Charles Maland,
City Lights (BFI Film Classics).
London: BFI Publishing, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-1844571758
US$14.95 (pb)
128pp
(Review copy supplied by Macmillan)

Charles Maland’s Chaplin and American Culture: The Evolution of a Star Image (1989) studies the rise of Chaplin both as an actor and an icon, as well as his decline in popularity later in his career. His study of Chaplin’s City Lights (USA 1931) as part of the BFI Classics series is a more detailed analysis than the brief thirty pages in his earlier work, although it covers similar ground.

At a mere 128 pages, Charles Maland’s book is a surprisingly comprehensive analysis of both the substance of the film and the personal and historical contexts in which it was made. He outlines the personal problems Chaplin was experiencing before and during the film’s development, the challenge confronted by the development of sound technology (and Chaplin’s reluctance to embrace it) and an extensive production history of the film. He then moves on to a study of the structure of the film and close analysis of the opening and closing scenes. The analyses are concise and referenced, using academic works as well as production notes and stills, and other documents from the Chaplin archives in Italy and Switzerland.

Maland makes a convincing argument that the end of Chaplin’s second marriage and the death of his mother in the early stages of the film’s development both significantly influenced the production of City Lights. Chaplin’s leading ladies were almost always suffering, saint-like figures. However Maland argues that, in particular, the reverential treatment and rescue of a disabled woman in the film has a direct correlation to Chaplin’s reluctance to confront his mother’s mental illness and his inability to save her.

The book also goes some way to disputing the accepted wisdom that the production of City Lights was a troubled one. He argues that it was Chaplin’s perfectionism that lengthened the film’s production time, not the problems with the script, cast or crew. Maland does, however, concede that Chaplin firing leading lady Virginia Cherrill midway through the production and screen-testing his previous female lead Georgina Hale for the role, was a drastic step for Chaplin to take, given how much of the film had already been shot.

In discussing the conclusion of the film, where Chaplin’s shabby Tramp meets the flower girl again and she realises that he is her benefactor, Maland quotes James Agee’s famous statement that the scene “is enough to shrivel the heart” (p. 10) and he concludes the book with a similar statement: that “it’s a crowning achievement, and it still breaks our hearts” (p. 116). However, Maland does not attempt to explore why a comedy film should be lauded for its least comic moment. In an overview of Chaplin’s earlier films the author argues that he made the drama A Woman of Paris (USA 1923) in order to enhance his reputation because “tragedy maintains a higher cultural status than comedy” (p. 16) but does not develop this idea in relation to City Lights. He studies the film’s two storylines thematically, arguing that they represent contrasting moral universes but, whether conscious or not, his analysis and praise are weighted towards the pathos-driven dramatic plot strand rather than the physically comic strand. In a dedicated study of the film, an in-depth exploration of the generic dichotomy between the broad slapstick style of the scenes with the millionaire and the soul-shrivelling pathos of the film’s conclusion seems warranted.

This aside, Maland’s close analysis of the score in the closing scene is meticulous and evidence of Chaplin’s attention to detail. Maland demonstrates how effectively Chaplin was able to use the new sound technology by composing his own score for the film, maintaining his insistence that films should remain dialogue-free. However, readers not familiar with musical terminology and notation may find these parts of the book less rewarding. Curiously, the author omits information included in his earlier work surrounding Chaplin’s decision to use recorded music but no dialogue in the film. In Chaplin and American Culture, Maland recounts the radio broadcasts made by the United Artists stars in order to test audience reaction to their voices. In his earlier book, Maland states that Chaplin was unhappy with the audience response and this influenced his decision not to use spoken dialogue in City Lights. Research in the meantime may have disproved this but either way it seems relevant to a serious discussion of the film.

Overall, Maland’s City Lights is a satisfying exploration of the film, its context and complexities. While it would benefit from more detail in some areas, the book is a useful introduction to the film and an excellent starting point for further study of City Lights.

Anna Gardner,
La Trobe University, Australia.

Created on: Monday, 23 August 2010