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While silent-film star Charlie Chaplin may have charmed American audiences with the onscreen antics of his loveable "Tramp" character, the actor's private life was marred by a series of public scandals that eventually pushed him into exile. In addition to his penchant for much younger women--his fourth marriage to wife Oona (daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill) commenced when he was 54 and she was 18, prompting speculation that he was the inspiration for Nabokov's LOLITA--Chaplin was unjustly hounded by Senator Joe McCarthy's notorious anti-Communist witch hunts, for which the U.S. revoked his visa in 1952. A bitter and disenchanted Chaplin responded by moving his family to Switzerland, where he remained until his death in 1977. This documentary chronicles Chaplin's life and career during those so-called "forgotten years" (during which he became a prolific and highly respected film-score composer) through previously unreleased archival footage and intimate interviews with his friends and family, including his children Geraldine, Michael, and Eugene.
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