The Freak, a Charlie Chaplin masterpiece that never was
A new book reveals the comic genius planned to make one last film – to the chagrin of his wife – with his daughter in the starring role as a winged girl who exposes humanity’s deepest flaws
A large crate tucked away in a musky storage room reveals a treasure: a pair of meticulously crafted wings covered with swan feathers made for a final film Charlie Chaplin never completed.
The seminal filmmaker had the surprisingly heavy contraptions made for his daughter Victoria, whom he envisioned in the role of The Freak – a winged girl who brings hope to humanity, but also exposes its deepest flaws.
SEE ALSO: Book review: The Charlie Chaplin Archives presents a detailed look at the work of a revolutionary
“It seemed to me to be a very beautiful fairytale. Something that maybe only a man of his age can imagine, can dream. A very charming dream,” Chaplin's now 69-year-old son Michael said, his dark eyes sparkling as he recalls reading his father's script back in the 1970s.
Comic genius Charlie Chaplin, whose iconic films such as The Kid, Modern Times, The Great Dictator and City Lights are admired and loved the world over, was planning something very different for what he intended to be his last picture.
SEE ALSO: Charlie Chaplin novel unveiled
A book published this week in Switzerland, where Chaplin spent the last 24 years of his life, for the first time gives a full account of the unfulfilled project.