Movies - Limelight

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	Movies - Limelight

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.

Plot

The movie is set in London in 1914, on the eve of World War I. 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.

Production

Although the film is set in London it was entirely filmed in Hollywood. The run-down street where Calvero lives was built on a backlot; some exterior scenes use back-projected footage of London. In any case, most of the action takes place indoors. 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.

There are differing accounts about Buster Keaton's participation in the film. Some claim that Chaplin cast Keaton partially out of pity as a washed up actor. However, in his scenes, Keaton gave such a superior performance to Chaplin that the sequence was heavily cut by Chaplin so he would not be upstaged by his rival. Others dispute these ancedotes by pointing out that at the time of the film's production, Keaton's career was enjoying a significant revival. Also, 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 gave Keaton free rein to invent his own comic business during this sequence. Nevertheless, it should be noted that their performance together -- a comic duet, with Keaton at the piano accompanying Chaplin on his left-handed violin -- is staged to give Chaplin an advantage over Keaton because of their respective instruments: as pianist, Keaton is pretty much trapped behind the keyboard, while Chaplin freely roams the stage with his violin.

Reception

While touring Britain to promote the film Chaplin learned 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, although fortunately copies were already in circulation in other countries which meant that the US authorities could not order the film impounded or destroyed. 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 provides some important insights into his personality and career. The film is unashamedly preachy and sentimental. It is also Chaplin's most personal movie. 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. Terry's story - orphaned at an early age, her sister forced into prostitution - also has clear similarities to that of Chaplin's mother.

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