Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Harry Myers, Allan Garcia, Hank Mann. Originally released as a motion picture in 1931. Container states time as 86 minutes. Special features: Commentary (audio commentary features Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance); Chaplin today: "City lights" (27 min. documentary from 2003, directed by Serge Bromberg, examines the film as a high point of Chaplin's artistry and features observations by film producer and Aardman Animations cofounder Peter Lord); Chaplin Studios: creative freedom by design (visual effects expert Craig Barron takes a look at the set designs created by Charlie Chaplin and his team of artists and technicians); From the set of City lights: The tramp meets the flower girl (8 min. of footage captured by Chaplin's friend Ralph Barton, presented with audio commentary by Chaplin historian Hooman Mehran), Stick stuck in the grate (7 min. outtake shows a comic routine originally intended to be included in the film), Window-shopping rehearsal (2 min. outtake), The duke (costume test for an unfilmed sequence); Chaplin the boxer: The champion (10 min. excerpt from the short film The Champion, directed by Charlie Chaplin in 1915 for the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company), Boxing stars visit the studio (footage captured at the Chaplin Studios in 1918, Charlie Chaplin is seen with British bantamweight boxer Harry Mansell and assistant director Chuck Reisner, and with American lightweight boxer Benny Leonard); Trailers. Booklet features an essay by critic Gary Giddins and a 1966 interview with Chaplin.
Summary:
The most cherished film by Charlie Chaplin is also his ultimate Little Tramp chronicle. The writer-director-star achieved new levels of grace, in both physical comedy and dramatic poignancy, with this silent tale of a lovable vagrant falling for a young blind woman who sells flowers on the street and mistakes him for a millionaire. Though this Depression-era smash was made after the advent of sound, Chaplin remained steadfast in his love for the expressive beauty of the pre-talkie form.
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