A King in New York was Chaplin’s satire on American fame, television and political suspicion in the 1950s.
A King in New York was released in 1957, Chaplin’s first film made after he settled in Europe. He played King Igor Shahdov, a deposed king who fled to New York with little money and tried to earn a living. He became involved with television advertising, and he met a schoolboy, Rupert Macabee, played by Chaplin’s son Michael, whose parents were under investigation during the McCarthy period.
The film satirised both celebrity culture and the atmosphere of suspicion in the United States at the time. Shahdov was treated as a novelty by advertisers and as a suspect by committees, and Chaplin used comedy to show how quickly a public figure could be praised and then condemned. The film was not released in the United States until 1973, long after its European release.
A King in New York is less often revived than Chaplin’s silent masterpieces, but it is important as his direct response to the events that had driven him from America. It showed that, even in exile, he was still willing to use film to comment on politics, and it closed the main part of his career as a director with a clear, personal statement.