directed by Charlie Chaplin
(USA 1931, b/n, 81', silent film, original version)
Screenplay: Charlie Chaplin
Cinematography by: Roland Totheroh
Original music by Charlie Chaplin (except José Padilla's La
Violetera)
Music arranger: Arthur Johnston
Musical director: Alfred Newman
Chaplin's score restoration (2004): Timothy
Brock
Cast
A tramp
|
Charlie Chaplin |
A Blind Girl
|
Virginia Cherrill
|
The Blind Girl's Grandmother |
Florence Lee |
An Eccentric Millionaire
|
Harry Myers |
A Prizefighter
|
Hank Mann |
Boxing fight referee
|
Eddie Baker |
The Eccentric Millionaire's Butler
|
Allan Garcia |
Plot
After a series of mishaps with police, insolent newsboys and a trapdoor
in the pavement, the Tramp comes upon a blind flower-seller. He is moved by her
pathos and beauty, while the chance slamming of a car door leads her to believe
he must be a rich man.
That evening he dissuades an erratic and alcoholic millionaire from
suicide. This new acquaintance proves an affectionate and generous friend when
drunk, but distant and hostile in his sober moods, the morning after. Finding
the flower girl absent from her place on the street corner, the Tramp visits
the poor room where she lives. He learns that she is ill, but that a costly
operation in Switzerland
could restore her sight. In an effort to raise the money for the unpaid rent on
her apartment he works as a street cleaner and as a prize fighter. Luckily he
again encounters the millionaire, who gives him the money he needs for both
rent and operation. He is able to pass it onto the girl before he is accused of
robbing the millionaire – once again sober and forgetful – and is thrown into
gaol. Months later he is released, and by chance passes the elegant flower shop
in which the now-cured flower girl is established, always hoping to meet her
benefactor whom she supposed to be rich and handsome. She is amused by the
passing vagrant, takes pity on him, and gives him a flower and a coin. Pressing
them into his hands, she recognises him by touch. The two gaze enigmatically
into each other's eyes.
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