City Lights

City Lights (1931)
IMDB #61 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021749/]

The Gist:
This is one of Chaplin's most famous renditions of his "Tramp" character. One aspect of the story is the Tramp saving a drunken millionaire from death. The millionaire builds an instant camaraderie with the Tramp while intoxicated but instantly forgets him the moment he is sober (a comic premise repeated throughout the story). The other more important aspect to the story is the Tramp falling in love with an impoverished, blind flower girl. The Tramp courts her and nobly tries to bring her out of her downtrodden place in life. He attempts to accomplish this through his intermittent friendship with the millionaire and a few odd jobs when the millionaire is too sober to help. This premise picks up the pace when the girl is near being evicted. Chaplin goes through a series of misfortunes from the classic boxing scene to a mistaken accusation of theft, to jail time, and so on. What is odd is that the movie really isn't that funny. Sure it has its moments, the boxing scene is amazing, some of the stuff with the millionaire is great, but mostly its just a clean, sentimental narrative. Surprisingly, that's alright, it still becomes one of his best films. This is because the emotional presence of the Tramp has never been more powerful, his empathy and love for the girl is palpable. Charlie Chaplin has never been as funny as someone like Buster Keaton or Harpo Marx (in my eyes), but here he rivals Keaton in terms of an emotionally charged narrative. This quality gives credence to City Lights being hailed as one of the best silent films of all time (though it still feels a bit overrated, as most Chaplin films do to me).