City Lights (1931)

With the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.

Director:

Charles Chaplin

Writer:

Charles Chaplin

Stars:

Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee

Top Rated Movies #43 | 3 wins.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Virginia Cherrill	...	A Blind Girl
Florence Lee	...	The Blind Girl's Grandmother
Harry Myers	...	An Eccentric Millionaire
Al Ernest Garcia	...	James - the Millionaire's Butler (as Allan Garcia)
Hank Mann	...	A Prizefighter
Charles Chaplin	...	A Tramp (as Charlie Chaplin)

Storyline

A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind girl. Her family is in financial trouble. The tramp's on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.

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Plot Keywords:

slapstick comedy | blind girl | millionaire | flower girl | boxing | 

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Taglines:

"Too Funny For Words!" (Print Ad- New York Sun, ((New York NY)) 16 April 1931)

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

G

Did You Know?

Trivia

To remind sound-oriented audiences of what to expect from the film, Chaplin billed the film as "a comedy romance in pantomime written and directed by Charles Chaplin."

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Goofs

(at around 1h 13 mins) When the Tramp tries to place a gun in the desk top table, the Millionaire is lying back on the sofa. The next shot, he is sitting upright.

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Quotes

The Tramp: Be careful how you're driving.
Eccentric Millionaire: Am I driving?

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Alternate Versions

About seven minutes of footage of Georgia Hale playing the flower girl exists and is included in the 2003 DVD release. The footage was shot during a brief period when the actress originally cast to play the character had been fired and replaced with Hale, but Charles Chaplin was forced to resume filming with the original actress due to the amount of film already shot.

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Connections

Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Fatale beauté (1994)

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Soundtracks

Orientale
(1931) (uncredited)
Music by Charles Chaplin

User Reviews

The Caring Clochard...

A good deal of silent black and white cinema is a chore to endure but the cream of that era still manages to rise to the top and compete, in its own unique and original way, with the cinema that followed over the decades up to and including today. A significant number of those films were written and performed by Charlie Chaplin and, if you watched nothing other than the films he made from that period, including this, your appreciation of his genius and talent would flower and grow, your vision of sincerity and generosity restore and your enchantment of the simpler and more genuine things in life embellish.

Details

Official Sites:

Instagram Official Site

Country:

USA

Language:

None English

Release Date:

7 March 1931 (USA)

Also Known As:

City Lights: A Comedy Romance in Pantomime

Filming Locations:

2959 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,102, 8 July 2007

Gross USA:

$19,181

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$46,008

Company Credits

Production Co:

Charles Chaplin Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Silent Mono (musical score)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1