10. City Lights (1931)

Code-name: 1st rom-com

Writer/Director/Composer: Charlie Chaplin

Cast:

The Tramp- Charlie Chaplin
A Blind Girl- Virginia Cherrill
An Eccentric Millionaire- Harry Myers
Write-up:
Humble Beginnings
"City Lights" was my second full-length Chaplin film after "Gold Rush." Most of the films I watched on YouTube were selected at random, but these two, I knew I had to see after "Chaplin" briefly touched on their making.

The biopic highlighted one striking fact: this was the first silent film Charlie released after "talkies" arrived in Hollywood. For a number of years, he maintained his delusion "talkies" would never catch on, that they were nothing more than a passing fad.
According to the dialogue, he kept it silent, not just for the sake of non-English speaking audiences, but for his iconic character, The Tramp.
"The Tramp can't talk. The moment he talks, he's dead!" and he proceeded to use the Russian dancer Nijinsky to further his example. Supposing he stopped in the middle of his performance and spoke to the audience, all the magic would be lost.

One interesting part of the making that also made it into the biopic: Charlie was at a loss about how to convince the blind flower girl The Tramp was rich without actual speech. The answer finally came to him when he heard the closing of a car door.
Fun fact: During their "Celebrating 100 years of movies" special, AFI ranked "City Lights" at #11 on their list.
During another special, they named it #1 on their list of top 10 romantic comedies.
Considering everything this film has, they have a valid point. It could even be considered the very first romantic comedy of all time.
Orson Welles once said it was his favorite movie of all time and Woody Allen said it was Chaplin's best work.
It's just a pity that it didn't get any Oscar nominations. It certainly would have earned them.

Plots and Characters

The Tramp is a universal character across Charlie's film repertoire. He's a vagrant and a hopeless romantic willing to do anything for his token love interest.

In the opening scene, we get the debut of Charlie's voice on screen (distorted to poke fun at the town officials speaking at the podium) and his unique brand of hilarity-a combination of slapstick and pantomime. The greatest highlight: he's stuck on the statue, trying to escape, but still pauses to remove his hat for the National Anthem.

Plot point #1 arrives when he meets his love interest. In this case, it's a blind flower girl. The music playing in the background during this scene in the only selection not composed by him (that credit belongs to Jose Padilla).
For any one else, this would have been a difficult scene to sell without actual dialogue. Watch his expression when he realizes that she's blind. The sympathy across his face is so apparent, it grabs you as if the Earth moved. It's pretty powerful and obviously, he falls in love and holds the flower she gave him like he's holding her heart.

As night falls, plot point #2 finds him. A drunken millionaire on brink of a divorce tries, unsuccessfully, to commit suicide. The Tramp talks him out of it, but not before they stumble in and out of the water he tried to drown himself in multiple times.
The two of them become fast friends, go out on the town after a few drinks and the millionaire even lets him keep his Rolls-Royce.

Here's the rub that causes confusion throughout the picture:
the millionaire only recognizes The Tramp when he's drunk.
So one can imagine all the shenanigans that transpire as a result of this. The drunken scenes are comedic while the sober scenes range from frustrating to dramatic.

When the girl falls ill and her grandmother falls behind on their rent, The Tramp does everything he can to remedy the situation.
To his credit, while trying to making sense of his situation with the millionaire, he tries to get money honestly by getting part-time work. Unfortunately, he shows up late one day and is inadvertently fired.

My personal favorite scene is the boxing sequence. He gets involved in this after someone offers him $50 to stage a fight. This plan goes array when the man he's meant to fight flees as there's a warrant out for him, and he winds up fighting for real.

So many amazing compositions span across the film, almost characters themselves, some we're lucky enough to hear multiple times. The music playing in the locker room prior to the boxing match is my favorite.
As for the match itself, it's the most fun I have watching this movie. The only thing to come remotely close is the opening scene. Just the way it's choreographed and written, I would recommend going on YouTube to see. As if I couldn't recommend this film any higher.

He eventually does get the money he needs for the girl from the millionaire, but again, it's easier said than done and it isn't without its repercussions.

I won't go into detail about the ending because it's one of those special "you have to see it to really appreciate it" moments.
What I will say: it wraps things up really nicely and it was so unexpectedly sweet that I got choked up. Again, it's the magic of Charlie Chaplin at work. Pay close enough attention to the way he carries himself on screen and his facial expressions. The sincerity he brings to this role in this film in particular-- there's nothing else like it.
Final Word

In an interview he did with Charlie Rose in 2003, Robert Downey Jr. talked about how Chaplin accomplished what he did with only his heart and his mind and the body danced around on its own. There was more to this part of the conversation that I can't remember (and can't find on the Internet anymore due to copyright infringement), so I'll paraphrase:

Take away all the special effects, dialogue, Technicolor and you're left with raw human emotion. On those ground alone, I don't think anyone can or has yet to do it better than Charlie Chaplin and "City Lights" shows him at his absolute best.

