Chaplin PSA

Video Find of the Day

iraRona is one of the video providers at YouTube I subscribe to, but I have mixed feelings about him. On one hand, you've got hundreds of old videos from his extensive archives, and what's there is often in fantastic condition. But it's presented with almost no information, and usually stripped of opening and closing credits so the viewer can't figure out the missing data.

This is a case in point. The description is "ii", who knows what that's supposed to convey. No credits. To find out when this film was made and who was in it besides Chaplin I had to go to another version that was previously uploaded by someone with the YouTube handle SirCharlesChaplain of all things (not THE Sir Charles, we're sure) which has all this info:

"Charlie Chaplin's 64th Film Released Sept. 29 1918.

The Bond was a film created by Charlie Chaplin at his own expense for the Liberty Load Committee for theatrical release to help sell U.S. Liberty Bonds during World War I.

Made in 1918 with Edna Purviance, Albert Austin and Sydney Chaplin, the film has a distinctive visual motif set in a simple plain black set with starkly lit simple props and arrangements. The story is a series of sketches humorously illustrating various bonds like the bond of friendship and of marriage and, most important, the Liberty Bond, to K.O. the Kaiser which Charlie does literally.

There was also a British version with Uncle Sam replaced by John Bull and promotes War Bonds."

This time I'm going with the iraRona version because it's just that much cleaner, and I like the background music more.

THE BOND starring CHARLES CHAPLIN