* From 1917 to 1918, silent film actor Billy West made more than 20 films as a comedian precisely imitating Chaplin's tramp character, makeup and costume.

In 2010 the New York Guitar Festival commissioned new scores on some of Chaplin's silent films from a number of contemporary artists, including Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Marc Ribot, David Bromberg, and Alex de Grassi.

In 1990 Charles Lane directed and starred in Sidewalk Stories, a low budget salute to sentimental silent comedies particularly Charlie Chaplin's The Kid.

Having been the only Hollywood film maker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films, this was Chaplin's first true talking picture as well as his most commercially successful film.

The film was Chaplin's first true talking picture and helped shake off accusations of Luddism following his previous release, the mostly dialogue-free Modern Times, released in 1936 when the silent era had all but ended in the late 1920s.

The Great Dictator does, however, feature several silent scenes more in-keeping with Chaplin's previous films.

Chaplin's feature The Circus, released in 1928, was his last film before the motion picture industry embraced sound recording and brought the silent movie era to a close.

El Circo ( the circus ) was a " shadow " of Chaplin's silent film, The Circus and Si yo fuera diputado (" If I Were a Congressman ") had many similarities with the 1940 film, The Great Dictator.

For example, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times was shot at " silent speed " ( 18 fps ) but projected at " sound speed " ( 24 fps ), which makes the slapstick action appear even more frenetic.

The Little Tramp, also known as The Tramp ( Charlot in several languages ) was Charlie Chaplin's most memorable on-screen character, a recognized icon of world cinema most dominant during the silent film era.

Despite a few silent scenes, including one where the barber is wearing the tramps ' coat and bowler hat and carrying his cane, the barber speaks throughout the film ( using Chaplin's own British accent ), including the passionate plea for peace that has been widely interpreted as Chaplin speaking as himself.

Later he had two brief, uncredited roles in one of Chaplin's ' silent ' comedies made in the sound era, City Lights ( 1931 ).

The film had a huge cultural impact, becoming the top grossing film of 1921 beating out Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, and going on to become the sixth best grossing silent film of all time.

The Rink, a silent film from 1916, was Charlie Chaplin's eighth film for Mutual Films.

During the 1960s the political atmosphere began to gradually change, and attention was once again directed to Chaplin's films instead of his political views.

The following year, in November 1963, the Plaza Theater in New York started a year-long series of Chaplin's films, including Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight, which now gained excellent reviews from American critics.

A 1922 image of Charlie Chaplin Studios, where all of Chaplin's films between 1918 and 1952 were produced

Instead of a tightly unified storyline, Gerald Mast has seen Chaplin's films as consisting of sketches tied together by the same theme and setting.

Although most of Chaplin's films are characterised as comedies, most of them also employ strong elements of drama and even tragedy.

According to David Robinson, unlike in more conventional slapstick comedies, the comic moments in Chaplin's films centred on the Tramp's attitude to the things happening to him: the humour did not come from the Tramp bumping into a tree but from his lifting of his hat to the tree in apology.

Although this can be seen as social commentary, Chaplin's films did not contain overt political themes or messages until later on his career in the 1930s.

Partly due to Chaplin's complete control over the production of his films, Stephen M. Weissman has also seen them as containing autobiographical elements.

Weissman has also argued that Chaplin's problematic relationship to his mentally ill mother was often reflected on the female characters in his films and the Tramp's desire to save them.

Six of Chaplin's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry: The Immigrant ( 1917 ), The Kid ( 1921 ), The Gold Rush ( 1925 ), City Lights ( 1931 ), Modern Times ( 1936 ), and The Great Dictator ( 1940 ).

( Reliable box office figures for certain early films such as Birth of a Nation and Charlie Chaplin's comedies are unavailable.

Among Loren's best-known films of this period are Samuel Bronston's epic production of El Cid ( 1961 ) with Charlton Heston, The Millionairess ( 1960 ) with Peter Sellers, It Started in Naples ( 1960 ) with Clark Gable, Vittorio De Sica's triptych Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow ( 1963 ) with Marcello Mastroianni, Peter Ustinov's Lady L ( 1965 ) with Paul Newman, the 1966 classic Arabesque with Gregory Peck, and Charlie Chaplin's final film, A Countess from Hong Kong ( 1967 ) with Marlon Brando.

Modern Times is often hailed as one of Chaplin's greatest achievements, and it remains one of his most popular films.

The cultural impact of workflow optimization during this era can be understood through films such as Chaplin's classic Modern Times.

Set designer Danny Hall sketched out Chaplin's early ideas for the film, with Chaplin returning to one of his older films, The Vagabond ( 1916 ), and drawing upon similar story ideas and themes for The Circus.

With mutual admiration, Cantinflas was influenced by Chaplin's earlier films and ideology.

Although Lloyd's individual films were not as commercially successful as Charlie Chaplin's on average, he was far more prolific ( releasing twelve feature films in the 1920s while Chaplin released just three ), and made more money overall ($ 15. 7 million to Chaplin's $ 10. 5 million ).

Charlie Chaplin's The Kid revolves about the Tramp's efforts to raise an abandoned child.

It is often referred to as Chaplin's finest accomplishment, and film critic James Agee believed the closing scene to be " the greatest piece of acting and the highest moment in movies ".

Finally, with Chaplin off the Essanay scene for good, Essanay signed French comedian Max Linder, whose clever pantomime was often compared to Chaplin's.

This joke may have its origins in Charlie Chaplin, who once did enter a look-alike contest and is often reported to have also come in third, although Chaplin's actual ranking in the contest is not known.

Noted for his painted handlebar moustache and acerbic manner, he worked for Chaplin's stock company and played supporting roles in many of his films, often as a foil to the star, and working as his assistant director.

They would often attend events such as boxing matches or car races together, and according to writer Jack Spears, " while working on a picture Linder would go next door to Chaplin's home and discuss the day's shooting.

There doesn't appear to be any evidence that this film was received any differently from the bulk of Chaplin's early work, but today this film is often considered one of his most fascinating efforts.

As Hitler and his Nazi Party rose to prominence, Chaplin's popularity throughout the world became greater than ever ; he was mobbed by fans on a 1931 trip to Berlin, which annoyed the Nazis, who published a book in 1934 titled The Jews Are Looking at You, in which the comedian was described as " a disgusting Jewish acrobat " ( despite the fact that Chaplin was not Jewish ).

Chaplin's left alone in the empty circus ring ... It reminds me of Chaplin and his place in the world of the cinema.

Chaplin's recollections begin with his childhood of extreme poverty, from which he escapes by immersing himself in the world of the London music halls, after which he relocates to the United States.

* Charlie Chaplin's 1952 film Limelight, set in 1914 London, evokes the music hall world of Chaplin's youth where he performed as comedian before he achieved worldwide celebrity as a film star in America.

“ What makes Modern Times decidedly different from Chaplin's previous three films are the political references and social realism that keep intruding into Charlie's world .” “ No comedian before or after him has spent more energy depicting people in their working lives .” “ Though there had been films depicting the lives of immigrants and urban workers, no filmmaker before Chaplin had created their experience so humanly and lovingly .”