City Lights

In 1931, talkies had gone from the newest fad to mainstream.  Silent films were quickly becoming too old fashioned.  Nonetheless, Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed and starred in the silent City Lights.  Surprisingly, it was one of Chaplin’s most successful films, financially and critically.  Some hail it as his greatest work and even one of the best silent films.  It was also Chaplin’s final silent film.  What a shame that the Academy did not see it fit for any Oscar nominations.

The film works like a perfect and sweet romantic comedy.  Chaplin portrays his famous Tramp, a poor, wandering, clumsy guy with a big heart.  We watch him make two friends in the city.  One is an eccentric millionaire (Harry Myers), that the Tramp saves from a drunken suicide attempt.  After that, he takes the Tramp on the town, living it up, even letting him drive his car.  The only problem is that once the millionaire is sober, he has no recollection of the Tramp and throws him back into the street.  It’s a very on and off again relationship.  The second friend is a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) who sells flowers.  Through a series of coincidences, misinterpretations, and a ride in the millionaire’s car, she believes her new friend to be very wealthy.  When the little Tramp realizes this girl is in a financial crisis, and that her blindness can be cured, he works hard to raise the money to help her.  After all, he has to keep up the idea that he’s rich if he wants any shot at romance, right?

I dare anyone to watch a Charlie Chaplin film and not laugh.  Some of the gags in City Lights had me in stitches.  The Tramp’s opening scene is a great one.  Hundreds have turned out for a ceremony for a new statue.  As the sheet is lifted, revealing the new monument, the Tramp is curled up sleeping in the lap of the seated figure.  How wonderfully cute, innocent and hilarious!  And in his attempt to get off the statue, he gets his pants caught on the sword of another figure.  The moment gets more awkward when the national anthem plays, and out of respect, he covers his heart and stands still, his pants still hung up on the sword.  The slapstick style comedy is only slightly physical, good hearted and perfect.  The scene just before the boxing match is another that had me rolling.

Though this is a silent film, Chaplin incorporates a few talkie techniques.  When city officials are commemorating the new statue, they talk!  Only they sound like the off-camera adults in Charlie Brown cartoons.  What you hear there is actually the voice of Charlie Chaplin, the first ever released on film.  Later, in a scene I found particularly comical, the Tramp accidentally swallows a whistle.  What’s worse, he gets the hiccups and disturbs a singing performance at a swanky party.  Before talkies, there would probably only be a certain noise or note from the orchestra to indicate the whistle, but instead the noise of a whistle being blown is used.  Perhaps this scene was an inspiration for the nightmare scene in The Artist.  I do see quite a few similarities, even the use of dogs.

While I still have my share of Chaplin movies and silent films to see, I believe that City Lights is one of Chaplin’s most enjoyable achievements.  What he embodies as the Tramp is a simple goodness that we all should aspire to, and that is evident in the sweetest way in this film.  Whether you love silent film or think it’s too old fashioned, everyone should see City Lights.

“Tomorrow the birds will sing.”

The Apartment

C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) has found the quickest way to rise from a nobody-clerk to an executive in hisNew Yorkinsurance company.  He lets the other executives use his apartment as a safe place to take their mistresses.  Though Baxter is often waiting outside in the cold when a date is running late, they drink all his liquor and eat all his cheese crackers, he keeps putting up with the pile of annoyances in hopes of the men acting on their promises to make him an executive.

Because of all the comings, going, loud music and empty bottles of liquor in his trash, Baxter’s neighbors assume he’s a real swinging bachelor.  His neighbor, Dr. Dreyfus (Jack Kruschen) says he can hear everything from next door and advises the young man to either slow down or donate his body to science.  With Baxter not always able to explain all the noise, the land lord starts becoming suspicious.

At work, Baxter has eyes for the pretty elevator operator, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine).  They flirt in the elevator on his way to see Mr. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) about a promotion.  Part of this promotion includes letting Sheldrake use the apartment as well, but at least he has theater tickets to exchange so Baxter has somewhere to go, so Baxter asks Fran to go with him.  What Baxter doesn’t know is that Fran is Sheldrake’s mistress in a long line of mistresses.  Later, after drama ensues and Fran finds out the ugly truth about her relationship with Sheldrake, she tries something drastic in Baxter’s apartment.  Baxter becomes the only person who cares enough about Fran to help her.

Baxter is the sort of nice guy we can’t help but love, even though it’s obvious he’s a huge pushover.  He is constantly being taken advantage of by the executives just for a fast-track promotion.  Though we realize this isn’t the most honest path to rise in the company, we don’t chastise Baxter for loaning out his apartment.  Of all the scandalous ways to get ahead at this insurance firm, Baxter is keeping pretty tame and classy.  And for those of us who tsk-tsk-ed him at any point are turned completely in his favor when he unselfishly helps Fran.

Out of context, this plot may sound a little heavy.  In the film, it’s anything but.  From the start, a wonderfully light tone is set and stays consistent throughout the film.  We’ve got Jack Lemmon with all his quirky, charming comedic genius being pulled different ways.  His scene in Sheldrakes office with the nasal spray had me in stitches.  The jokes are quick, charismatic and naturally off the cuff.  And when the plot becomes heavier, that light feeling is not lost.  It becomes a wonderful charm to help ease the tension, get Fran back on her feet and moves Baxter to new levels of confidence.

You rarely find a film with this high level of comedy and an engaging plot with so much at stake.  Between the wonderful acting, which can range from slapstick comedy to life and death dramatics, and the zany yet calculable plot, The Apartment does not let up or let you down.  It was a two hour film, yet I sat back, laughed and became so engrossed it felt like it was over too quick.  I highly recommend The Apartment to all people who just want to enjoy a classic film.  Other than the horrible injustice done to Psycho (I cannot forgive the Academy on that one), Billy Wilder’s The Apartment is the best picture of 1960.

“When you’re in love with a married man, you shouldn’t wear mascara.”