A King in New York
Director: Charles Chaplin
Year Released: 1957
Rating: 3.0
Chaplin is forced to leave his native country due to a spat with his wife and assorted other problems and comes to America to sell his plans for atomic energy. While in America, he encounters raving teenagers going crazy over a rock band, obnoxious noise in a restaurant, horrible children being treated like gold, the control advertising and television have on the American populace, fear of alternative political beliefs, an unfathomable fear of aging and a dependence on plastic surgery, corporate greed and hypocrisy ... in other words, the USA of today. Makes up for its episodic and sloppy structure - scenes fade into each other rather awkwardly and end before they seem like they should - by calmly taking this country to task for some of its problems and its own brand of craziness. Chaplin is also not afraid to show himself as a skirt-chaser, which lands him in all sorts of problems.
