I can trace the first prompting of desire to add another dimension to my films besides that of comedy. I was playing in a picture called The New Janitor, in a scene in which the manager of the office fires me. In pleading with him to take pity on me and let me retain my job. I started to pantomime appealingly that I had a large family of little children. Although I was enacting mock sentiment, Dorothy Davenport, an old actress, was on the sidelines watching the scene, and during rehearsal I looked up and to my surprise found her in tears. «I know it’s supposed to be funny» she said, «but you just make me weep». She confirmed something I already felt: I had the ability to evoke tears as well as laughter.

Charles Chaplin, My Autobiography, Bodley Head, 1964