Chaplin's Limelight

I have never liked Chaplin's early silent films because I found his "loveable tramp" character more grotesque than amusing. Guess that makes me part of a vanishing minority. However his major bittersweet 'talkie' of 1952, Limelight" I cannot help but thinking of as one of the great all-time cinema masterpieces and one if the first movies that made me start taking cinema seriously. The movie made an overnight star of young British actress Claire Bloom and slightly resurrected the careers of a few aging old time Hollywood legends (Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Nigel Bruce) including Chaplin himself as actor. The plot is basically Chaplin's reworking of the Star Is Born theme with many personal touches as Chaplin was himself then a truly aging star and Bloom an unknown discovery who, in the story, soon outshines her mentor. Plotwise tells the story of a fading music hall comedian's effort to help a despondent ballet dancer who attempted suicide after an accident, takes her in and helps her learn to walk and feel confident about life again. The highlight of the film is the classic duet with Chaplin's only real artistic film comedy rival, Buster Keaton. A laugh riot that suddenly turns veers into tragedy and tears, by itself one of the most numerable scenes in an all of American cinema history. The love story between the aging comedian and the young ballerina is particularly touching as she mistakes her gratitude for love but he is now an older man wise enough to know the difference.

He leaves her to make way for her more realistic romance with a younger man but then it is she, now a star, who rediscovers him on the street and returns the compliment by helping him return to the stage for one final performance, the dream of his own life. The way all this is handled must be seen to be appreciated. Words fail. The haunting music for the score was composed by Chaplin himself who also wrote the scenario and directed with his usual flair. The haunting theme song "Terry's Theme", (Bloom's name in the story was Terry) became a major hit song on its own outside of the picture. Because of the anticommunist hysteria of the time and the mistaken idea that Chaplin was a fellow traveler Limelight was soon heavily boycotted and not seen widely again until it was resurrected in 1972, the year thst Chaplin finally got his long delayed career Oscar.