A strange, unfinished afterlife.

The Freak traces the story of Charlie Chaplin’s final, unrealised film project. It was his most obscure and somewhat unsettling fable about spectacle, cruelty, and the politics of looking. His daughter was the star.

Smolik reconstructs the film Chaplin conceived in the late 1960s but never completed, drawing on scripts, correspondence, production notes, and historical context to explore why the project stalled and what it reveals about Chaplin’s late thinking.

At the centre is The Freak itself: a circus story that edges toward the grotesque, exposing how bodies deemed “other” are consumed for entertainment. It's deep insight into Chaplin’s final artistic and ethical concerns—exile, ageing, public punishment, and the limits of comedy in a changed world.

A very hard to find book that will be perfect for someone who cares for the history of film and art.