City Lights (1931)

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director/Composer: Charles Chaplin
Cinematographer: Gordon Pollock, Roland Totheroh
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers, Al Ernest Garcia, Hank Mann

Chaplin plays a kind hearted tramp who enters the lives of two entirely disparate people: The first, a beautiful, blind street vendor who sells flowers and lives modestly, is kind hearted and dreams of romance. The second, an almost-perennially drunk millionaire, whom we first meet as he attempts to commit suicide, but is foiled by the little tramp, is a member of the idle rich. When drunk, he is your best friend; when sober, he looks at you like you are something that he has trodden in. With the millionaire, the tramp indulges in wild-partying and drunk-driving; whilst with the blind girl he is happy to sit and listen to music and ball wool. The performances are top notch, the slapstick well-timed and there are a number of extremely funny gags and sequences, but it does become a little sentimental at times.