London: A never seen before film of Charlie Chaplin was recently found in a tin bought by a man in Britain for just 3.20 pounds.
Morace Park, an avid antique collector from Essex, had purchased the old tin through e-Bay for a meagre sum, but when he opened it up he found a reel of film.
Inside the antique was a reel of a seven-minute film ‘Charlie Chaplin in Zepped’.
Park went on to search for clues on the web but he realized that the film was previously unknown.
“I couldn’t find any sign of it on the internet,” Timesonline quoted him as saying.
However, Park reached the doors of his neighbour, John Dyer, formerly head of education at the British Board of Film Classification, to learn more about the video.
The film features images of a Zeppelin attack in the First World War and a combination of Chaplin footage and animation.
There is also a mention of the Essanay film company with which Chaplin was associated in 1914 before he ended his contract.
The reason why the film had never surfaced before could be the row between Chaplin and the film company.
Chaplin’s biographer, David Robinson, has explained that Essanay had extended Chaplin’s film by adding extra footage.
However, Chaplin had taken legal action, ending hopes of the release of Charlie Chaplin in Zepped.
Meanwhile, Park has headed to Los Angeles to make a documentary about the quest.
ANI
First Published: Friday, November 06, 2009, 11:39