Limelight

1952 talkie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Calvero, a washed-up theatrical clown, saves the life of fellow tenant Terry the ballerina following her suicide attempt. He helps nurse her back to health, teaches her to walk again (she couldn't psychologically), and gives her the confidence to dance. Meanwhile, he dreams of a triumphant return to the stage for one final bow. Terry mistakes her feelings for Calvero as romantic love, but the old clown knows better.

Well, I certainly expected to like this one more. Muddled by dialogue, philosophically hokey and dippily sentimental, this one just seems so talky and dated at times. Thing is, based on story and sentiment alone, this would have been a fantastic movie to end a career on for Chaplin, but he should have insisted on making it a silent movie. It could have been a beautiful farewell, and the melodrama would have been a lot easier to swallow. Chaplin won a belated Oscar for his score, but the music is actually a little too much at times. This is not to say that there aren't some good moments and some very well-written lines. "Life is wonderful if you're not afraid of it" is a terrific line. This is, by the way, the only feature film with both Chaplin and Buster Keaton, but the latter's role is very very small and you really wouldn't even know it was him unless you knew it was him.