City Lights (1931)

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City Lights (1931) – C. Chaplin

I was always for Keaton over Chaplin going way back but recently I’ve found that my 10-year-old son has responded more positively to the Little Tramp than the Great Stone Face.  So, we’ve watched The Gold Rush, Modern Times, The Circus, and now City Lights in succession. City Lights feels different. Instead of the film being built around gags and set-pieces (although there are some good ones here – such as in the boxing ring or eating pasta), there is a clearer plot and many scenes end with a poignant or wistful fade. The Tramp buys a flower from a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill), falls in love with her, and seeks to help her when she is on the verge of being evicted. He does get a job to earn money (sweeping up horse poo on the street) but it doesn’t last long.  Instead, most of his good fortune comes from an “eccentric millionaire” (Harry Myers) who remembers the Tramp only when he is drunk, when he is generous with his money and his car. However, when the millionaire is sober, he doesn’t remember poor Charlie at all!  As always, the Tramp is genteel and elegant, even when he is getting himself into heaps of trouble.  You want the blind girl to fall for him – and she does – but things become more uncertain when she signs up for an operation to restore her sight. What will she think when she actually “sees” the Tramp? Sentimental but not cloyingly so and I can see why many see this as Chaplin’s masterpiece – but in truth we laughed more at his other films.