The story of Charlie Chaplin's years of self-imposed exile from the United States, when he had become a pariah during the 1950s Red Scare. While living abroad he made his last, and by general agreement, worst films, only to return home years later to a triumphant reception.
Eyman’s book is basically a biography of Chaplin with an emphasis on the later and unhappier half of his career. It’s fun to read and it adds detail to the story of Chaplin’s spectacular peripeteia. Eyman is completely sympathetic to Chaplin, and he makes the case that we should be, too.
[A] chilling story ... Eyman skips fairly quickly through Chaplin’s early life and career...and concentrates on the years when Chaplin’s political views began to inform his films ... For all the piquant detail of Chaplin’s ordeal, he remains an elusive central figure. Eyman quotes liberally from Chaplin’s friends and colleagues, but their amateur psychologizing is often hard to evaluate.
