A fading comedian and a suicidally despondent ballet dancer must look to each other to find meaning and hope in their lives.
2h 17min | Drama, Music, Romance | 16 October 1952
Director: Charles Chaplin
Stars: Charles Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Nigel Bruce, Buster Keaton, Sydney Chaplin, Norman Lloyd.
Edna Purviance
...
Mrs. Parker (uncredited)
Charles Chaplin
...
choreographer
Andre Eglevsky
...
choreographer
Melissa Hayden
...
choreographer
Carmelita Maracci
...
Corps de Ballet
Where's Edna? Per TCM.com: "Edna Purviance -- is said to appear briefly as an audience member in the ballet sequence." But on a facebook page on Edna, someone
posted "Edna Purviance NEVER appeared in Limelight or in MV."
CC sings and plays violin as part of his comedy act, and CB dances (dubbed) ballet, hence the Music tag.
Previously (2012-04-05) rated 8, this does not move me today. My memory of the film: it was sad, and not something I wanted to see again. That will continue to be my memory. (I looked up when I rated The Great Dictator ('40) and Monsieur Verdoux ('47), both 8's, and it was exactly 5 years earlier.)
Why the high IMDb rating (8.1 with 15,000+ votes)? I read some reviews, and still have no idea. But then, I have no idea why I gave it an 8 either.
My favorite moments: when NL describes the plot of the play they're about to rehearse, CB will play a dying girl surrounded by her love and some clowns (including CC, CC Jr, and CC's half brother Dryden (featurette and IMDb credits don't agree?)), and she will ask the clowns to perform. CC asks "while she's dying?" and gives CB a look that indicates that's not the best setting to get comedy across. The other: when Keaton & CC discover that BK has CC's smashed violin on his foot, and CC ... nope, not gonna spoil it. On the other hand, I found the edits to insert BK fumbling with his sheet music while CC was struggling with his wardrobe to be strange and ineffective.
I love CC's face (even though he does none of The Tramp's mugging), and he still has some of his physicality (b. 1889), but this feels like A Star is Born (any version) with the ambition of the young girl suppressed with psychological torment.
Told by a medical doctor that CB's paralysis is psychosomatic, CC interviews CB to uncover the source as though he were a psychologist; huh? And he sticks with his "diagnosis" later in the film. (On the other hand, I do agree with his slapping her when she claims paralysis again while standing in the wings right before she's supposed to dance; she was hysterical, and that's a cure. I just didn't like all the amateur Freudian instant diagnosis of the interview.)
Calvero's (CC) analysis of his own situation is much more self-pitying than incisive. When drunk he is physically wobbly and slurring his words while mentally functioning well, which strikes me as incongruent, especially for a music hall performer who did tumbling, etc.
The film is very wordy in parts, and very silent elsewhere. The music is his, and it's repetitive, but not something I want to hear over and over.
I wonder why CC wrote this; he reportedly spent 2 years in preparation. Was he feeling these insecurities about making audiences laugh again? I read that Monsieur Verdoux was not loved, but he played a serial murderer for profit who on the way to his execution pontificates about the State being a much more successful mass murderer, especially in war; yeah, just the synopsis sounds like it's not gonna be a big comedic hit (but I loved it and found it funny in a very dark way; it's my favorite Martha Raye performance).
Although he never lived in squalor as an adult, CC was sued multiple times, the FBI investigated him plenty, and after this film was released CC was banned from returning to the US, so he paid handsomely for his success in a different way than Calvero. I just don't see the point of this story, nor do I get much pleasure from its telling.
Celebrated Prod., distr. UA, dir. Chaplin; 6
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