Harold Lloyd. Buster Keaton. Charlie Chaplin. Three of the greatest silent film era comedians of all time. Charlie Chaplin with his bowler hat, little black moustache, and penguin like waddle is the most recognizable and famous of the three, yet CrazyFilmGuy had never seen a Charlie Chaplin film until I watched Chaplin's MODERN TIMES recently. Harold Lloyd was my first encounter with solo silent film comedians (not counting the duo of Laurel and Hardy). A friend of mine would introduce me to Buster Keaton films during college. But Charlie Chaplin, as iconic as he was, never piqued my interest. Lloyd was the All-American guy with glasses hanging from a clock tower. Keaton had the rubbery face and sad eyes and impeccable comic timing. Lloyd and Keaton always had outrageous stunts and gags in their films. Chaplin was funny but there was always a seriousness to his characters and stories that turned me off when I was younger. I just wanted non-stop slapstick.
As I grow older and learn more about Chaplin and his films, I realize he took the silent era comedian to a whole new level. Chaplin was as interested in pathos as he was humor. Lloyd was about madcap comedy. Keaton had incredible comic set pieces. Chaplin mixed humor with heart. He wanted to make you laugh but he wanted to make you cry as well. Chaplin started out in silent film shorts before writing, directing, and starring in full length hits like THE KID (1921), THE GOLD RUSH (1925), and THE CIRCUS (1928). Where many silent film comedians struggled with the advent of talking pictures like Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, Chaplin still made some classic films during the sound era like MODERN TIMES (1936) and THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940). CrazyFilmGuy has chosen one of Chaplin's great films that straddles the line between the end of the silent era and the beginning of the Golden Age of Talkies. Written. directed, and starring Charlie Chaplin as one of his most beloved characters the Little Tramp (Chaplin was five feet, four inches tall), let's explore Chaplin's classic CITY LIGHTS (1931) or as a title card tells us "a comedy romance in pantomime."
CITY LIGHTS opens with the unveiling of a new city monument. As the tarp is removed, the Mayor (Henry Bergman) and dignitaries discover the Little Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) sleeping in the arms of one of the new statues. The Tramp is forced to leave by the police and local officials. Later that afternoon, wandering the busy streets of Los Angeles, harassed by two newsboys (Johnny Aber and Ray Erlenborn), the Little Tramp comes across a beautiful Blind Girl (Virginia Cherrill) selling flowers on the street corner. The Tramp is mesmerized by her as she places a single flower in his lapel. The Blind Girl lives with her Grandmother (Florence Lee) who can barely pay their rent. That night, the Little Tramp encounters a suicidal drunk Eccentric Millionaire (Harry Myers) about to throw himself into the harbor, a large rock tied around his waist. The Tramp rescues the Millionaire. The Millionaire brings the Tramp back to his luxurious home. The Millionaire drinks some more, becomes depressed again, and tries to shoot himself before the Tramp saves him a second time. The two hit the town, dining and dancing at a fancy club with the Little Tramp involved in various comic escapades with high society.
When they return to the Millionaire's home the next morning, the Flower Girl strolls by with two bouquets. The Tramp borrows ten dollars from the Millionaire and buys all her flowers. When the Tramp tries to go back inside, the Millionaire's Butler (Allan Garcia) kicks the Tramp out. The Tramp borrows the Millionaire's Rolls Royce and drives the Blind Girl back home. The Blind Girl believes the Tramp is rich (of course, we know he's not). When the Tramp returns the Rolls Royce, the Millionaire has sobered up and doesn't remember his rescuer, his friend the Little Tramp at all. He kicks the Tramp back out onto the street. This will become a reoccurring event. The Millionaire becomes drunk again and welcomes the Little Tramp back into his life that afternoon. The Millionaire throws a party at his home. Everyone has a good time. But when the Millionaire wakes up the next morning sober and finds the Tramp in his bed, the Tramp is thrown out onto the street again. The Millionaire packs his bags and decides to sail to Europe.
The Little Tramp looks for the Blind Girl but she's not on her usual street corner. He wanders over to her apartment where he overhears that the Blind Girl has a fever. The Tramp takes a job as a street sweeper to make money so he can to help the Blind Girl. He visits her on his lunch break and brings groceries. While reading the newspaper, he comes across a story about a Vienna doctor who's found a cure for blindness. The Little Tramp decides he's going to pay for the Blind Girl's surgery. But when he returns to his street sweeping job after lunch, he's fired by his supervisor for his tardiness. As the Little Tramp walks away, he passes a boxing gym. The boxing promoter offers the Little Tramp fifty dollars to fight. So begins one of the classic comic boxing scenes to ever be put on celluloid, choreographed by Chaplin to perfection.
The Little Tramp and his original opponent Eddie agree to split the fifty dollars prize money. But when Eddie's tipped off the cops are on his trail, he takes off. The Tramp now has to fight a new, tougher opponent (Hank Mann). The Little Tramp holds his own briefly against the larger Prizefighter before he's knocked out. He wanders the city again where he runs into the Drunk Millionaire back from Europe. The Drunk Millionaire and the Tramp return to his mansion not aware two thieves are lurking. The Little Tramp tells him about the blind girl. The Drunk Millionaire gives him a thousand dollars to help the girl. The thieves knock out the millionaire and steal some of the money. The Butler calls the police. They question the Tramp who manages to flee the situation temporarily and race over to the Blind Girl's apartment to give her the money for the surgery. The police track him down and arrest the Little Tramp. He spends eight months in jail. When he's released, the Tramp is back on hard times, his clothes a little more thread bare. He runs into the Blind Girl who can now see and owns her own flower shop on the corner. She feels sorry for the Little Tramp but as she holds his hand to give him a flower, she realizes he's the stranger who helped her get her sight back. CITY LIGHTS ends with the Little Tramp's sublime smile as he gazes at his beloved Flower Girl who can now see.
