★ 7 / 10
Virginia Cherrill charmingly plays a young, blind, flower
CinemaSerf
Virginia Cherrill charmingly plays a young, blind, flower seller whom the tramp (Charlie Chaplin) falls for, hook line and sinker. Later that night, he is…
Virginia Cherrill charmingly plays a young, blind, flower seller whom the tramp (Charlie Chaplin) falls for, hook line and sinker. Later that night, he is crossing a bridge when he encounters a suicidal, dipso, millionaire (Harry Myers) whom he convinces to hang about for a while longer, and who by way of appreciation invites him to a party at his mansion, then to a series of evening entertainments. Thing is, when he wakes up with the mother of all hangovers next morning, though, he has never a clue who the tramp is and so gets his butler to send him packing. Meantime, still determined to help his new love, our kindly vagrant reads in a newspaper that there might be might be a cure for her blindness - but it will be expensive. His boozy buddy offers him $1,000 to help but when, as usual in the morning, he sobers up and denies all knowledge of the "gift". The police are called and things now take a series of unhappy turns that force the tramp to think of other ways of raising the cash. This challenge is especially spurned on when he discovers that she has left her usual selling spot and is now quite poorly and being taken care of by her grandmother (Florence Lee) - and they are facing eviction. It's probably his attempts at boxing that provide for most of the entertainment here, but there are plenty of other humorous exploits - especially between him and Myers and the scenes with Cherrill are touching and joyous, too. Chaplin keeps the pace moving along well with plenty of variety in a film that's a gem to watch.
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★ 9 / 10
Classic Chaplin
Rokol
City Lights is simply put one of the best movies out there. Every scene is classic and had a huge impact on the history of film-making. Chaplin's last 'silent'…
City Lights is simply put one of the best movies out there. Every scene is classic and had a huge impact on the history of film-making. Chaplin's last 'silent' film tells the story of a poor little man the tramp played by Chaplin who falls in love with a blind flower girl. He becomes friends with a wealthy man who constantly tries to commit suicide. The man only recognizes the tramp character when he is drunk. To impress the flower girl the tramp uses the man's wealth to make her fall in love with him. The only problem is that when the man is sober he doesn't recognize the tramp anymore. On top of this the flower girl has to pay 22 dollars of rent or she will be thrown out of her apartment. Now the tramp desperately seeks for jobs in the city to help his love. Out of this simple plot great comedy and heart breaking moments come forth.
The outcome of the movie is to almost all people known. It is regarded as one of the best endings ever taped on film. The movie itself still is masterpiece more than 70 years after it's release. I personally rate this as Chaplin's second best I have seen so far. My favorite remains The Gold Rush. Still this movie gets 5/5 stars from me.
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