Review #579: 'City Lights' (1931)

By 1930, the silent era was coming to a rapid end. All doubters thinking that the 'talkie' craze would not last were having a wake-up call, and silent geniuses such as Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin, were potentially seeing their highly successful careers melting away. Chaplin began work on City Lights back in 1928, yet a troubled and stressful shoot caused production to run until 1931, when Hollywood had all but given itself over to the new talkie era. Refusing to let go of his most famous creation, The Tramp, Chaplin endured with his vision and kept City Lights silent, seeing no hope for his beloved character in sound pictures. Chaplin shot sporadically, seemingly around one central, and very simple, idea, and managed to create his greatest work, and undoubtedly one of the greatest films of all time.

After a chance encounter with a poor, blind and humble flower girl (Virginia Cherrill), The Tramp falls in love. Smitten, he sits down by the sea where a drunk and eccentric millionaire (Harry Myers) is trying to commit suicide. The Tramp opens the millionaire's eyes to life's simple wonders, so the millionaire treats him to life's luxuries, getting him extremely drunk in the process. After a memorable night, the millionaire sobers up and throws the Tramp out, where he spies the flower girl being visited by a doctor. Desperate to make money for her, he takes a job a street sweeper and gets involved in a winner-takes-all boxing match. Yet everywhere he goes, the drunk millionaire is there ready to whisk him off on another wild night.

The juxtaposition of the two central stories in City Nights is relatively strange in terms of relevance to the narrative. The film is clearly a romantic one, which makes it peculiar when it repeatedly cuts to the Tramp's escapades with the millionaire. But Chaplin seems to have incorporated this for two reasons, and two aspects that Chaplin is remembered and adored for - comedy and social commentary. This is Chaplin's most laugh-out-loud film, with the standout being the scene in which the Tramp and millionaire, both highly intoxicated, arrive at a formal party. The Tramp walks across the dance floor, slipping in unfamiliar shoes, trying desperately to stay on his feet. It's a five-second gag, but for me it incorporated all of Chaplin's breathtaking physical ability and subtle energy. Every moment seems like an endless maze of possibilities for Chaplin, squeezing instants of virtuoso out of simple things like lighting a cigar or eating spaghetti.

The Great Depression had recently struck the country, and Chaplin uses City Lights as a gloomy insight to the lives of the people hit by poverty. The blind flower girl seems to have nothing, yet is rich in soul and spirit that the Tramp is uncontrollably drawn to. The millionaire is emotionally vacated - miserable, angry and intolerable when sober, yet boisterous and care-free when drunk. By contrasting the poor girl with the empty millionaire in his lonely mansion, Chaplin is championing the human spirit over material wealth, a beautiful sentiment brought to life by some fine scenes of comedy, and a profound statement given the harsh, demoralising times. This no doubt was one of the key factors that led to the film's surprising commercial success, with a hungry and unemployed audience given a sense of hope through Chaplin's magic.

It is the most satisfying cinematic experience I've ever had - frequently hilarious, awe-inspiring and exquisitely moving. Although Chaplin would carry on making movies and make another masterpiece in  Modern Times (1936), this is the last great 'true' Chaplin, his farewell to the era that served him so well. The final scene is the work of a true craftsman, a moment of sheer beauty. Without ruining anything for those who haven't seen it, the close-up of the Tramp's face overcome with emotion is one of the finest displays of acting I've ever come across, and it is easy to see why this scene is now so widely celebrated. A simply magical experience.


Directed by: Charles Chaplin
Starring: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers, Florence Lee
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie