Film Spotlight: City Lights

City Lights
Released in 1931
Directed by Charles Chaplin
Starring Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers, Florence Lee

The silent film seems to be an all but forgotten entity for today's general movie audience. It's understandable since silent films appear hopelessly antiquated by today's terms. That's not to say that I don't recognize their historical importance, but honestly, I could count my personal favorites on one hand. I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be some fine connoisseur of the silent film era; I'm practically a card-carrying member of Generation X after all. I suppose that makes City Lights all the more special for being one of my all-time favorites, bar none.

In what I consider to be his magnum opus, Charlie Chaplin plays that irrepressible Tramp yet again as he finds himself caught up in all sorts of hijinks across town. At this point in his career, Chaplin had already worn the role of the Tramp for 16 years and in this film has his character set perfectly in every conceivable mannerism. Every step, every smile, every turn of the eyebrow radiates with a remarkable charm, and displays a supremely confident performer in his absolute prime. There's hardly a dull moment to be had with Chaplin at the helm of this feature, an unabashed silent film that came three years after the advent of talkies.

What truly makes City Lights special, however, is that despite all its comedic turns, the film is a romance at heart. The Tramp stumbles (quite literally) into a poor, blind girl who sells flowers on a busy city corner, and he immediately falls in love with her. But recognizing his social standing, the Tramp sees that love is out of reach for him. As luck would have it, he later runs into a late-night drunkard in the middle of a suicide attempt and saves the man who turns out to be a wealthy millionaire. His newfound friend, a severe alcoholic who only recognizes his savior when he's filled to the brim with booze, freely (and perhaps unknowingly) allows the Tramp use of his liquor, home, and money.

The Tramp certainly knows how to take advantage of a good thing while it lasts and uses his borrowed affluence to drive up in a Rolls-Royce to woo the girl of his affection. (Yes, the girl is blind and might not completely recognize a Rolls-Royce for what it is, but in the Depression era any carowner must have been a well-to-do citizen.) The film, of course, progresses into a series of mischievous sequences as the Tramp must struggle to keep up his facade even after the millionaire's generosity is long gone, culminating in a hilariously desperate scene in which he enters a local boxing ring's fight night to earn money, which has to be one of the funniest slapstick moments in cinematic history.

Though I said that City Lights is a romance at heart, that fact may not be lucently determined until the film's final scene. I would not spoil it, but suffice it to say that only a master of drama could have achieved a heartfelt scene like it that manages to elicit a very real response from its audience. In fact, it almost makes the rest of the movie seem mere calculations to build up to this very moment that opens the viewer's eyes, though that should not in truth take anything away from the skillful comedy of the first 86 minutes. Chaplin may have seemed an unlikely candidate to fulfill such dramatic expertise but he more than proves his worth here. City Lights is one of those true rarities of a film that is extraordinarily enjoyable throughout and caps off with a perfect ending, too.