The Fedora Chronicles - The Golden Age Of Hollywood: City Lights

City Lights
Release date 6th February 1931
Country : USA
Running time : 87 mins
Genre : Comedy
Starring Charlie Chaplin
Screenplay by Charlie Chaplin
Directed by Charlie Chaplin

A Tramp falls in love with a blind flower girl who believes he is a millionaire.

By 1931, the talking picture had arrived and Charles Chaplin anguished over what to do with his next film.Should the Little Fellow speak—and if so, how should he sound? The decision was made to release the picture as a silent to maintain his worldwide audience.

There is plenty of great comedy along the way (including some great material involving a drunken millionaire played by Harry Myers), but it is the film's ending that stands alone in the annals of cinema. The Little Fellow returns from prison to find the woman of his dreams operating a thriving florist shop. The girl is amused by the expression of adoration on his face as he stares at her through the shop window. "I've made a conquest," she says to her grandmother. Then, taking pity on him, she steps outside and hands him a flower and a coin. "You?" her title card reads. The vagabond forces a smile and nods his head. "You can see now?" he asks. "Yes, I can see now."

The poignancy of the final scene is described by John McCabe in his biography of Charlie Chaplin:

"She does not know what to say; he does not know what to say. She is stunned, happy, unbelieving, disappointed to the heart, moved to the heart. He looks at her timidly, smiling in tender pain. He is hopeful, yet he dare not hope, yet he dare not fail to hope. As he watches her eyes, the camera moves in to him for that rarity in Chaplin films, a closeup. The scene fades."

DVD available from Warner Home Video:

DVD	VHS	Book	Music	Music

Posters

DVD Movie Guide
DVD Verdict
DVD Beaver
(Image R1 v Warner R2)

18 16

City Lights poster from
All Posters