Earlier this week, major news stations across the country broke the story of a supposed time traveler in a silent-era film depicting the opening of a Charlie Chaplin movie. The media have been positively buzzing because this time traveler is supposedly talking on a cell phone while walking down the street. The footage is a bit grainy, but if you watch the video closely, it does appear as though a woman who walks through the shot is talking on a cell phone or some other device. Some bloggers feel that there is a distinct possibility that the woman is simply using a hearing aid; no possibilities have been ruled out thus far.
Movie makers are not immune to making mistakes when filming. Some of the most memorable parts of movies are the slip ups where an extra isn’t wearing the right outfit or a stylist putting an actor in the wrong costume. One such incident that I find most memorable is from “Three Men and a Baby.” For years, people have been seeing the “ghost” of a young boy in the window in a memorable scene from the film.
The story goes that the apartment used for the film was once inhabited by a family whose son committed suicide in the apartment. Bloggers today are still debating whether the story is true and if there is in fact a ghost in the film. The studios have since released various statements that the “ghost” was just a cardboard cutout of Ted Danson that had been in another part of the film, and that the movie was filmed in a studio, not an actual apartment.
I find this the most memorable movie discrepancy due to the fact that so many people grabbed it up and started talking about it after it happened. Ghost hunters and now bloggers have watched and re-watched this movie trying to prove or disprove the theory that there is a ghost. I find it fascinating that people can grab onto one idea and completely exhaust it until a film studio has to step in and correct the situation.
Some say that it was the studio that started the rumor to drum up publicity for the sequel “Three Men and a Little Lady,” and still others argue that it is in fact a ghost. Overall, this incident and the Chaplin time traveler attest to the willingness and the eagerness of the people to believe in things that we cannot possibly comprehend. I have no doubt that in the coming weeks, millions more people will provide their own unique take on the Chaplin time traveler and many more mysterious happenings caught on film.
Works cited
Robert Quigley, “Charlie Chaplin Time Traveler” Most Likely Just Using a Hearing Aid, geekosystem.com
Castle of Spirits, Three Men and a Baby Ghost Boy, castleofspirits.com
