Review of City Lights (1931) by Brandon V — 06 Feb 2013

City Lights is a beautiful, perfectly executed film that is riotously funny in some spots and heart-wrenchingly touching in others. The story, with its schizophrenic millionaire acting as a parallel to the Tramp's mistaken identity, feels fresh and original, even as the film is 78 years old.

Chaplin's physical comedy is in top form in this film. The boxing match is by far the best scene and one of the funniest sequences ever in film, so much so that to try to describe it would not do it justice. The supporting players are also exquisite. Virginia Cherrill's blind girl remained sympathetic throughout the film, but her performance rang most poignant with the film's powerful ending, wherein the now-seeing blind girl solves her mystery. The ambiguity of her expression and, therefore, her feelings tells ten stories in one, and Cherrill's performance rings true and is as engaging and interesting as Chaplin's endearing Tramp. The end provides the perfect dramatic foil to the silly slapstick and beyond=clever visual gaffes leading up to it.

The pacing and consistency of this film were so good that it felt like a short 90 plus minutes, and the sparingly employed sound effects added the right amount of texture to the film. In short, City Lights was a brilliant piece of film making, and Chaplin's risk in releasing his already-filmed but silent product in the age of the talking picture was one of the most worthwhile risks taken in all of cinema. It doesn't follow the romantic comedy formula that has been repeatedly relied upon in later films nor is it the creator; mistaken identity may be a plot device that has been used before, but this story is truly an original spin on that concept that might have been imitated in succeeding films but has never been as effectively duplicated. As such, any fan of Chaplin, silent films, or film in general would do well to see City Lights. It's undeniably one of the greatest films ever made.