Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

CITY LIGHTS Sj Corporation by people interested to ascertain the date of the first presentation. No film as yet distributed by that company at that time had ever drawn so many requests for advance bookings from exhibitors in every part of the world. It is to the point, also, to recall that The Circus still holds the record takings at the Mark Strand Theatre in New York, receiving ^16,200 in one week, just four times as much as the film which had been showing the previous week. At the Dominion Theatre, London, City Lights took ^12,200 in its first week in February of this year. Some slight idea as to the extent of Chaplin's commercial value and of the importance accorded by producers to the making of City Lights may be gathered from these figures. And not only because of its promise of no speech has City Lights assumed world-wide notability. In the trade it has caused confusion and bad blood, for Chaplin's terms of renting have been the subject of heated argument, to which at the time of writing no satisfactory decision has been reached. Bitter to the last and jealous of his vast appeal, irritated possibly that his retention of subtitles suggests a triumph over monotonous dialogue, the trade watches Chaplin as if waiting for the chance to tear him down. By their refusal to accept his terms for the picture, certain circuits of cinemas may hope to boycott City Lights, for if they can succeed in beating down Chaplin it may affect the renting prices of pictures for some years to come. Even the popular Press shares this jealousy of Chaplin, and during the presentation of City Lights in London several cruel and singularly small