NFR Project: 'City Lights' (1931)

 

NFR Project: ‘City Lights’

Dir: Charlie Chaplin

Scr: Charlie Chaplin

Pho: Roland Totheroh, Gordon Pollock

Ed: Charlie Chaplin, Willard Nico

Premiere: January 30, 1931

87 min.

It was Chaplin’s favorite film, and his most successful. What makes it so great?

To watch Chaplin’s silent films in chronological order is to see a genius gain mastery over his medium. From the scattershot slapstick of his early one- and two-reelers, to more mature features such as The Kid (1921) and The Gold Rush (1925), you can observe him gaining confidence and control over the work. Chaplin was getter better and stronger as a writer, as a director, and as a performer.

In 1931, sound had already taken over film. No one was making silents anymore. That is, except Chaplin. As a profoundly gifted pantomimist, he must have seen sound as a drawback to the fuller expression he could evoke on a purely visual level. He had carefully nurtured the persona of the Little Tramp, and felt that silence emphasized both his whimsicality and his pathos.

So he proceeded to make a silent film in the sound era, only compromising by creating a track of musical score and select sound effects. In fact, he mocks the spoken word in his opening, when dignitaries address a crowd – the buzz of a kazoo takes the place of their words on the soundtrack.

Charlie is the Little Tramp, in his next-to-last appearance as the character. He is revealed snoozing in the lap of a new civic statue, and ruins the grand unveiling of same. He escapes, and wanders the streets until he comes upon a blind flower girl, who he is immediately smitten with. Due to a clever bit of business, she mistakenly thinks he is well-off. Charlie does not abuse this idea.

Next we come to a night scene by a river – a despondent, drunken millionaire intends to drown himself. Charlie saves him, and the man swears eternal camaraderie. Charlie is happy to be befriended, and takes money offered by him, and uses his car, to impress the flower girl.

Unfortunately, when the millionaire is sober he has no recollection of Charlie, and has him thrown out. Meanwhile, the flower girl is ill; Charlie becomes a street sweeper to make money to support her and her grandmother. He then finds that they are about to be evicted. He volunteers to fight in the ring for $25 of a $50 purse and a guarantee of not being hurt, but his opponent leaves and he is paired up with a bigger man who says, “Winner take all!”

After a wonderfully choreographed comic fight, which he loses, he finds the drunken millionaire again and gets not only the money for rent, but $1,000, which will pay for an operation for the blind girl to see again. Charlie gets the money to her before he is arrested.

We fast-forward in time. The girl, who can now see, has her own flower shop. The Tramp, now more raggedy fand forlorn than ever, sees her and is transfixed. She takes pity on him and gives him money. However, when her hand touches his she realizes that this man was her benefactor. “You can see now?” he asks. “Yes, I can see now,” the girl says. The last shot is Chaplin’s face, registering a mix of excitement and apprehension.

Is there a future for the two? As this is a comic romance, undoubtedly. Chaplin was heavy on the sentiment, and some today might find his pathetic stance unconvincing. However, for an audience conditioned to sentimental dramas, his approach is dead on.

The film works because Chaplin rigorously irons out anything inessential. He keeps the line of the film very pure, and simple, and believable. It is said that he shot thousands and thousands of feet of film to get the takes that satisfied him. Given his popularity and his financial resources, it makes sense that it would take him nearly two years to craft this picture.

The picture's success meant that he would continue to work silently in his next film, Modern Times, an anachronism of silence in 1936. IT would be his last outing as the Little Tramp.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Dracula.