The most important criticism of the great comedian's work, including pieces by Andrew Sarris, David Thomson, Gilbert Seldes, Alistair Cooke, Robert E. Sherwood, Stark Young, Edmund Wilson, Stanley Kauffmann, Alexander Woollcott, George Jean Nathan, Max Eastman, Robert Warshow, Water Kerr, and James Agee. Richard Schickel, one of our outstanding film critics, has written a long introduction. Praise for Schickel's Chaplin documentary: An invaluable critic and historian.... Schickel's film...is like a course in cultural history taught by a witty, slightly dyspeptic professor.-A. O. Scott, New York Times
Richard Schickel, longtime film critic for Time magazine, also contributes regularly to the Los Angeles Times. He has written biographies of Clint Eastwood, Marlon Brando, James Cagney, D. W. Griffith, Cary Grant, and Walt Disney, as well as Matinee Idylls, The Men Who Made the Movies, Intimate Strangers, Woody Allen, and a memoir, Good Morning, Mr. Zip Zip Zip. His most recent book is a highly praised biography of Elia Kazan. He lives in Los Angeles.
