CriterionCast

Forgotten Chaplin Short Heading To Auction

One would imagine that anything involving the name Charlie Chaplin could garner a small fortune if it were to ever head to auction.

Well, according to Yahoo, that’s exactly what may happen when a forgotten short film starring the iconic comedic actor heads to auction next month.

The outlet is reporting that a short film featuring the actor is heading to auction house Bonhams next month, and could garner up to 100,000 pounds ($165,000) when the gavel is finally struck.   The film in question is entitled Zepped, and has been described as a British propaganda film made during WWI, and was discovered by Morace Park on a film reel purchased for only 3.20 pounds from eBay.

According to Reuters, the short, clocking in at seven minutes, finds Chaplin ‘taking on a German Zeppelin aircraft’ and ‘features some of the earliest animation in cinema history.’

Personally, it goes without saying that Chaplin is amongst cinema’s all-time greats, but what makes this most interesting is its possible Criterion state.   The film is going to auction, so it does not appear to be among those films picked up by Janus when they nabbed the Chaplin filmography.   Now, hopefully this will ultimately make its way into the Criterion Collection (I’m still waiting for a Chaplin short collection via Criterion proper or its Eclipse line), but at this point, it’s future is in the hands of these auctioneers.   More as it comes.

Source: Reuters

Joshua Brunsting

Josh is a critic, a member of the Online Film Critics Society, a wrestling nerd, a hip-hop head, a father, a cinephile and a man looking to make his stamp on the world, one word at a time.

1 comment