City Lights (1931)

• Year: 1931
• Released: 07 Mar 1931
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 3 wins & 1 nomination
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021749/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Charlie_Chaplin_City_Lights
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/city-lights
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: None, English
• MPA Rating: G
• Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
• Runtime: 87 min
• Writer: Charles Chaplin, Harry Carr, Harry Crocker
• Director: Charles Chaplin
• Cast: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee
• Keywords: love, black and white, silent film, love of one’s life, suicide attempt,

	8.5/10
	99/100

City Lights Storyline

The Little Tramp meets and falls in love with a young blind girl who sells flowers on the street corner. He also befriends an eccentric millionaire who drinks too much and only recognizes him when he is drunk. The Little Tramp gives the girl a ride home in the millionaire’s car and she thinks he is rich. After a boisterous party at the millionaire’s house, the rich man wakes up and has no idea who the Little Tramp is or why he is there and so throws him out on his ear. When the blind girl and her grandmother fall behind in the rent and face eviction, he tries working and even enters a boxing competition to raise the money they need, but nothing works out. He gets the money from the millionaire but is accused of theft and ends up in jail, but not before getting her enough money to not only pay the rent but to also seek treatment for her blindness. When he’s released from jail, they meet again.

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City Lights Movie Reviews

I must be missing something,…

This movie is artistically beautiful–with nice cinematography, music, etc. Some of this can be attributed to this being a sound-era movie (hence better equipment) but I’ve gotta admit Chaplin had a great eye–the film is quite pretty and exquisitely made. There were some cute little skits and laughs spread throughout the film. During the boxing match, I barely laughed (though it was well done) and my wife almost fell on the floor laughing. However the film was able to provide a decent number of laughs—even though the story was also brimming with pathos. And wow…it will definitely bring tears to your eyes. I could say more, but I think it’s best you just see it for yourself. It’s not my favorite Chaplin film but it is amazingly good.

One final observation about this film as well as Modern Times: While these films are firmly stuck in the past (silent movies well into the sound era), it was a smart decision on Chaplin’s part to do this as well as to only make a few films he could really devote his energy into. Lloyd and especially Keaton strongly embraced the sound era and churned out quite a few films in the late 20s-early 30s–and some of them stunk when compared to their silent films. If I were watching any of these three comedians in a film from the sound era, it would definitely be Chaplin, as he didn’t try to change the basic formula. Unfortunately with Keaton in particular, as MGM paired him with the very very very talkative and pushy Jimmy Durante and completely tossed out what had been great about Keaton’s earlier films, his film quality plummeted.

In my honest opinion, this is Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece

As much as I loved The Kid, The Gold Rush, Modern Times and The Great Dictator, City Lights is the film I consider Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece. And there are several reasons why this is so for me.

I love how City Lights is filmed, once again the cinematography is stunning as are the costumes and sets. The music is also a delight(though my favourite soundtrack in a Chaplin movie is the one for Modern Times) with plenty of themes that stuck in my head, while the sound effects are wonderfully incorporated and the subtitles easy to understand. The comedy is brilliantly done, the scene in the boxing ring is not only one of my favourite scenes in a Chaplin movie(along with the final sequence and the dance of the bread rolls of The Gold Rush, the final scene of The Kid and the speech from The Great Dictator) but ever in a comedy, while there is a very touching love story between the Tramp and the little blind girl(played touchingly by Virginia Cherrill) he falls in love with. And I also found the close-up climax achingly poignant because of its beauty and ambiguity. Chaplin is superb, his pantomime skills and physical humour are extremely well judged and he is acts beautifully with Cherrill.

Overall, yet another Chaplin masterpiece, yet for me this is the best of them all. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Iconic

The lovable tramp (Charles Chaplin) loves the blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill). However through a series of misunderstandings, she thinks that he’s actually a wealthy gentleman. He never dissuade her of the misconception. One night, he encounters a drunken wealthy gentleman (Harry Myers) who is about to commit suicide. The tramp rescues the drunk, and befriends him. However every time the rich drunk sobers up, he forgets about his tramp friend. When the blind girl needs $22 for rent, the tramp struggles to come up with the money. He even goes into a boxing match. Nothing works until he runs into the rich drunk once again. The drunk gives him $1000, but a misunderstanding makes the tramp a fugitive suspected of stealing the money. The tramp escapes and gives the blind guy all the money to pay the rent as well as fix her eyes. Later he is caught by the police and sent to jail. When he finally leaves the jail, he is in an even worst shape. The blind girl had her eyes fixed, and in a touching moment, she recognizes the tramp by feeling his hand.

There are two great scenes in this movie. The first is the boxing match. It is a movie classic that needs to be seen by all movie lovers. It’s funny to see the wires attach to Chaplin and the glove. And the slapstick humor is absolutely hilarious. It is still gut busting funny even today. The other is the final scene where the blind girl recognizes the tramp. It is the conclusion of an emotionally rich story of sacrifice.