Barnes & Noble

Graceful, poignant, and sidesplittingly funny, City Lights is one of Charlie Chaplin's most wondrous feature-length films. This 1931 black-and-white silent gem features the writer-director Chaplin as the endearing Tramp, who falls in love with an angelic blind flower seller (Virginia Cherrill). By forming an on-again, off-again friendship with a drunken millionaire, the Tramp gets enough money to pay for an operation to restore her sight. City Lights matches the delightful sight gags that Chaplin was famous for with a first-rate melodramatic narrative. As always with Chaplin, there is surprising delicacy and precision in every scene. The film's score, composed by Chaplin himself, deftly accompanies the lithe lyricism of his choreographed pantomime. In one of the funniest scenes, Kurt Weill-like expressionistic music leads up to a boxing match from which the Tramp hopes to pick up some money. A dainty flute solo takes over once the hapless pugilists hilariously try to duke it out. Indeed, the movie floats like a butterfly toward its enormous payoff, one of the most powerful finales in all of cinema. Monica McIntyre

All Movie Guide

Charles Chaplin was deep into production of his silent City Lights when Hollywood was overwhelmed by the talkie revolution. After months of anguished contemplation, Chaplin decided to finish the film as it began--in silence, save for a musical score and an occasional sound effect. Once again cast as the Little Tramp, Chaplin makes the acquaintance of a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill), who through a series of coincidences has gotten the impression that the shabby tramp is a millionaire. A second storyline begins when the tramp rescues a genuine millionaire (Harry Myers) from committing suicide. When drunk, the millionaire expansively treats the tramp as a friend and equal; when sober, he doesn't even recognize him. The two plots come together when the tramp attempts to raise enough money for the blind girl to have an eye operation. Highlights include an extended boxing sequence pitting scrawny Chaplin against muscle-bound Hank Mann, and the poignant final scene in which the now-sighted flower girl sees her impoverished benefactor for the first time. Chaplin's decision to release the silent City Lights three years into the talkie era was partially vindicated when more than one critic singled out this "comedy in pantomime" as the best picture of 1931. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 663286201631
• Source: CREATIVE DESIGN ART