charlie pt. II

James Agee, Life, 1949

Of all the comedians he worked most deeply and most shrewdly within a realizations of what a human being is, and is up against. The Tramp is as centrally representative of humanity, as many-sided and as mysterious as Hamlet, and it seems unlikely that any dancer or actor can ever have excelled him in eloquence, variety or poignancy of motion... The finest pantomime, the deepest emotion, the richest and most poignant poetry are in Chaplin's work.