The Kid: Geraldine Chaplin in the sixties

Geraldine Chaplin emerged as a film star in the 1960s upon her highly publicized appearance in David Lean’s epic film Doctor Zhivago (1965). Accompanying her presence in Lean’s film was public discourse, throughout the United States and Europe, which often framed her as a kind of cosmopolitan hybrid figure. In this journalistic commentary, Chaplin was always split in half between one identity and another: half-British and half-American; half-demure, half-hippie; one part her mother, Oona O’Neill, and one part her father, Charlie Chaplin. Much of this commentary was, indeed, quite cynical in its character, questioning her acting ability in its repeated suggestion that her winning of film roles was solely due to her famous last name. Many of the films she made during this period, in particular the French film Crime on a Summer Morning (released before Zhivago, in 1965) and the British film Cop Out (made shortly after Zhivago and released in 1967) reflect this ambivalence about her talent and distinction, through her small parts as privileged and rather unlikeable rich girls clashing with their wealthy, sympathetic fathers. Her performance in Lean’s film, and others in the 1960s, will be examined alongside privileged moments from her father’s films, including The Kid, and also in relation to the reception of Charlie Chaplin’s films from the Soviet Union after the time period in which Doctor Zhivago is set.