There are a lot of speeches in Limelight. Calvero the Clown has wordy opinions on most every subject, including his own problems, and Chaplin the director gives him ample opportunity to express them all.

Early on, Calvero opines that he no longer trusts 'the masses', which he says are like a monster with no head - vicious and unpredictable. This is clearly the director alluding to his own plight as a victim of America's Witch-Hunt years. Chaplin wrongly thought that calling himself an Internationalist would soothe the bloodhounds, and paid for it with political exile. Anyone who scoffs at Right-Wing politics in the early 50s should think hard on Chaplin's experience. He was expelled from the United States and basically refused an entry visa for the rest of his life. And that was when America still had its full list of civil liberties.

Limelight will enchant Chaplin diehards, and grate on his detractors. It is sentimental in the extreme. The Thereza character is a suicidal, undernourished failure, but after a few of Calvero's pep talks, bounces back to become the world's top dancer overnight. Some critics think that Thereza is really humoring Calvero with her promise of marriage and devotion, and that he is humoring her back. I don't see that kind of complication at work. Chaplin puts a lot of emotional depth into the role of the old master who knows he has to relinquish the stage to a new generation of talent, but this is still a very unambiguous story. Calvero's much-too-lengthy onstage performances are interesting because they're most likely authentic. They're definitely not funny, and we have to take Chaplin at faith to see Calvero as a name so big that London still reveres his memory years after he's disappeared from the stage.

Chaplin's honesty is Limelight's strongest virtue. Calvero fears losing his audience, as if it were the only thing separating him from the jaws of Hell. When called a top professional, Calvero humorlessly replies that everyone's an amateur, because nobody lives long enough to be a pro. It's a succinct way of acknowledging that even after 40 years at the top of his craft, he feels he's just getting started.

If Charlie thought there was much of a parallel between himself and Calvero's simple clown, he was fooling himself. One of the richest entertainers alive, Chaplin was able to keep his Hollywood studio open for years when he wasn't filming anything, and his 'exile' back to Europe was anything but financially desperate. More importantly, Chaplin was never just a simple celebrity. He took personal responsibility for his fame and used it well for the social good (WW1 fund-raising), and he practically pioneered the idea of leveraging celebrity to deliver social messages.

Limelight isn't a movie made by a talent in decline. Chaplin's straightforward blocking of scenes seems dated only because the pace is so slow, and his direction of his actors and especially himself is excellent. Claire Bloom is straight-jacketed by his direction, but comes out on top by somehow doing well with several impossible-to-play moments ("Calvero! Calvero! Calvero!"). If Chaplin had any physical limitations at this age, he disguises them well - he's just as light on his feet as ever. He does an impressive roll-and scissors lift during a stage act, and takes a scary tumble into the orchestra pit without a camera cut.

Charlie gives his elderly clown an sense of dignity, even when he's drunk. It works because Calvero is no helpless victim (another dissimilarity with Chaplin). Calvero talks tough with his agent, and doesn't break down when he lays an egg on-stage. There's an excellent deleted scene on this disc that shows a gentlemanly encounter between Calvero and an old colleage, an armless entertainer who offers him a handout. The destitute Calvero accepts - both Chaplin and The Tramp were always realists - but only after a proper negotiation of honor. Calvero isn't too proud to be found busking in the streets for coins, but he keeps his dignity intact.

The melodramatic end of the film doesn't quite scream out, 'Me! Me!', as with the collected film works of someone like, say, Barbra Streisand. But it does come fairly close. Taking the prize for the wasted opportunity of the year is the casting of Buster Keaton as Calvero's nameless 'partner' in a musician gag. Buster provides sterling support, follows Chaplin's direction, and never draws attention to himself. There's nothing wrong with the arrangement, but it's impossible to imagine things reversed, to picture Chaplin playing 2nd fiddle for any mortal being. Doubtless the two geniuses got along just fine, but, what we wouldn't give for a short scene where Calvero and his partner just talk over old times across a cup of coffee.

Unlike his earlier pictures, Limelight was shot on a relatively strict schedule, without extensive re-shoots or shutdowns to re-think the whole endeavour. Chaplin had Hollywood's hottest independent Assistant Director, Robert Aldrich, to help keep under budget. How Chaplin, Keaton and Aldrich might have interacted on the set, is difficult to contemplate.

Extra-wise, MK2/Warner's DVD of Limelight is just dandy, but the transfer suffers from (what I'm now willing to conclude) is a distractingly crude conversion from PAL to NTSC. Not only is the show sped up (see running times above), but most motions have that weird staccato shared-frame effect. Chaplin's beautiful Terry's Theme often seems too fast, especially under the titles. Owners of the earlier Image discs are advised to hang on to them.

Here's the goodie rundown: This time out, the Chaplin Today doc is essential viewing, as the details it gives of Charlie's exile are too lengthy to be covered in David Robinson's shorter Introduction. In my coverage of Modern Times, I expressed my own shock at reading the diatribe leveled against Chaplin in the 1947 press; here we see documentation of the American Legion (with Ward Bond protesting up front) demanding Chaplin's deportation. We also see Chaplin's temp visa, granted for him to visit for only a couple of weeks to attend the Oscars in 1972. No wonder so few artists openly criticize the United States.

The deleted scene offers more detail on Thereza's stay in Calvero's rooms, that would have made a nice trade for one of Calvero's redundant dream performances.

Chaplin's original score is separately featured.

An excerpt from an unreleased 1919 short called The Professor shows Chaplin as the owner of a flea circus.

The photo gallery, trailers and poster art gallery are much like those on the other discs ...

... but the home movies are better than most, showing mostly Chaplin and his young family in Hollywood and in Switzerland. Little Geraldine poses in her ballet get-up, complete with Red Shoes. Mrs. Chaplin, Oona, doesn't appear, so it's probably safe to assume she's behind the camera. Chaplin wanders around his childhood haunts in London, posing in front of chosen buildings, but we have to guess at their significance.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Limelight rates:
Movie: Excellent, for Chaplin devotees
Video: Good
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: see above
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: June 14, 2003