Limelight [Criterion Collection] [2 Discs]

Overview

London, 1914. Calvero (Charles Chaplin), a once-great music hall comedian, weaves drunkenly home to his shabby flat. As he arrives home, he is suddenly sobered by a bad smell. It isn't his shoes, as he originally assumes, but the smell of gas, emanating from behind a locked door. Calvero smashes his way in, finding the unconscious Terry (Claire Bloom). Carrying the girl to his attic apartment, Calvero revives Terry, then asks why she is so determined to kill herself. The girl explains that she has always dreamed of becoming a great dancer, but her legs are paralyzed. Calvero vows to raise enough money to help the girl. He goes back on stage, where his old-fashioned act is greeted with a riot of silence. Now it is Terry's turn to encourage Calvero to go on living-and in so doing, she regains the use of her legs. Hired by the Empire theatre corps de ballet, Terry arranges for the management to hire Calvero as a supernumerary. Impresario Postant (Nigel Bruce), not recognizing the famous Calvero in clown makeup, fires him. Only after Terry pleads with Postant to give Calvero another chance does the producer relent, securing a comeback appearance for the ageing comedian and his old partner (Buster Keaton). Calvero's antics bring down the house, just like the old days, but the effort is too much for the old fellow, and he collapses backstage. As Calvero dies, he proudly watches his protegee Terry carry on the "show must go on tradition" by dancing for the crowd. Thanks to the political climate of the time, Limelight was denied a wide distribution; in fact, it didn't play Los Angeles until 1972, twenty years after its completion. At that time, Chaplin's theme music, which had gained popularity on the "hit parade," was honored with an Academy Award. While the film has moments of unmatched hilarity (especially during the fabled Chaplin-Keaton teaming towards the end), the elegiac tone of Limelight was best summed up by critic Andrew Sarris: "To imagine one's own death, one must imagine the death of the world, that world which has always dangled so helplessly from the tips of Chaplin's eloquent fingers."

Product Details

Release Date:	05/19/2015
UPC:	0715515146319
Original Release:	1952
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	2:17:00
Sales rank:	17,036

Special Features

Chaplin's "Limelight": Its Evolution and Intimacy, a new vdieo essay by Charlie Chaplin biographer David Robinson; New interviews with actors Claire Bloom and Norman Lloyd; Chaplin Today: "Limelight," a 2002 documentary on the film; Archival audio recording of Chaplin reading two short excerpts from his novella Footlights; Two short films by Chaplin: A Night in the Show (1915) and the uncompleted The Professor (1919); Outtake and two trailers; Plus: An essay by critic Peter von Bagh and excerpts from an on-set piece by journalist Henry Gris

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Claire Bloom	Thereza
Sydney Chaplin	Neville,Street Urchin,Street Urchin,Street Urchin,Calvero,Child in opening scene (uncredited),Composer
Nigel Bruce	Postant
Andre Eglevsky	Harlequin
Melissa Hayden	Columbine
Wheeler Dryden	Clown
Norman Lloyd	Manager
Buster Keaton	Piano Accompanist
Marjorie Bennett	Mrs. Alsop, Landlady
Snub Pollard	Street Musician,Street Musician
Loyal Underwood	Actor
Leonard Mudie	Actor
Barry Bernard	Actor
Mollie Glessing	Actor
Stapleton Kent	Actor
Maurice Marks	Stage Hand
Julian Ludwig	Street musician
Raymond Rasch	Composer
Larry Russell	Composer

Technical Credits

Charles Chaplin

Charles Chaplin

Screenwriter,Producer,Director

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Limelight
1. Opening Titles [2:09]
2. A Life Saved [8:31]
3. Avoiding Mrs. Alsop [5:02]
4. Phyllis and Henry [7:31]
5. Introductions [6:27]
6. "Spring Is Here" [5:45]
7. Kippers And Happiness [6:05]
8. Redfern [2:39]
9. "She Must Help Herself" [9:20]
10. Terry's Progress [4:22]
11. Calvero Plays The Middlesex [2:26]
12. A Good Omen [4:45]
13. "Six Months Later" [2:22]
14. Terry's Big Audition [3:35]
15. "I Just Love You" [4:50]
16. Columbine [5:07]
17. Stage Fright [5:47]
18. Opening-Night Party [7:08]
19. Truth And Dignity [5:30]
20. "The Tramp In Me" [6:10]
21. Benefit For Calvero [6:36]
22. Calvero's Encore [8:21]
23. "Did You Hear Them?" [9:02]
Disc #2 -- Limelight
1. Chapter 1 [20:36]
2. Chapter 2 [:32]
1. Chapter 1 [15:25]
2. Chapter 2 [:26]
1. Chapter 1 [14:25]
2. Chapter 2 [:26]
1. Chapter 1 [7:00]
2. Chapter 2 [3:36]
3. Chapter 3 [6:45]
4. Chapter 4 [5:05]
5. Chapter 5 [4:13]
1. Chapter 1 [4:30]
1. Chapter 1 [2:15]
1. Chapter 1 [25:04]
1. Chapter 1 [6:26]

Menu

Disc #1 -- Limelight
   Play The Movie
   Chapters
      Color Bars
Disc #2 -- Limelight
   Chaplin's "Limelight": It's Evolution And Intimacy
      Play
      Chapters
   Claire Bloom And Norman Lloyd
      Claire Bloom
         Play
         Chapters
      Norman Lloyd
         Play
         Chapters
   Chaplin Today: "Limelight"
      Play
      Chapters
   Outtake
      Play
      Chapters
   Charlie Chaplin Reads From Footlights
      Play
      Chapters
   Short Films
      A Night In The Show
         Play
         Chapters
      The Professor
         Play
         Chapters
   Trailers

Editorial Reviews

If not his final film, this is certainly Chaplin's swan song as well as a tribute to the British musical-hall tradition from which he had sprung. At the time of its release, the director had not had a success in over a decade and had been vilified as a Communist by McCarthyite zealots whose pressure tactics would soon result in the revocation of his U.S. passport. All of this is reflected in the melancholy countenance of the aged performer Calvero, who has nightmares about playing to empty theaters and is only sporadically in command of his former comic genius. In a story reminiscent of the high-minded sentimentality of the silent era, the comedian forgets his woes by ministering to a young ballet dancer suffering from hysterical paralysis. An artist of physical rather than verbal gifts, Chaplin displays his vaunted graceful mimicry, but the script is wooden, ponderous, and studded with cringe-worthy dialogue, despite occasional flashes of wit and insight. A departure from the director's previous work in its somberness, it often evokes the sentimentality of DeSica without his accompanying realism. Yet the performance of the radiant young Claire Bloom is a wonder; that she could revive the comedian's spirits is beyond question. And in the pantomime of the music hall numbers, and especially the final musical-duo routine with former rival Buster Keaton, Chaplin shows why so many have regarded him as the medium's greatest performer. If the film as a whole may rank below the level of his best work, its moments of honest pathos and comic epiphany make it a moving farewell.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello