{"id":4660,"date":"2008-01-08T15:39:02","date_gmt":"2008-01-08T22:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=4660"},"modified":"2021-04-24T23:51:45","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T06:51:45","slug":"king-in-new-york-a-1957","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=4660","title":{"rendered":"King in New York, A (1957)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I&#8217;d sooner be thought a successful crook than a destitute monarch.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/King-in-New-York-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/King-in-New-York-Poster-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-28614\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/King-in-New-York-Poster-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/King-in-New-York-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/King-in-New-York-Poster-681x1024.jpg 681w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/King-in-New-York-Poster.jpg 1331w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nDeposed King Shahdov (Charlie Chaplin) experiences America&#8217;s rampant materialism first-hand when he&#8217;s tricked by a beautiful advertising executive (Dawn Addams) into appearing on television. Later, while visiting a progressive school, Shahdov meets a young boy (Michael Chaplin) who stridently spouts Communist rhetoric; when Shahdov shelters the runaway boy (whose parents are under investigation by HUAC), he is suspected of Communist sympathies himself.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Charlie Chaplin Films<\/li>\n<li>Cold War<\/li>\n<li>New York City<\/li>\n<li>Royalty and Nobility<\/li>\n<li>Satires and Spoofs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nCharlie Chaplin&#8217;s notorious critique of American materialism, media, and politics &#8212; filmed in London during his political exile &#8212; remains a bitter, occasionally spot-on, but rarely genuinely <em>funny<\/em> film. Chaplin is unrepentant in his skewering of our nation&#8217;s worst tendencies, satirizing topics as diverse as &#8220;reality T.V.&#8221; (years before it existed), progressive education, and Americans&#8217; fascination with royalty; in this respect, he&#8217;s to be applauded. As a narrative, however, <em>A King in New York<\/em> doesn&#8217;t really satisfy; about midway through, once the plot becomes more serious in its attempt to nail the absurdity of McCarthyist witch-hunts, the overall tone of the picture becomes far too solemn and didactic. And while Chaplin&#8217;s son Michael is appropriately intense playing the son of martyred Rosenberg stand-ins, it&#8217;s painful to watch his performance during the school visit scene, when he can be seen silently mouthing Chaplin Sr.&#8217;s words whenever he&#8217;s not talking himself (no future actor, he). <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dawn Addams inserting obvious commercials into a &#8220;surprise&#8221; televised dinner party for King Shahdov<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/king-new-york-commercial.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/king-new-york-commercial.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4659\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though film fanatics may want to be curious to check out this late-life entry in Chaplin&#8217;s career. Listed as a Cult Movie in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0050598\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1973\/12\/22\/archives\/film-a-king-in-new-york-at-lastthe-cast.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/a-king-in-new-york-1957\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1141chap.html\">DVD Savant Review (scroll down)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/80317\/a-king-in-new-york#articles-reviews?articleId=64133\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/classic\/kinginny.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/a-king-in-new-york\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d sooner be thought a successful crook than a destitute monarch.&#8221; Synopsis: Deposed King Shahdov (Charlie Chaplin) experiences America&#8217;s rampant materialism first-hand when he&#8217;s tricked by a beautiful advertising executive (Dawn Addams) into appearing on television. Later, while visiting a progressive school, Shahdov meets a young boy (Michael Chaplin) who stridently spouts Communist rhetoric; when Shahdov shelters the runaway boy (whose parents are under investigation by HUAC), he is suspected of Communist sympathies himself. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Charlie&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=4660\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4660"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71659,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4660\/revisions\/71659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}