City-Lights-Review-Story-Chaplin

CITY LIGHTS

Running time : 1 hour 27 minutes 11 seconds approx.

Written and Directed by Charles Chaplin

Music Composed by Charles Chaplin

Cast: 

Blind Girl- Virginia Cherril

Her Grandmother- Florence Lee

Eccentric Millionaire-Harry Myers

His Butler-Allan Garcia

Prizefighter-Hank Mann

Tramp-Charlie Chaplin

The scene starts with unveiling of a monument in the heart of a city. The monument is called "Peace and Prosperity". As the monument is unveiled the Tramp is seen resting on the lap of a statue of a woman in peace. He woke up in the hue and cry. As he tries to come down from the statue, his pant got stuck in the sword of another statue. In the meanwhile when cops orders him to move away and he desperately attempts, the national anthem is played and everyone stands in attention. It is funny to see the tramp attempting to respect the anthem. After the anthem however the tramp gets out of the scene.

In the next scene we could see that the tramp is a funny character to the street boys who sell newspaper. After some light humour the main part of the story is introduced. The scene portraits the blind girl who is selling flowers. The traffic is stopped infront of the blind girl and at the same time the tramp crosses the street. For evading the eyes of a cop he enters into a cab which is stopped and gets down through the other door which opens to the footpath where the blind girl is selling flowers. The blind girl thinks that some rich man got down from the car to buy her flowers. The tramp realises that she is a blind girl and had found a place in the softest corner of his heart. He gives one single coin left in his pocket to the girl and as the girl took the balance, the owner of the car got into it and the girl asks him to wait. The tramp realises that the girl thought that it was a rich man who bought flower from her. The tramp doesn't want to break the thoughts of the girl and silently walks away without making a sound. We could feel the mindset of the tramp from this scene. He comes back and sits beside the girl and looks her silently. The girl walks with a cup to the nearby tap and washes out the cup and the water is splashed to the face of the tramp. Thus the scene comes to an end.

The next scene portraits the house of the blind girl. Her grandmother is preparing tea. The blind girl enters her home. She starts a music on her gramaphone and moves to the window. Down the street a boy calls his lover and together they move away. The blind girl feels the presence of love in her heart. The expressions on her face is evident of the impact of first love.

The night falls and on the side of a lake an eccentric millionaire who is drunk comes to commit suicide. He opens the big box which he carried and takes out a rope and ties one end around his neck. Suddenly the tramp also comes to the scene. He sits on a bench and takes the fragrance of the flower which is still blossoming his heart with love. The millionaire ties the other end of the rope to a big rock and seeing this the tramp moves between him and the reservoir. The millionaire drops the rock on the tramp's leg. The tramp stops him and takes hold of the rope and advices him to face life and be brave. He gives him hope that the birds will sing tomorrow. But the millionaire was about to end it all. He takes the rope back from the tramp and accidentally ties across the tramp's neck. He took the rock and threw it in the water and with it the tramp also fell into the water. Seeing this the millionaire takes off his overcoat. He asks the drowning tramp to wait. He sits on the bench and unties his shoe to jump into water. The tramp was struggling in the water. His head came up and seeing this the millionaire ran towards him and gave his hand to the drowning tramp. The tramp caught hold of his hand and in the attempt of pulling him from the water the drunk millionaire falls into the water. Then it was great seeing both the tramp and the millionaire trying to get out of water. As the millionaire tries to climb up the tramp climbs upon his body and both are again drowned. However they managed to get out of the water. Both shake their hands. Now the 'ill-balanced' millionaire bends down to take his overcoat and the tramp bends down to take his hat, the millionaire hit the tramp and he again falls into the water. The next is the ditto of the previous scene. However at last they got managed to be out of water. The millionaire offered him friendship and invited him to his home. The tramp took the flower he bought from the blind girl which he kept on the table and walked away with him.

