UR | 2h 17min | Drama, Comedy | 1952
In “City Lights” (1931), Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp dotes on a blind flower girl. Circumstances separate them just as he secures money for an operation that restores her sight. Finally, they’re happily reunited as she recognizes her benefactor who, until then, was “invisible” to her.
Two decades later, Chaplin improvises on this theme in his classic “Limelight” (1952). Here, an over-the-hill stage-comic Calvero (Chaplin), “opens the eyes” of a suicidal stage-dancer, Terry (a radiant Claire Bloom), and she rediscovers her rhythm on stage and in life.
“Limelight” was a serious and autobiographical film for Chaplin. His character, Calvero, is an ex–music hall star (described in this image as a “Tramp Comedian”) forced to deal with his loss of popularity. (United Artists)
Chaplin rescues his heroine from a different sort of blindness—self-deceit and a blindness of soul. When he realizes that it’s fatalism (not rheumatic fever) that paralyzes her, he inspires her to walk and then dance again….