IMDb RATING
8.5/10
198K
YOUR RATING
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.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.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.
Charles Chaplin
- A Tramp
- (as Charlie Chaplin)
Al Ernest Garcia
- The Millionaire's Butler
- (as Allan Garcia)
Johnny Aber
- Newsboy
- (uncredited)
Jack Alexander
- Boxing Match Spectator
- (uncredited)
T.S. Alexander
- Doctor
- (uncredited)
Victor Alexander
- Superstitious Boxer
- (uncredited)
Albert Austin
- Street Sweeper
- (uncredited)
- …
Harry Ayers
- Cop
- (uncredited)
Eddie Baker
- Boxing Fight Referee
- (uncredited)
Henry Bergman
- Mayor
- (uncredited)
- …
Edward Biby
- Nightclub Patron
- (uncredited)
Buster Brodie
- Bald Party Guest
- (uncredited)
Jeanne Carpenter
- Diner in Restaurant
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Charles Chaplin
- Harry Carr(uncredited)
- Harry Crocker(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaChaplin invited Albert Einstein and his wife Elsa to join him at the Los Angeles premier on January 30, 1931. When the house lights came up, Chaplin was surprised to see Einstein's eyes tearing at the final scene. Chaplin said in his autobiography that he had not known Einstein to be so "sentimental."
- Goofs(at around 50 mins) When the man swallows part of the Tramp's soap and starts spraying bubbles, the tube used to spray the bubbles is clearly visible behind him.
- Quotes
The Tramp: You can see now?
A Blind Girl: Yes, I can see now.
- Alternate versionsAbout 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.
- ConnectionsEdited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Fatale beauté (1994)
Featured review
A classic film made with love and precision
Film has become a medium that is strongly influenced by nostalgia. Old films have become journeys to the past; ways to visit times and people that no longer are. Since film is an art that is based on the innovation of previous works, it has an element of nostalgia in its foundation. We look on the old to find what elements should make up the new. In City Lights, and other silent works of film, a passion emerges that is uniquely honest and sincere. While watching the film, I was impressed that Chaplin really did love the story, the sets, the crew; the whole project. While this may not have been the complete reality, it felt that way, and thus made the film more enjoyable. In silent films the audience is forced to be completely reliable on the visual elements of the film; there are no elaborate sound effects or dialogue to provoke an emotional response.
Since film is at its very core a visual medium, I find silent films to be the basic form of the medium. I don't use the word basic here in a demeaning sense, but I compare the beauty of silent films to the beauty of early European art, before the concept of perspective was developed in the Renaissance. Many books and tomes featured people as tall as the castles they stood in; these works of art were not technologically advanced, but they were, and are, beautiful. The same example is found when comparing early darreographs of wild animals to contemporary photographs found in National Geographic. There is a warmth found in City Lights, and other Chaplin films (The Kid, Modern Times) that would be lost in the sea of cinematic technology that floods films today. Maybe it's just that with simplicity comes honesty, and honesty is perhaps the most powerful emotion that can cross through the screen and be felt by the viewer.
Since film is at its very core a visual medium, I find silent films to be the basic form of the medium. I don't use the word basic here in a demeaning sense, but I compare the beauty of silent films to the beauty of early European art, before the concept of perspective was developed in the Renaissance. Many books and tomes featured people as tall as the castles they stood in; these works of art were not technologically advanced, but they were, and are, beautiful. The same example is found when comparing early darreographs of wild animals to contemporary photographs found in National Geographic. There is a warmth found in City Lights, and other Chaplin films (The Kid, Modern Times) that would be lost in the sea of cinematic technology that floods films today. Maybe it's just that with simplicity comes honesty, and honesty is perhaps the most powerful emotion that can cross through the screen and be felt by the viewer.
helpful•457
- BYUmogul
- Feb 5, 2001
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- City Lights: A Comedy Romance in Pantomime
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $1,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $19,181
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $9,102
- Jul 8, 2007
- Gross worldwide
- $50,419
- Runtime1 hour 27 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
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