After some funny scenes in the millionaire's home, they move together to a night party. Both were too much drunk and nice comedy is fit into each small parts in the scene at the hotel. Lighting the cigar, eating noodles, dancing with the waiter and other scenes are surely going to make you laugh. Early morning they drove back home. The millionaire's driving was so rash and when the tramp asked him to be careful, the millionaire asks: Am I driving? With this the tramp takes control of the cab and somehow he reaches themselves to the home. The millionaire allows the tramp to take his car as his own. When he saw the blind girl passing by he asks some money to the millionaire and with it he buys all the flowers from the blind girl. He then takes her to her house in the car. There he expresses his love. He kisses her hand. And when romance was in the air, a cat on the window caused to put down a flower pot on his head.

Now the millionaire comes to his sense after the night when the impact of alcohol is gone. He did not recognise the tramp. While the girl discusses with her grandmother about her man. When the grandma says that he could be a wealthy man, the girl says that he is more than that. That afternoon when the tramp was walking down the streets, the millionaire who again in the impact of alcohol recognises his friend. The millionaire hugs and kisses his friend and invites him for party. At the party the tramp accidentally swallows a whistle blowing pipe and his hiccup causes sound of whistle which results in spoiling the party. Again in the morning the millionaire throws the tramp out from the house. He searches for the blind girl in her usual place and as he did not find her there goes to her house and learns that she is ill. Determined to help the poor girl he tooks the job of cleaning the streets. 

The story reaches another turning point when the Grandmother receives a warning letter from the landlord to pay the arrears of rent or else they will have to move out. As the tramp gets knowledge about this when he takes a short visit to the girl's home during the recess time. He swears to pay it. He reads a news item saying free operation for poor blind and the girl is happy that she could see him if cured. As the tramp get back to his workplace he is fired for being late for the last time. A fightclub member sees this and invites him to perform a fight for getting cash. The tramp moves behind the referree and hits his opponent as soon as the referree moves. The boxing scene is full of hilarious comedy. He accidentally hits the referree also. More than ten minutes full of great comedy in the boxing club is in offer. 

After that the movie subtitles shows that he wandered the city hoping to get money for the girl. On a night he meets his millionaire friend again. He tooks him to his home. While in the house of the millionaire, two thieves got in. This time both the friends enter the house. The millionaire promises to take care of the girl. He gives him some money. One of the thives comes and hits the millionaire on the head and he fell unconscious. The tramp runs after the running robbers. Suddenly a cop stops him. Seeing his master lying unconscious and the tramp running away, James alerts the cop that the tramp has robbed the millionaire. The cop takes the money from the tramp's pocket which the millionaire gave him. As the millionaire got a heavy blow on his head he has come out to his normal sense. He did not recognise the tramp and it results in the tramp being suspected of the crime. As he realises that there is no other way to make them believe the truth he runs away with the most needed money. He however manages to get back to the blind girl and gives her the whole money. 

He is caught by the cops on the road and send to prison. After his term in jail he was released. The blind girl had got her eyesight by then. Her sale of flowers was also flourished. The tramp was wandering through the streets. He searched the blindgirl in her usual place and did not find her. We can see that his dress clothes were damaged a lot. The scene changes to the blind girl's small shop. A car stops by her side. She at once thinks of her wealthy man. The handsome guy who got down asked for some flowers. He gave the order and went away. She realised that it was not her lover. She was so desperate to see him and waiting for his arrival. At this time the tramp passes by her store and some newspaper boys made fun out of his ugliness. He picks up a rose from the road. And when he turns he sees his girl who has now got her eyes and for whom he went to jail. She did not recognise him. She picks a rose and a coin to give him and he tries to move away. But as she calls again he goes to her and takes the rose. She then gives the coin to him. But as he stands there without taking it she drags him by her side and takes his hand. As she gives the coin to his hand she sensed the touch of her lover. She at once recognised her lover. The tramp says: "You can see now" and the girl answers :  "Yes I can see now". The film thus comes to a good end.

The film goes through very light and pleasant comedies and with a great story. The ending statement made by the girl is so meaningful. We could sense the power of love in the words and the scene. A tramp risks his life for a poor blind girl in this movie. Even if he has nothing for himself he gives everything to the girl for  love. The girl in turn awaits for her lover. The movie has a place for soft feelings of the heart. Each part of the movie is pictured with some meaning. The movie cleverly blends drama and romance with some great comedy. A must-watch masterpiece from Charles Chaplin.