While The King Of New York is a decent enough movie, it is just that... a movie. Limelight is the final work to be touched by Chaplin's genius.
Of course, it's never perhaps quite as good as you'd like it to be. It's just that little too long, the beauty of the poetic dialogue becomes a little too purple from time to time, and Chaplin and Bloom seem to be talking within a limited tone throughout. Most importantly, the stage performances of Chaplin - or "Calvero" - that bring the house down are painfully dated and unfunny.
But despite never perhaps reaching its ultimate potential, it's an extremely satisfying movie. The performances owe little to Stanislavski and the sentiment is almost cloying, but seeing the past master as a washed up nobody with multiple failed marriages dying while new life waits to take over the spotlight is deeply moving. Somewhere in Limelight is a classic picture... the Limelight that got made is just merely a very good one. Perhaps most surprising is that it did such good business worldwide that, while virtually blacklisted in America for its release, it was Chaplin's most commercially successful film.
Of course, it's never perhaps quite as good as you'd like it to be. It's just that little too long, the beauty of the poetic dialogue becomes a little too purple from time to time, and Chaplin and Bloom seem to be talking within a limited tone throughout. Most importantly, the stage performances of Chaplin - or "Calvero" - that bring the house down are painfully dated and unfunny.
But despite never perhaps reaching its ultimate potential, it's an extremely satisfying movie. The performances owe little to Stanislavski and the sentiment is almost cloying, but seeing the past master as a washed up nobody with multiple failed marriages dying while new life waits to take over the spotlight is deeply moving. Somewhere in Limelight is a classic picture... the Limelight that got made is just merely a very good one. Perhaps most surprising is that it did such good business worldwide that, while virtually blacklisted in America for its release, it was Chaplin's most commercially successful film.