Charlie Chaplin rides again  A quarter century after his death,
Britain is finally waking up to the genius of the master film-
maker it treated so badly. Geoffrey Macnab reports  "If Charlie
had died drunk, broken and miserable, [the British] would have
adored him, but they will never forgive him for dying wealthy
and happy." So said Oona Chaplin of her late husband. Even
today, a quarter of a century after his death in 1977, many
believe that Charlie Chaplin is still woefully under-appreciated
in the country where he was born. But the choice of Chaplin's
Modern Times as the closing event of the Cannes film festival is
destined to kickstart a re-evaluation of Chaplin's work all over
the world, enhancing his reputation everywhere.  However, there
has always been something grudging and ambivalent in the British
attitude towards Chaplin. Critics and journalists have often
portrayed him as a miser or as an old lecher. Last year,
declassified Foreign Office papers revealed that he had been
denied a knighthood until