Lipton’s Journal/February 21, 1955/625
Saw Mutiny on the Bounty[1] and some Keystone Chaplin[2] films last night. What a genius Chaplin is. How he expresses all the body frustrations of sexual repression. He wipes his nose on a rag, wipes the rag on a dish, hands the dish to a whore in a dirty restaurant. He hitches his ass, he “rolls” his eyes, he strikes and is struck, and always, sex, sex, sex. We laugh in orar roars and waves (roar, orar, horror, aura). And the captions which I may include later are incredible. In one skit, standing before his wife who dominates him completely, he grins sheepishly struts and says, “Every day I get better and better, but every night I get worse.”
notes
- ↑ Laughton was Capt. Bligh in this 1935 film based on Charles Nordhoff’s 1932 novel of the same name. Clark Gable played Fletcher Christian in the film, and was nominated, along with Laughton, for an Academy Award for best actor. Neither won, but the film won one for best picture.
- ↑ Mailer met Chaplin in (1889-1977) Hollywood in 1949 when the great actor attended his Christmas party, and he had the pleasure of introducing his parents to him.
