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A Burlesque On Carmen

Big burlesque on carmen
Year :
1916
Cast :
Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Leo White, John Rand, Jack Henderson, May White, Bud Jamison, Frank J. Coleman, Lawrence A. Bowes. In extended version: Ben Turpin, Wesley Ruggles
Production :
Essanay
Description :
Chaplin’s burlesque of Cecil B. DeMille’s popular film version of Carmen (1915), starring the great opera diva Geraldine Farrar, as well as a rival version of Carmen (1915) starring Theda Bara, was originally intended as a two-reel comedy. In Chaplin’s version Don José becomes Darn Hosiery (Chaplin), with Edna Purviance as the seductress Carmen. However, after Chaplin left Essanay, the company inserted discarded material and created new scenes, extending the film to four reels when it was given a general release in April 1916. The altered version of the film sent Chaplin to bed for two days. He later put forward an unprecedented claim of the moral rights of artists, suing Essanay on the grounds that the expanded version would damage his reputation with the public. Although Chaplin lost the court battle, he later wrote that Essanay’s dishonest act “rendered a service, for thereafter I had it stipulated in every contract that there should be no mutilating, extending or interfering with my finished work.”
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