It might seem like this is just another excuse for some RDJ namedropping on my part, but in this case, it really is worth bringing up. Not just because he almost won an Oscar for playing Chaplin and I can't think of any actor who knows Chaplin better... I honestly would not have discovered this amazing film, this movie star, or garnered so much respect for him so quickly if not for him.

Coming Soon


On my countdown so far, I've included the following movies after only seeing them once:
*I was able to catch these a second time prior to watching the actual review

• Little Miss Sunshine*
• Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
• Rebel without a Cause*
• The Hurt Locker
• Singin' in the Rain
• The Artist
• The Great Dictator*

Sure, you could say I'm easily impressed with some of them.
Some had hype behind them, but others were ground-breaking moments I had to address.

My next two films were Oscar contenders movie fans have since said were robbed of the top prize of Best Picture.
They also happen to fall under this category, something I hope to remedy before I do my official write-up. (If all else fails, I can buy them at Target at $5 apiece.
Was I easily impressed with them as well? ...one moreso than the other, I will admit, and that comes in two weeks.

My film for next week, which I really was impressed with, was one of several great 1994 films that lost out to "Forrest Gump."
And to me, it felt like one of the best written films I'd ever seen.

56. The Great Dictator (1940)

Code-name: Herr Garbage
(More explanation will come later, I promise :-P )

Type: Historical parody, dramedy, black & white

Writer/Director: Charlie Chaplin

Cast:
A Jewish Barber/Hynkle- Dictator of Tomania: Charlie Chaplin
Hannah- Paulette Goddard
Commander Schultz- Reginald Gardiner
Garbitsch- Henry Daniell
Napaloni- Dictator of Bacteria

Notable Oscar Nominations:
Best Picture
Best Lead Actor (Charlie Chaplin)
Best Writing (Charlie Chaplin)
Best Supporting Actor (Jack Oakie)
Best Original Score (Meredith Wilson)

Write-up:

Back Story (His & Mine)

Supposedly, Mr. Chaplin got the idea for this movie when a friend of his remarked about Hitler's physical similarity to him (namely the moustache he wore when he assumed the role of "The Little Tramp".) Ironically, they were born the same year, about 4 days apart.

It should also be noted that had he been aware of the extent of Hitler's terror in Europe, Chaplin never would have made this movie... which he clearly spends making fun of him.

As for me, with all of Chaplin's work, I credit Robert Downey Jr.'s performance in the Richard Attenbourgh-directed biopic with piquing my interest in the silent film legend.
However, I resolved not to see this particular film... that resolve lasted roughly 10 months.
And I thought it was maybe one of the best films Chaplin ever did.

Considering how he made a name for himself without saying a single word on camera, I wasn't sure how I'd adjust to him in a speaking role. That wasn't a problem by any means. My main concern was the controversial subject matter. I'm scratching my brain right now to recall my reaction when we got to this part in the biopic.. I'm pretty sure I thought he was nuts for doing it.

In their version, Kevin Kline (who played Douglas Fairbanks) made the comment that got Chaplin interested in doing this idea. It showed one or two scenes of him making the movie. One of which has his half-brother Cyd saying "nobody wants to see a movie about Adolph f---ing Hitler!" and he responds, "I do!"
The following scene had J. Edgar Hoover impressing his comments on the big speech in the finale: "He's not talking about Germany, you know! He's talking about America!"

Yet another attribution to my silly instance on taking movies seriously:
I DESPISE J. Edgar Hoover simply on the basis of for what he did to Chaplin in the latter portion of career, had him deemed a Communist and barred from America.

***

Ultimately, I believe if one is willing to keep an open mind, this movie really is quite hilarious.

Attempts at a Synopsis

First things first, not a lot of this movie makes a lot of sense. Most likely, it wasn't meant to.
Chaplin's main intent was to make Hitler look like the idiot he thought he was... while telling a good story.
Needless to say, he tells a better story when he's not vocally telling it :-P

The movie begins amidst World War I. The Jewish Barber is fighting on the German side. His clumsiness results in all kinds of shenanigans happens (as is often the case with The Tramp character anyway).
At one point, he helps one of his fellow army men, who'd been injured, into a bi-plane, which he flies to help them make their escape. The plane takes a couple of spins and spends quite a bit of time upside down. Hilariously, it takes a few extra moments for him to figure that out (the camera angle shows him right side up but his watch appears to be levitating).
By the time they return to Earth, the war is over... and the British have won.

Meanwhile, a new dictator has come to power of the fictional country of Tomania known as Hynkle. He makes a series of speeches to the people where he is praised. In his estate, he spends half his time goofing around and the other half plotting his next move to take over the world. Regarding the latter, he plans on invading another country and whether or not he'll be able to go ahead with it depends on his relationship with another dictator called Napaloni.

