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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Chaplin, and maybe best film ever Made., Jun 6 2004
"City Light's" is by far Chaplin's greatest film. Some may say "The Gold Rush", but myself, and I know a lot of others, will say this one. I think its maybe THE greatest movie ever made, just maybe. Chaplin was by far the greatest film maker of all time, and this is his most finest work. You have to see the movie for the end scene alone.Chaplin plays the part of his world famous Tramp character. He meets this flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) who happens to be blind. She mistakes him for a rich "gentleman". The little Tramp immediately falls in love with her, and he throughout the film, tries to help her see again, by getting money to pay for this operation. The little Tramp saves this rich guy from committing suicide, and the man becomes his friend.....when hes drunk. When the man is sober, he does not want to see the tramp. When hes not, he is kind, giving him money, letting him borrow the car, etc. The Tramp goes through a number of jobs, to get the money for the blind girl, including amongst a few, a prizefighting boxer. He gets into a lot of different bits of trouble, but he gets th money to pay for the operation. He ends up late rin prison. When he is free, he sees the girl, and she can now see, and his true identity is revealed. The end part, is the greatest scene in movie history. There is nothing possibly better than it, except it would be teamed with the "Cheek to Cheek" scene in the Fred and Ginger movie "Top Hat", of course. Those are the two most wonderful scenes ever filmed. The film was released in 1931. the "talkies" had been around a few years now, but Chaplin managed to stay silent. He composed the muisic for this film, and added a few sound effects. The film is though, really a silent, or as it says at the beginning of the movie: "A Comedy Romance in Pantomime". This is the perfect movie, and the cinematography is the best. But yes, this film even beats Chaplin's other masterpieces in my opinion, such as "The Kid" and "The Gold Rush", and the much underrated among Chaplin fans, although one of my personal favourites, "A Woman of Paris". "City Light's" is an essential movie to see. Although I enjoy Chaplin's talking pictures, they do not come close to his silents. As for people who prefer Keaton, well, he was brilliant too, but Chaplin was so much more. This DVD Edition, is presented on 2-Discs. This DVD, along with the others in the Chaplin Collection box set, is by far one of the best ever produced. This comes with an endless amount of extras, including featurettes, a brief 10 minute look at a scene from "The Champion". The fight scene, that is. The DVD has a screen test with Georgia Hale, its full of great little things. Extras are what make a DVD great. Other than that, the restored print looks absolutely amazing. This is a must, must have for a DVD collection.
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