According to this story from National Public Radio, a 1914 film called A Thief Catcher has been discovered at an antiques sale in Michigan, and film legend Charlie Chaplin appears on screen for a few minutes as a bumbling policeman.
Film historians say it’s one of Chaplin’s earliest screen appearances, but that the movements and comic style are unmistakeable. The film was publicly screened last weekend in Arlington, Virginia, possibly for the first time in 96 years.
Here’s the famous scene from The Gold Rush, where Charlie Chaplin does “The Oceana Roll”:
From the Who2 blog:
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