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The cast included various members of his family, including his five oldest children and his half-brother, Wheeler Dryden. For The Immigrant (1917), a 20-minute short, Chaplin shot 40,000 feet of film – enough for a feature-length. Karno selected his new star to join the section of the company that toured North America's vaudeville circuit, a section which also included Stan Laurel. Monsieur Verdoux was a black comedy, the story of a French bank clerk, Verdoux (Chaplin), who loses his job and begins marrying and murdering wealthy widows to support his family. Among the film industry's tributes, director René Clair wrote, "He was a monument of the cinema, of all countries and all times .
The scandal attracted vast attention, [307] but Chaplin and his film were warmly received in Europe. Garris and Kirschner pitched it to Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment; Spielberg saw Disney as a competitor to Amblin in the family film market at the time and refused to co-produce a film with his "rival. On September 15, 2015, the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular was introduced at the Magic Kingdom as a part of Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.
The manager sensed potential in Chaplin, who was promptly given his first role as a newsboy in Harry Arthur Saintsbury's Jim, a Romance of Cockayne.
By the time the act finished touring in July 1907, the 18-year-old had become an accomplished comedic performer.
Disney re-released the film on Blu-ray and Digital HD on September 2, 2018, as part of the film's 25th anniversary.