A GLEAMING Rolls-Royce once owned by film star Charlie Chaplin has gone on show in Hampshire.

The 80-year-old car is being displayed at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, which has borrowed it from a similar attraction in France.

It is parked between a Rolls-Royce 1938 Phantom III and a 1928 Mercedes that was once owned by Hollywood legend Sir Peter Ustinov.

Other vehicle's in the museum's Cars of the Stars section include a 1964 Jaguar E-type once owned by ex-Beatle George Harrison and a 1935 Auburn driven by 1930s film star Marlene Dietrich.

Charlie Chaplin's car was built in 1924, but little is known about his association with the vintage vehicle.

After returning to the factory for a major overhaul in 1947-48 it was sold in 1961 and is now owned by the Mulhouse National Motorcar Museum, France, which has loaned it to Beaulieu for a year.

The 7,423cc car is set to prove a major attraction at the award-winning complex.

A museum spokesman said: "We have swapped it for a Rolls-Royce Phantom 1 and hope it will be the first of many exchanges."

The Rolls Royce is accompanied by a life-sized illustration of Chaplin playing his best-known character, a little tramp whose soulful eyes and jaunty gait endeared him to cinema audiences around the world.

The London-born comedian, who also produced and directed a host of silent movie masterpieces, died in 1977 aged 88.