Charlie Chaplin, the Stud

For weeks I’d been raving to anyone and everyone that the recent re-release of Monsieur Verdoux... So I wasn’t surprised when an actress/comedienne friend of mine on the west coast emailed to say she’d just rented and laugh-out-loud adored it.

What did give me pause was her follow-up, “That scene where he woos the rich woman in the parlor at the beginning, and also the one where he’s in the flower shop ordering roses…is it wrong for me to have the hots for a clown? Chaplin is so *beep* sexy!”

My answer: not only is it not wrong, but Chaplin wouldn’t have been believable mesmerizing his prey in Monsieur Verdoux if he hadn’t finally allowed his natural sexual charisma to shine through. For his entire career up until then Chaplin had been masking his virility beneath a shabby overcoat like a drag queen packing away her package

Read more: http://blog.spout.com/2008/07/09/the-sexy-tramp-monsieur-verdoux-and-c harlie-chaplin-as-stud/