Movie Minx

Starring: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers
Directed by: Charles Chaplin

Plot: The Tramp falls for a blind flower girl and befriends an alcoholic millionaire, swallows a whistle and falls into a canal 50 times.

But is it any good?

1931 and Chaplin still wasn’t talking! And fair enough, as he was undeniably the comic genius of mime. Every trip, every slip is hilarious and doesn’t age. It’s like when you watch one of the first films ever made - the one of the man standing on the hose and the man holding it looks into it to see where the water went - it’s classic humour and it could be 1880 or 2080.

But I admit I wasn’t as taken by City Lights as I was The Great Dictator, which you must see if you haven’t already. I think seeing Chaplin movies in a theatre and hearing the audience’s reaction is best, as I did for TGD (and in Germany, of all places).

City Lights is full of little scenes that don’t really matter (although he apparently reshot the first flower scene 342 times!), and it’s often cheesy and predictable. It also seems overdone at times - like when he meets the millionaire and they fall into the canal a million times, it just stops being funny.

What redeems it tenfold are the classic Chaplin moments - the whistle scene had me almost on the floor, as did the boxing scene (brilliant choreography there) and the restaurant fiasco. Plus, considering there is no dialogue, it involves its audience on an emotional level, and only the most cynical, bitter, messed up journalist would fail to be touched by its final scene.

At 80 minutes, there’s not too much more to say about this movie. As a comedy, it’s far superior to any modern-day rom-com. It’s a silent movie which means any culture can enjoy it for what it is - slapstick with a heart. But as I said, The Great Dictator has the most brilliant mimicry I have ever seen and imo puts City Lights in the shade (pun intended).

I also recommend watching Chaplin, the biopic starring Robert Downey Jr. It’s not an amazing movie but helps for putting Chaplin’s work into context and revealing who he really was - behind the little moustache.

Imdb’s rating: 8.5/10
My rating: 7/10

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