Despite Universal being well known for horror films, the only Jekyll and Hyde film to come out of the studio was Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
The Academy Awards state that to win an award a film has to play in Los Angles. Because of controversy surrounding director/star/writer/producer Charlie Chaplin during the Cold War Era, his 1952 film Limelight, was not released in L.A. until 1972. Because of this it is the only film to receive an academy award 20 years after it was completed. It received an award for it's musical score.
Animation legend Walter Lantz (Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, Chilly Willy) wanted to make a combination live action/animation feature film with the comedy team Abbott and Costello, since they were both working for Universal. Unfortunately this never came to be.
For the scene in Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush where the little Tramp seeming turns into a chicken before Big Jim McKay's (Mack Swain's) eyes, a stage hand was supposed to be in the chicken suit. However the stage hand just couldn't move the way Chaplin wanted. So Chaplin himself got into the chicken suit.
In another famous scene from Chaplin's The Gold Rush, Charlie Chaplin and Mack Swain seemingly ate a shoe for Thanksgiving dinner.Chaplin had a hard time figuring out how to make an edible shoe, until he saw kids coming out of a candy store with animal shaped licorice. Chaplin then came up with an idea, and asked someone working in the candy store if they could make a shoe out of licorice. They did. The scene was shot so many time that Mack Swain grew sick of licorice.
Because of their success in foreign countries during the silent era, Laurel and Hardy would film their early talkies multiple times in various langues to keep popular in countries that don't speak English. They would read the words spelled phonetically off of cue-cards.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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