City lights

USA, 1931, director Charlie Chaplin, starring Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Chermill, Henry Bergman, Harry Myers, length 89 minutes.

A poor vagabond with a sensitive soul and high aspirations, Charlot buys a rose from a young blind flower girl who mixes him up for a millionaire. Wandering around the city Charlot finds himself at the docks where he saves from suicide a true millionaire who is only generous when he is drunk. Deciding to help the flower girl he has now fallen in love with who is in need of an expensive operation which could restore her sight, Charlot takes a range of jobs including street cleaner and boxer before he meets the millionaire once again and finally gets the money he needs for the operation. But the end is a sad one. Charlot has, in fact, ended up in prison as a result of a mix-up and sees the flower girl, now cured and the owner of a flower shop, only a year later. It is only when he takes her hand to beg from her than she realises who he is.