After spending some time at the hospital recovering from physical and mental fatigue from the war, the barber goes about his business as usual in his ghetto. This comes around the time the storm troopers are invading, painting the windows with swastikas and making life miserable for everyone. But thanks to Commander Schultz, the man he saved in the war, the soldiers stop putting pressure on the ghetto.
He also develops a friendship with a scrappy young lady named Hannah (Paulette Goddard, Chaplin wife at the time, with whom he'd co-starred in several of his projects). 

The fact these two characters look identical doesn't come into play until the last five minutes... and it's played off as a case of mistaken identity.

Highlights

Caution: Possibility of Spoilers Straight Ahead

Most of my favorite bits and pieces of these movies are quotes and random sequences.

In the grand scheme of things, there's an interesting contrast in how Hynkle is presented at his estate and when he's making speeches.
When he's giving speeches, he speaks in butchered German with an English translator (often coming back with a single sentence after he'd said several).
But when he's at his home, away from the public eye, he speaks perfect English.

Aside from Napaloni (I believe to a contraction of Napoleon and Mussolini), the majority of Hynkle's interaction is with his second in commander, Garbitsch. And whenever someone referred to him, I heard it as "Herr Garbage!"
His butchered German in itself is hilarious, especially when random English words make their presence... I picked out "peanut," "cheesy ravioli," "cheese and crackers" and "macaroni"... among other things.
Sometimes words from the German like "sauerkraut' and "blitzkrieg" would appear to make it seem like he isn't too far off the mark.
Clearly, Chaplin spent a lot of time watching documentaries and films like "Triumph of the Will" to get Hitler's mannerisms down just right.

Along with restricting the ghettos, his biggest dream is a world of blue-eyed blondes... saying that because brunettes are behind all the demonstrations against him, they'll be prosecuted next after the Jews.

As for the randomness part of the hilarity:

In one scene he's prancing around the room with an inflated globe. Chaplin's remarkably light on his feet, turning this into somewhat of a ballet solo. The music is so tender in the background, principally performed with violins. It also reminds me of something James Lipton said while interviewing RDJ "inside the actor's studio"...

• W.C. Fields apparently called Chaplin "the greatest ballet dancer that ever lived"... James Lipton then disregards it: "Fields was wildly jealous of Chaplin and always referred to him as 'that f---ing dancer'."

This scene takes place after one of Hynkle's men was buttering him up, saying how he could take over the world. To which Hynkle tells him to stop: "you're making me afraid of myself:.

Don't know why I found this particular scene so funny, but again, I chalk it up to my love of the random little things in life.

Hynkle looks for a listening device in a fruit bowl, suddenly paranoid (most likely because his attempts at procuring the country of Ostralich aren't going well), and takes out a banana. He peels it, angrily remarking one unintelligible syllable with each movement, and when he's finished, he breaks it in half and tosses it aside.

Did that have any point? Most likely not. But when I watched this movie on YouTube (where several of Chaplin's works are available), I had to watch it a couple times just to wrap my head around the insanity of it :-P

As for the barber, his highlights for me are few and far between. While Hynkle has a lot of funny scenes, the barber's most impressive moments favor quality over quantity.

There's one scene where he's on the job, cutting someone's hair, to the rhythm of "Hungarian Dance No. 5," which is playing on the radio.

While fighting off storm stoppers, Hannah accidentally conks him on the head with her frying pan (she'd done the same to the storm troopers earlier) and he dances up and down the street in delirium.
Generally speaking, the barber character is very similar to The LIttle Tramp. The differences are we see him in more than one costume, he has an actual occupation (opposed to just being a vagrant), and he talks.

But not to be missed by anyone is the big speech at the end of the movie.
I recommend you look it up on YouTube or read the transcript.
Chaplin even included it in his autobiography.

This comes to pass after the mistaken identity occurs.

Schultz and the barber are arrested, leaving the ghetto helpless at the hands of the storm troopers. They soon make their escape.
Hannah and members of her family do so as well.

Hynkle is on vacation fishing when the people looking for the barber arrest him.
Then the barber, dressed in uniforms he stole from the prison camp he was in, is whisked away to the podium to make a speech.

Just before he starts, Schultz says to him "you must speak, it's our only hope"...
something I cannot help but wonder if he's tapping on the fourth wall here.

Final Notes

As far as Chaplin's films go, I put this near the top, but I prefer his silent film work much more. Not just because they're more magical to watch, but also because the pacing is a lot better.
This movie runs for a little more than two hours and there are points where it lost my attention... if only for a couple minutes.

For the most part, he handles the sensitivity of the subject matter well, but I leave it up to the individual to determine whether or not they find it offensive.

And for the record, there will be another Chaplin film on my countdown, but not for quite some time. ;)

 

Coming Next Week:

 

"A bout of Nostalgia brought to you by...

 Steven Spielberg"