City Lights

When I first started seriously trying to knock down the IMDB top 250, probably the films that gave me the most pause were the smattering of silent classics. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Fritz Lang and Harold Lloyd all sounded more like homework than fun. Surely these films from the twenties and early thirties would have dated hideously, of interest to a film historian but not poor old me.

I finally bit the bullet and sat down to watch Chaplin's The Kid. I was instantly transported to a world of pure entertainment, and was cured of my aversion to silents. Since then I have caught other candidates when I can, with the venerable Astor Theatre being my loyal companion in this quest.

The most recent addition to this marvellous cavalcade of whimsy was Chaplin's City Lights. Released in 1931, when the talkies had taken off and silent films were going the way of the dodo, City Lights remained a massive financial and critical success, cementing Chaplin's place as one of the masters of silent film. That it remains an early masterpiece of the romantic comedy genre is testament to his genius as writer, director and star.

It tells the story of his iconic Tramp character, who meets a blind flower seller, and is instantly and irredeemably smitten. Through a series of misfortunes, the girl believes the poor tramp to be a millionaire, a façade he tries to maintain in order to woo her successfully. The remainder of the piece follows his various adventures as he keeps the charade going, whilst befriending the real millionaire and trying to raise funds for a revolutionary operation to restore the girl's sight. The final scene where the girl, sight restored, meets the tramp for the first time and sees him for who he really is remains one of the most touching, honest and sweet scenes committed to film to this day.

I could go on and on about this marvellous movie. The virtuoso boxing sequences is one of the finest silent comedy sequences I have seen, fully the equal to the cannon sequence in Keaton's The General and Chaplin's own factory sequence in Modern Times. If you haven't seen any Chaplin yet, this is a terrific place to start, particularly because none of the set pieces have really entered the cultural consciousness in the way that parts of Modern Times have. This is a vital and alive film, and one of the cinema's enduring greats.