You are here: Charlie Chaplin reviews >A Countess in Hong Kong - Charlie Chaplin, Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren
DVD "A Countess from Hong Kong"—starring Marlon Brando & Sophia Loren, written & directed by Charlie Chaplin
Amazon Product Review of A Countess from Hong Kong
Charlie Chaplin’s last film is the cinematic equivalent of Willie Mays staying too long in baseball--a sad farewell from someone who has clearly lost his touch. Marlon Brando (who famously did not get along with Chaplin and initiated, with this film, his curious habit of undermining his directors’ best intentions) plays an American millionaire leaving Hong Kong to assume an ambassadorship. He discovers Sophia Loren--playing a daughter of Russian aristocrats and a former gangster moll--concealed in his closet onboard the outbound ship, hoping to gain passage to the States. Brando, looking none too pleased, agrees to help her, with not terribly comic or romantic results. Chaplin’s one modestly clever touch is to have the camera rock gently and slowly back and forth, ostensibly emulating the movement of the luxury liner. The humor falls flat, Brando and Loren have no chemistry, and the story isn’t terribly engaging. The former Little Tramp appears, mercifully briefly, as a seasick steward who opens and closes a door, swooning in between. Appropriately enough, in silence. --David Kronke
Trivia about A Countess from Hong Kong (courtesy of Amazon.com 
)
- During the filming of "Countess" in 1966 at Pinewood Studios, the 77 year old Chaplin was walking around outside discussing ideas when his foot got caught in a grate and he broke his ankle. It was the first serious injury that he ever sustained.
- It was the first film by Chaplin to be not only in widescreen (which he disliked - see A King in New York (1957)) but in color as well.
- At the premiere in 1967 in London, the film being shown before had been using a special spherical lens. The projectionist had forgotten to take it off for the 35mm "Countess". The result was a distorted spherical image. The critics instantly blamed it on Chaplin’s tired directing techniques. This was obviously not the case, but the film still did badly at the box office and Chaplin himself went into deep depression.
- Charles Chaplin’s final acting appearance is in a cameo as an old steward. Since nearly all of the characters he portrayed in films prior to the 1940s were not identified by name, it is appropriate that his final character also be nameless.
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