Limelight (film)

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Limelight

Directed by	Charles Chaplin
Produced by	Charles Chaplin
Written by	Charles Chaplin
Starring	Charles Chaplin Claire Bloom Nigel Bruce Buster Keaton Sydney Earle Chaplin Norman Lloyd 'Snub' Pollard Oona O'Neill (extra) Geraldine Chaplin (cameo) Michael Chaplin (cameo)
Music by	Charles Chaplin
Release date(s)	October 16, 1952 (UK)
Running time	137 min
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

Limelight is a 1952 film written, directed by and starring Charles Chaplin, co-starring Claire Bloom, with a guest appearance by Buster Keaton. In dance scenes, Bloom is doubled by Melissa Hayden. The film score is composed by Chaplin and arranged by Ray Rasch.

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Reception
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie is set in London in 1914, on the eve of World War I. 1914 was the year Chaplin made his first movie. Calvero (Chaplin), once a famous stage clown but now a washed-up drunk, saves a young dancer, Thereza, alias Terry (Bloom), from suicide. Nursing her back to health, Calvero helps Terry regain her self-esteem and resume her dancing career. In doing so he regains his own self-confidence, but his attempts to make a comeback are less successful. Terry says she wants to marry Calvero despite their age difference, although she has befriended Neville, a young composer whom Calvero believes would be better suited to her. In order to give them a chance Calvero leaves home and becomes a street entertainer. Terry, now starring in her own show, eventually finds Calvero and persuades him to return to the stage for a benefit concert. Reunited with his old partner (Keaton), Calvero gives a triumphant comeback performance but suffers a heart attack and dies in the wings while just a few feet away Terry, the second act on the bill, is dancing on stage.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Production

Although the film is set in London it was entirely filmed in Hollywood, mostly at the Chaplin Studios. The street where Calvero lives was a redressed set at Paramount Studios, the music hall scenes were filmed at RKO, and some exterior scenes use back-projected footage of London. Most of the cast are either British or have convincing British accents, a notable exception being Chaplin himself, who had after all been living in the US for decades. Chaplin prominently featured members of his family in the film, including five of his children and his half-brother Wheeler Dryden. Chaplin chose stage actress Claire Bloom for the role of Terry, her first major role in films. Chaplin told his older sons he expected Limelight to be his last film. By all accounts he was very happy and energized during production, a fact often attributed to the joy of recreating his early career in the Music Hall. Most people who have studied the life of Chaplin would assume that his character in the film was based on his father Charles Chaplin Sr who had also lost his audience and had turned to alcohol which lead to his death in 1901. In both his 1964 autobiography, and his 1974 book My Life in Pictures, however, Chaplin insists that Calvero is based on the life of stage actor Frank Tierney. Then, in contrast, Limelight was made during a time where Chaplin himself was starting to lose his audience. In many ways, the movie remains highly autobiographical.

The pairing of Chaplin and Buster Keaton in the final musical number is historic for being the only time the two appeared on film together. Chaplin at first had not written the part for Keaton because he believed that the role was too small for a person like Buster Keaton. It was not until he learned that Keaton was going through hard times (before Limelight, Keaton had gone through a disastrous marriage, lost most of his fortune in the divorce in the process, and had appeared infrequently in films over the previous years) that Chaplin insisted that Keaton should be cast in the film. A rumor has persisted, fueled by the intense rivalry among fans of the two comics, that Keaton gave such a superior performance that Chaplin jealously cut his scenes so he would not be upstaged by his rival. A close associate of Chaplin claimed that Chaplin not only did not feel threatened by Keaton's performance, but also heavily edited his own footage of the duet while enhancing's Keaton's. According to Keaton's biographer Rudi Blesh, Chaplin eased his notoriously rigid directorial style to give Keaton free rein to invent his own comic business during this sequence. Keaton's widow Eleanor claimed that Buster was thrilled with his appearance in the film, and believed his business partner Raymond Rohouer started and fed the rumors. Chaplin's son Sydney, who also appeared in the film, said that even if some of Keaton's best scenes were cut (which he did not believe), it was because the storyline did not logically allow a supporting actor to suddenly appear and upstage the climactic comeback of Chaplin's character.

[edit] Reception

While touring Britain to promote the film Chaplin learnt that he had been refused a re-entry visa to the United States because of his alleged communist sympathies. To add insult to injury, Limelight was banned in the US. The film's banning was ironic, given that it is the most apolitical of Chaplin's films from this period. This was in part due to the lingering controversy over Chaplin's previous film Monsieur Verdoux (1947), which was a black comedy critical of capitalism. It was not until 1972 that the film was finally seen in America, and Chaplin, Larry Russell, and Ray Rasch were awarded an Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score. The Academy subsequently changed the rules to prevent films more than two years old receiving awards.

Limelight is one of Chaplin's less well-known films, but is strongly autobiographical and provides some important insights into his personality and career. The film is unashamedly preachy and sentimental. His own film career began in 1914, and in the story of an aging entertainer looking back over his glorious career Chaplin seems to be facing the fear that he himself may be all washed up. It is certainly significant that in the fading stage posters on Calvero's wall he is described as a "tramp comic", and indeed in some of his stage performances in the film he wears a ragged outfit that is clearly a variation on Chaplin's Little Tramp costume. The film was made during a time where Chaplin himself lost his audience, depicted by Calvero. Terry's story - orphaned at an early age, her sister forced into prostitution - also has clear similarities to that of Chaplin's mother. The story of an older man and a younger woman falling in love and inspiring each others' lives closely mirrored Chaplin's marriage to Oona O'Neill.