Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Close-Ups (Volume 44) (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series, 44) Paperback – August 25, 1999

Anyone interested in details about chaplin will get something from this book. After all, Georgia did spend a great deal of time over many years with him. It is very sad that he broke her heart so many times

Although the writing is unpolished, it seems a very genuine portrait of a young woman forever in love with her director and mentor. It recounts her spiritual journey and it left me very moved. A real gem, with no salacious passages and some clear-eyed evaluations of Chaplin, Josef von Sternberg, and others of the era. Miss Hale seems like a genuinely good person, and the book's recounting of an unrequited love of the century's greatest entertainment genius should interest more than just Chaplin fans.

Haunting, extremely personal and directly believable, I found Hale's moving memoir a rewarding read. She was extraordinary and her life's account from squalid poverty into the highest echelon of 1920's Hollywood to be an incredible blend of fortune and sadness. I could not put this down, and learned so much of the personalities and celebrities that privately surrounded Charlie Chaplin as well as his documented alter ego Charles. Hale is quite open and I found compassionately honest, as she adored Chaplin, from afar after first seeing a film of his as a teenager in 1916, to being critical as his closest companion and love interest since the making of his greatest film 1925's "The Gold Rush." I need to express here that this memoir is well written, so openly personal and reaches out to the reader as if we were sitting on a couch together. I was indeed quite moved, and I recommend this book highly. I might also add, in order to appreciate the fine acting of Georgia Hale that the reader view her most notable films: "The Salvation Hunters" directed by Joseph von Sternberg and of course her superb portrayal in "The Gold Rush."

From the title of the book, one would expect intimate (i.e., sexual) tid-bits to be explored in this book. Forget it, Georgia Hale was almost without doubt Chaplin's mistress for several years but this prudish, virginal woman inexplicably chose to present herself as a chaste, untouched maiden, all the while living in Charlie's Summit Drive estate in Hollywood. Georgia Hale was Charlie's co-star in his immortal 1925 film "The Gold Rush;" she was discovered by Chaplin and she owned her entire career to him. She also fell madly in love with him but claims that she held off sleeping with him because of his (miserably unhappy) second marriage to Lita Grey. Her morality supposedly prevented her from taking the plunge with the Little Tramp. Yeah, right.Georgia writes poorly, wanders all over the place in her style and tells the reader very little about Charlie besides the fact he was moody, brilliant, beautiful, sexy, maddening and immature. Oh yes, let's toss in genius to the mix, but we already knew all of that. Hale was in a unique position of revealing much about Charlie during a pivotal period in his life; she was undeniably close to him and he trusted her and treated her better than he treated many of his other paramours. But she muddies the water with an insipid and irritating style and the absolute crusher is the final chapter. It's an idiotic dream sequence which goes on forever and is both banal and bizarre.The most interesting story in the entire book is when she briefly reunites with Charlie at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1972. Oona leaves the room and Chaplin asks her, "Have you ever married?" Even after 40 years, Georgia is still hopelessly besotted with Charlie and breathlessly intones, "After you, Charlie, no man could compare." Naturally Chaplin adores this line and showers her with kisses. One senses this was Georgia Hale's greatest moment since Charlie threw her over in the early 30's.In short, a poorly written book, a tome of missed opportunities. Oh, what could have been!

Arrived in perfect condition

As every other great celebrity to have emerged during the past century, Charlie Chaplin made acquaintances in his life who at some point decided to capitalize on their association with the comedian, by writing revealing accounts based on their experiences with him. By Hollywood standards, the majority of these accounts must be said to share a relatively mild and respectful attitude. Jerry Epstein's book on his friendship with Chaplin, "REMEMBERING CHARLIE," and his musical collaborator Eric James's account "MAKING MUSIC WITH CHARLIE CHAPLIN," both come off as rather humble in tone, as does Charles Chaplin Jr.'s wonderful, perceptive "MY FATHER CHARLIE CHAPLIN." However, one obvious exception to this would be the two books compiled by Chaplin's second wife Lita Grey, whose account of her marriage with the comedian, sadly, turned out to become the sole exstensive portrayal of him as a husband to be made public by any of the four women who were married to him.Thus, for the sake of balance alone, I am grateful that Georgia Hale decided to put into words her impressions of Charlie during the years she knew him. Though unable to find a publisher when she wrote her manuscript in the 1960s, the book was eventually published in 1995, ten years after her passing, as "CHARLIE CHAPLIN: INTIMATE CLOSE-UPS." While not without short-comings, the prevailing portrayal of Charlie certainly appears more sympathetic and fully-rounded here than in the books by Lita Grey. Though Charlie and Georgia never married, Hale recalls a love affair which, according to herself, lasted for a considerable time, albeit not without intermissions. The narrative begins with her own, largely impoverished childhood years. A turning point occurred when she first discovered a new comedian with a derby too small and pants too large; the Tramp's enthralling ability to make her forget her worries made Chaplin into her personal hero.However, though at first only one of Chaplin's millions of admirers, Hale's life changed suddenly as she around 1925 was chosen for leading lady in THE GOLD RUSH; the film which, Chaplin for a long time proclaimed, was the one he wished to be remembered for. While recalling anecdotes and memories from the production of this film, Hale shares some interesting impressions of Chaplin as a craftsman and as a person. She remembers, for instance, how Charlie arrived on set one day in a visibly depressed condition, unable to work. It turned out that, on his way to the studio that day, an old man had recognized him and asked for an autograph, to which the comedian, being in a stressed mood, had reacted irritably and brushed the old man off. Though it can be assumed that any celebrity undergoes such days, Chaplin felt terrible about it; until Hale convinced him of how much joy he had given the world through his films, and that it would be unreasonable to expect him to satisfy the wishes of everyone at any given time. Suddenly, Chaplin's spirit arose, and he remained productive for the rest of the day.Similar anecdotes, often depicting Chaplin's intense creativity when he was in the right mood, make "INTIMATE CLOSE-UPS" into an interesting book to any Chaplin-fan. However, at the same time, some of Hale's recollections should probably be read with the awareness that she truly adored Chaplin, and possibly tended to exaggerate her own influence on his life, on occasion. Without any intention of being disrespectful, some of her remembrances do frankly appear rather far-fetched. As far as I can recall, none of the other biographies I have read on Chaplin support Hale's claim that he contacted her the night before he was to marry Oona O'Neill, asking Hale to "leave the country with him;" and it seems indeed unlikely that Chaplin would have proposed such a thing at that point, given that he and Oona by all accounts were deeply in love and that fifteen years had then passed since his relationship to Hale had been at its most intense. Also of some occasional bother to me personally was the writing-style in the book, which feels a bit too verbal at times.In sum, "CHARLIE CHAPLIN: INTIMATE CLOSE-UPS" provides viewpoints on the comedian from a person who knew him first-hand, which should be of interest to anyone seeking impressions of him beyond the ones immortalized through his character, The Little Fellow. However, it is not as intriguing a read as Charles Chaplin Jr.'s book, and for a factually reliable account of Chaplin's life, the large biography by David Robinson remains unequalled.

I really enjoyed the book and it gave a very interesting insight into the life of Georgia Hale and Charlie Chaplin. It is an honest and frank account, yet not trashy or full of gossip. Shame that it ended so abruptly, which is understandable looking at the circumstances though. It would have been interesting to have looked at their brief reunion, when Chaplin returned to the US in the 1970s. All in all a moving and heartfelt account.