films made 100 years ago in this quality amazing.