Unknown Chaplin

Unknown Chaplin is an acclaimed three-part 1983 British documentary series about the career and methods of the silent film luminary Charles Chaplin, using previously unseen film for illustration. The film was directed and written by film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. They were granted access to unseen material from Chaplin's private film archive by his widow Oona O'Neil Chaplin. Episode one of the series was also based on a large cache of pirated outtakes from the Mutual Film Corporation period of Chaplin's career, made available by private film collector Raymond Rohauer. The documentary also includes interviews with Chaplin's second wife Lita Grey, his son Sydney Chaplin, and his surviving co-stars Jackie Coogan, Dean Riesner, Georgia Hale, and Virginia Cherrill. The series gives unparalleled insight into Chaplin's working methods and filmmaking techniques. In particular, the Mutual outtakes show his painstaking approach to developing comedic and dramatic ideas on film, examined in what director Brownlow described as an "archaeology of the cinema".