Chaplin's Little Tramp character is unique in that the Tramp is lovable but also annoying. His child-like curiosity borders on irritating at times. Luckily, most of the Little Tramp's escapades involve antagonizing authority figures. In CITY LIGHTS, the Little Tramp gets under the skin of the mayor, the police, a butler, a maitre'd, rich people, his sanitation supervisor, a prize fighter, and a boxing referee. The Tramp gets the best of them at times but ultimately, he's knocked or pushed down, fired or kicked out, and even arrested and sent to jail for eight months. The Tramp represents the common man who wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The little guy sticking his finger in the eye of the Establishment. The Little Tramp's underdog mentality will continue in future comedy films from Jerry Lewis's THE BELLBOY (1960) to Ivan Reitman's GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) to Jay Roach's AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (1997).
Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS is a "silent film" but I say that with quotation marks. CITY LIGHTS has a musical score and sound effects that enhance the film. The 'Talkie" film had emerged with THE JAZZ SINGER starring Al Jolson in 1927. Chaplin is quoted as saying that sound film would last three years (he obviously misjudged). But hedging his bets, Chaplin composed the musical score and added sound effects for CITY LIGHTS including what sounds like city officials talking at the beginning of the film (it's actually Chaplin talking through a paper reed mouth instrument similar to adults talking in the CHARLIE BROWN animated specials). Chaplin was a silent film actor but he considered himself a pantomimist. Through pantomime, Chaplin's Little Tramp is able to convey all kinds of information through movement, his eyes, even the twitch of his moustache. Chaplin didn't need dialogue to tell his story in CITY LIGHTS even though the "Talkie" was on its way to becoming the new normal for movies.
After plenty of little comic gags and sequences, the comedy masterpiece in CITY LIGHTS is the boxing scene between the Little Tramp and the hulking Prize Fighter. It's as brilliant and funny today as when audiences first saw it in 1931. Chaplin took four days to rehearse the scene and six days to film it. He invited friends to be part of the extras in the audience and around the ringside. Everyone was so dazzled by the humorous choreography that more extras would show up each day to be a part of this incredible set piece. Besides Chaplin, credit should also go to Hank Mann, a Keystone Studio regular Chaplin had known as the Prize Fighter and Eddie Baker as the boxing referee who make the boxing match almost seem like a well-choreographed dance.
Besides Chaplin, kudos to his two co-stars who play the Blind Girl and the drunk Eccentric Millionaire. Both roles were almost played by different actors. Virginia Cherrill who plays the lovely Blind Girl was originally cast and wisely so. Cherrill convincingly conveys her character's lack of sight throughout CITY LIGHTS. It's easy to see why the Little Tramp falls so hard for this sweet angel. Behind the scenes, Chaplin and Cherrill were not getting along. One day Cherrill asked if she could leave early for a hair appointment. Chaplin fired her. Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH co-star Virginia Hale was hired. But Chaplin had already shot so much footage with Cherrill and recognized she was the right performer to play the Blind Girl. Chaplin asked Cherrill to come back to the project. Cherrill agreed but only if her salary was doubled. Chaplin agreed to her demand and the rest is history.
Actor Henry Clive was originally cast as the Eccentric Millionaire. When Clive decided he did not want to fall into the tank of cold water (reportedly he had a cold) for his attempted suicide scene, Chaplin fired Clive and awarded the Eccentric Millionaire role to Harry Myers. Myers is hilarious as the Jekyll and Hyde Millionaire. When he's drunk, the Millionaire and the Little Tramp are the best of friends, the Millionaire giving money to the Tramp and loaning him his Rolls Royce. When the Millionaire sobers up, he has no memory of the Tramp, kicking him out on the street and forgetting any promises he's made to his new friend. Fortunately for the Tramp, the Eccentric Millionaire is more drunk than sober in CITY LIGHTS.
Charlie Chaplin spent over two years making CITY LIGHTS but his perfectionism would be worth it. CITY LIGHTS would become his most successful movie, a mostly silent film (with music and some sound effects) in a new world of talking motion pictures. Watching CITY LIGHTS, it's like watching a moving time capsule of early 20th Century downtown Los Angeles with the masses of people and cars in the background during the early scenes between the Little Tramp and the Blind Girl on the street corner. CITY LIGHTS would be the last time Chaplin's character was referred to as the Tramp although Chaplin would play almost the same character in MODERN TIMES only this time, he was called a Factory Worker.
Of the three classic silent era comedians, Chaplin would have the most enduring career. Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton struggled with the emergence of talking pictures (Keaton would appear in Chaplin's 1952 LIMELIGHT, their only film together). Chaplin would make fewer films after the death of silent films but when he did make one like his first talkie THE GREAT DICTATOR, he was still at the top of his game. CITY LIGHTS is Chaplin thumbing his nose at the new technology of sound, showing that all one needs is a great story, the right casting, and a great director to entertain an audience without any words spoken.
