Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren, Syndey Chaplin, Tippi Hendren, Patrick Cargill, Margaret Rutherford.

Chaplin’s directing career didn’t exactly go out on a high note with this tone deaf attempt at screwball comedy. “A Countess from Hong Kong” casts Marlon Brando as an ambassador to Saudi Arabia sailing back to America who meets a Russian countess (Sophia Loren) who has stowed away in the ship he’s traveling on to escape a life of prostitution. He agrees to hide her in his cabin, which becomes complicated when his wife (Tippi Hendren) joins the cruise. A dreadfully unfunny, unromantic affair, lacking the comic invention and pathos of the director’s best work and wastes a talented cast. Chaplin makes two brief appearances as a ship’s steward.

Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Charlie Chaplin, Dawn Addams, Maxine Audley, Jerry Desmonde, Oliver Johnston, Michael Chaplin.

“A King in New York” was Chaplin’s cinematic response to the McCarthyism that forced him to leave the United States in 1952. He casts himself as King Shahdov, a recently-deposed European monarch who seeks refuge in New York City (the film was shot in the United Kingdom). After becoming a television celebrity, he’s wrongly accused of being a Communist. In addition to the Red Scare, Chaplin takes potshots at American consumerism and pop culture. Although it was a huge hit overseas, Chaplin’s European exile kept the film off of US screens until 1972, when he was allowed back into the country and accepted his Honorary Oscar.

Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Edna Purviance, Clarence Geldart, Carl Miller, Lydia Knott, Charles K. French, Adolphe Menjou.

Having firmly established himself as a comedic superstar, Chaplin decided to stretch himself with “A Woman of Paris.” Not only was it his first completely dramatic feature, it was also the first film in which he didn’t have a starring role as the Little Tramp (he appears uncredited as a train porter). It centers on a French country girl (“The Kid” star Edna Purviance) who leaves her fiancee to live in Paris, where she becomes the mistress to a wealthy man. Audiences at the time weren’t interested in seeing a Chaplin film without Chaplin, let alone a serious one. Yet its narrative and emotional complexity proved the director was capable of more than just pratfalls.

Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin, story by Orson Welles. Starring Charlie Chaplin, Martha Raye, William Frawley, Marilyn Nash, Isobel Elsom.

Chaplin’s onscreen persona has always been rather genial and charming, which is one of the reasons why “Monsieur Verdoux” is so shocking to watch. This pitch-black comedy centers on a Parisian bluebeard who supports his family by marrying rich women and murdering them for their money (including Martha Raye in a hilarious performance as a wife who’s impossible to kill). Scorned by audiences and critics who were disturbed to see their beloved Tramp behaving so dastardly, the film’s wry and biting satire of capitalism, mass murder, and war mongering keeps it feeling fresh today. Despite its harsh reception, Chaplin earned an Oscar nomination for his screenplay, which was inspired by an original idea by Orson Welles.

Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Charlie Chaplin, Al Ernest Garcia, Merna Kennedy, Henry Bergman.

Chaplin rarely mentioned “The Circus” after it was finished, going so far as to omit it from his autobiography due to the complications of its shoot. A massively ambitious production to begin with, it was beset with additional problems stemming from his divorce from Lita Grey, the death of his mother, and a destructive studio fire. Yet you wouldn’t know those problems existed when watching the film, which finds the Little Tramp joining a traveling circus and falling in love with a beautiful horse rider (Merna Kennedy). A tightrope sequence featuring Chaplin and several monkeys is a highlight. The film earned him a special Academy Award for writing, directing, producing and acting at the very first Oscar ceremony.

Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Charlie Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Nigel Bruce, Buster Keaton, Sydney Earl Chaplin, Wheeler Dryden, Norman Lloyd.

Dismissed as overlong and too sentimental in its time, “Limelight” is now recognized as one of Chaplin’s most personal and moving efforts. He stars as Calvero, a washed-up, alcoholic vaudevillian whose life is rejuvenated when he rescues a young ballerina (Claire Bloom) from suicide. Calling upon the director’s own past and memories, this is a touching rumination on the fleeting nature of stardom. Buster Keaton shows up as Calvero’s Partner, marking the only time the silent movie legends appeared onscreen together. Though completed in 1952, the film didn’t play in LA until 1972, when Chaplin was welcomed back into the US after decades in exile. Under Academy rules at the time, it was eligible for Oscar consideration, and Chaplin won for Best Original Score (his only competitive prize) a year after receiving his second Honorary award.

Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Edna Purviance.

“The Kid” was Chaplin’s first feature film (albeit a very short one), and from the get-go he established himself as a master of mixing comedy and pathos. When the Little Tramp finds a baby abandoned in a trash can, he takes him in and raises him as his own. Jackie Coogan became a star playing the child, proving himself a natural scene partner for his adult costar. Though packed with some of Chaplin’s best comedic bits (including a fight between the Tramp and a muscular man who’s defending his little brother from the kid), it’s best remembered as a tearjerker. It would take a heart of stone to keep from crying when the police come to take the kid away from the Tramp, or when they’re ultimately reunited.

Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Henry Daniell, Reginald Gardiner, Billy Gilbert, Maurice Moscovich.

When Chaplin set out to make “The Great Dictator,” Adolph Hitler was not yet widely recognized as a monster. So it was with great foresight and bravery that he made this withering satire of authoritarianism, a film thats message is sadly still relevant today. He plays both the comically vile dictator Adenoid Hynkel and the Jewish barber who is eventually mistaken for him. Among the signature bits are a balletic dance between Hynkel and a bouncing globe and a hysterical game of oneupmanship between him and another dictator (Jack Oakie playing a Mussolini clone). But perhaps no moment is no memorable than the one where Chaplin, as the barber dressed in Hynkel’s uniform, directly addresses the audience with a plea against fascism. It may be on the nose, but it works. The film earned five Oscar nominations: Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor (Oakie), Screenplay, and Music.

Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Tiny Sandford, Chester Conklin.

Chaplin resisted the sound era for as long as possible, producing his last silent picture at a time when talkies had all but completely taken over. Although it features music, sound effects, and gibberish, there isn’t a word of spoken dialogue in “Modern Times,” a spellbindingly funny satire of the machine age. It also marked Chaplin’s final outing as the Little Tramp, this time as a woefully unqualified factory worker who falls in love with a gamine (Paulette Goddard). As per usual, there are a number of wonderful sight gags, including Chaplin getting caught in the giant wheels of a machine he’s working on and a sequence featuring a dysfunctional eating device. Yet it’s ultimately bittersweet, and one can’t help but feel a pang of sadness watching the Tramp walk off into the sunset with his girl, signifying not just the end of a movie, but the end of a beloved character as well.

Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Charlie Chaplin, Georgia Hale, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Malcolm Waite.

“The Gold Rush” is Chaplin at his comedic best, with the Little Tramp traveling to the Yukon to strike it rich. Of course, fortune doesn’t come easy, and the frozen tundra threatens to engulf our intrepid hero. The film is packed with hilarious and iconic gags, including the eating of a boiled shoe, a dance of dinner rolls, and a cabin teetering off a cliff. There’s also a tender love story between the Tramp and a dance hall girl (Georgia Hale) that displays Chaplin’s gift for melding comedy with poignancy. Mack Swain is a perfect scene partner as Big Jim McKay, a prospector who finds himself in increasingly dangerous situations whenever he meets up with the Tramp. Chaplin re-edited and rereleased the film in 1942 with new music and narration by the director himself; that version competed at the Oscars for its score and sound.