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Lights" comes up to the brilliant virtuosity of the roll dance in "The Gold Rush" or the sermon in "The Pilgrim." However, as a blend of comedy and pathos, "City Lights" is perfect.
The equivocal ending of the film, ironic and vibrant with the tragic sense of life, seldom fails to bring tears. The terrified smile of the tramp at the girl who has recovered her vision through him, and through that recovery is lost to him, is one of the most poignant scenes ever photographed.
After "City Lights," in many ways his greatest film, Chaplin possibly let his "intellect" run away with him at the expense of his creative gifts. At any rate, his three films made since, brilliant though they are in many respects, suffered, in progressive degree, from the absence of the older qualities in which he stood unique. Significantly, "City Lights" showed a profit of some $5,000,000, while "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947) was withdrawn from the American market at a loss.
Technically, "City Lights" is Chaplin's most polished production. As a rule he was more interested in the effect than the manner. The "City Lights" sets, photography, and lighting show considerably more finish than is usually the case in the Chaplin films, and approached the standard of the best work of the period. At this time panchromatic film and incandescent lighting, neither perfected yet, and just gaining general acceptance in pictures, caused a certain grayness and flatness. This sacrificed much of the "snap" of productions like "The Gold Rush." In recent years, pan stock has improved and a new type of strong arc light supplements the soft incandescents.
This lack of contrast in the images is a minor fault of "City Lights," however. To those of us who have suffered through the duped and scratched prints of Chaplin's early films, "City Lights" is a joy to behold.